PMS Fall Season 2023

Girls Soccer
The soccer season was fantastic as always. Girls played a tough schedule during a year of rebuilding. Athletes showed up excited and ready to play. Many of our athletes will continue to play in high school and the future of the program at the middle school looks strong! Amy and I enjoyed coaching this fine group of athletic young women.

Cross Country
The Boys' and Girls' Cross Country Teams had an inclusive and successful 2023 season. We did not make any cuts, and over 100 Princeton Middle School students got to participate. The girls ended their season undefeated with a record of 8-0 and the boys ended their season with a record of 6-2.Since the season went really well, we brought over 40 athletes to the New Jersey Middle School Cross Country Championships where we placed 4th and 5th place, putting 2 runners in the top 25 for both boys and girls. Every one of our runners improved throughout the season and our team is looking strong for next year as well as we brought in a lot of new runners who are very excited and eager to continue improving at our sport.
Coaches  Dan Lee  & Kathleen Jaeger

Boys Soccer
The season started off pretty hectic, due to the number of kids that showed up for tryouts. We extended tryouts to accommodate everyone and also did separate grade level tryouts. The separate grade level tryouts allowed Carlos and me to better evaluate each student athlete, due to the much more limited number of kids that were present each day. Going forward we will continue to run tryouts based on grade level starting from the sixth grade and then moving up each day finishing with one joint practice/tryouts when our tryouts numbers exceed 50 kids. We plan on taking attendance for each tryout utilizing the clearance list and are also going to send out more personalized team acceptance emails to clear out the confusion we were receiving from some families. We feel that the team was slightly too large and that impacted practices, games, and behavior in various fashions. We noticed that many of the other teams had smaller size squads. Schools with only A teams had between 15-20 kids and schools with two teams typically had around 15 on each team with many teams utilizing some A team's kids for the B team. Both Carlos and I feel comfortable with minimizing the team size to 30-32 kids. This will create a more manageable team and will also complement the code of conduct/expectation that we plan to have drafted and then signed by the players. Our players played very well throughout the season, but my biggest disappointment was during our first two home games. While away the team showed good sportsmanship, and I expected that to continue throughout the season. After one loss and two ties their first lead of the season turned into a 3-0 lead early on. However, after each goal I felt and even the opposing coach felt that they were excessively celebrating at the corner, this is also where we had fans on the other side of the pitch trying to celebrate with them. I tried to communicate to my team after each goal to minimize their celebration and be respectful and I further communicated this at the end before handshakes with the other team that this is not what we expected of them and that going forward the no matter the score line we would not show this level of disrespect and bad sportsmanship again. After this game celebrations were much tamer and more respectful, and I also made it a point to go over to the fans' side to make sure they know where they are allowed to be and to not come on the pitch to celebrate.
Coaches  Matthew Maul & Carlos Villegas 

Field Hockey
The Princeton Middle School field hockey team ended the season with an 6-1-2 record. The team scored a total of 20 goals with 13 of the goals coming off assists. In addition, the goalies had 5 games that were shutouts. The team worked as a unit constantly encouraging and cheering each other on. Although there were a variety of skill levels when the season started, each player improved tremendously and always gave 100% effort. We are most proud of the good sportsmanship every player showed both on and off the field. We could not be more proud of our players! Go Tigers!
Coaches Chandler Hubert & Katie Federico


Boys Intramural Basketball 
Intramural basketball was a big hit this year.  We routinely had 25-30 boys show up to play games and have fun.  We had a good mix of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders each day.  We made teams with all three grades mixed in.  To make things even more interesting, we would have short periods of play when the only people allowed to score were 6th graders.  This helped develop cooperation within the teams and focused attention on our youngest players.  We also ended each practice with a game of Knock-Out.  The boys showed growth in their ability throughout the season and many of them plan on trying out for the school team.
Coach Justin Matthews