
DATE: Sunday, November 2, 1997              TAG: 9711020284

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PRINCETON, N.J.                   LENGTH:  159 lines

PROUD PRINCETONIANS: 4 FROM BEACH FINDING SUCCESS IN SPORTS, CLASSROOM

To an outsider, the young man leaning against the ivy-covered wall looked like the very embodiment of a Princeton student, from his penny loafers and neatly pressed khaki pants to the way he squinted at the sun while sunglasses dangled fashionably around his neck.

It's the look former Cox field hockey star Kirsty Hale expected to see at every turn when she arrived three years ago. As for fellow Falcon field hockey star Robin Dwyer and Norfolk Academy runner Biren Roy, they both showed up at their first Princeton classes figuring they'd be surrounded by ``geniuses.'' Meanwhile, former Norfolk Academy football standout Damien Taylor arrived braced to tackle class work he couldn't possibly understand.

Much to their relief, the four Virginia Beach natives and former area high school sports stars have discovered you don't have to be a nerdy geek or among the preppie elite to thrive at Princeton, to successfully juggle the demands of academics at one of the nation's most exclusive universities and athletics at competitive - and in the case of the field hockey team, national-championship caliber - Division I programs.

And all for just $31,000 a year.

At those prices, Princeton officials can't expect to completely shed the school's cultured reputation. It doesn't help that two of the dorms are named Forbes and Rockefeller, or that the crew team trains in Carnegie Lake.

But the school's surprisingly diverse student body, particularly among its athletes, suggests there may be more to being a Princetonian than meets the checking account.

``I'm a jeans, sweatshirt and sneakers kind of girl,'' Hale said while wearing exactly that. ``But I fit in well here. Most of the assumptions I had weren't true. Everybody here's not all upper-crust. Most of the people are really normal.''

Hale, a junior who finished second in the nation in scoring last year, and sophomore Dwyer have returned to the area this weekend for a two-game set at Old Dominion University's Foreman Field. Princeton will take on Richmond today at 3 p.m. On Saturday, the Tigers lost to the top-ranked Lady Monarchs 10-3.

Last year, Hale scored the game-winning goal in overtime as the Tigers stunned the Lady Monarchs - a team she used to serve as a ballgirl - in the national semifinals.

Roy, a freshman, is grinding out his first season on the junior varsity cross country team but is expected to crack the varsity during the indoor track season. And Taylor, who rushed for more than 1,300 yards as a senior at Norfolk Academy, rebounded well enough from an ACL tear that caused him to miss an entire year of school to open the season as the Tigers' starting tailback.

Perhaps more importantly, all say they are maintaining at least a B average.

Despite their common roots, the Virginia Beach contingent - which also includes Norfolk Academy's Jon Wynne, who will play lacrosse for the Tigers this spring - hasn't felt compelled to band together into some sort of Hampton Roads ``Brat Pack.'' In fact, until a few days ago, Roy didn't know Kirsty Hale from Alan Hale.

``You from Virginia?'' Roy asked.

``Yeah.''

``What city?

``Virginia Beach.''

``Sweet!''

``What school did you go to?''

``Cox.''

``Cool!''

That the group has meshed so seamlessly into campus life is further proof, university officials say, that while stereotypes about the 251-year-old school may die hard, they may finally be on life support.

``Most people don't realize that over 60 percent of our students come from public schools,'' said Steve LeMenager, the school's assistant dean of admissions. ``Or that our students come from all 50 states and 75 different countries. People have a certain image of our students, but the Princeton of today couldn't be any different than that myth.''

Indeed, these days, sometimes even the myth isn't quite what it seems.

``Student? Nah, I'm not a student,'' the loafer-wearing, khaki-clad man said with a smile.

``Then why are you here?''

``Chicks, dude. I'm here to meet chicks.''

Er, my room?'' Taylor said upon greeting his visitor in the lobby of his dorm. ``Sh-sh-sure. We can talk in there.''

The sophomore slowly twisted a key into the look on a door marked A-160, pushed it open and extended his arm toward the aftermath of Hurricane Damien - clothes (clean? dirty?) piled waist-high in one corner and sheets twisted into a ball atop a bed. Indeed, about the only neat aspect of Taylor's space was its view - his window looks out on a bunker on the 15th hole of the campus' Springdale Golf Course.

``Actually, it's been worse,'' Taylor said.

In Taylor's defense, the demands of being a Princeton student-athlete don't leave a lot of tidy-up time. It's midterm exam week at Princeton, and for that morning's sociology test, Taylor said he crammed until 2 a.m. the night before, then started up again at 6:30 a.m.

``I wish I'd had more time,'' Taylor said after taking the exam.

Taylor's workload was even tougher his freshman year, when he began pursuing an engineering degree and had two-hour science labs before and after his three-hour football workouts.

Taylor's now majoring in sociology. Even so, he estimates he still has three hours of stuffing his face in a book ahead of him every night after he takes the pads off.

Hale said additional pressure comes from being surrounded by students who actually consider studying fun.

``It's tough to know that so-and-so's been in the library for 12 hours,'' she said. ``On a personal note, it would kill me to study that long.''

Hale would much rather hang out at the Cap & Gown eating club while soaking up a social scene that is uniquely Princeton. Eating clubs, co-ed, a less-intense version of fraternities and sororities, have been around since school president Woodrow Wilson banned the Greek organizations from the school around the turn of the century after hazing went haywire.

Or if she'd rather get away from it all, she could hop on the ``Dinky,'' a two-car train shuttle that connects the campus to the New Jersey Transit System, and beyond. For $14, one can ride into New York or Philadelphia. Each is around 50 miles away.

But the demands of keeping up with Princeton academics, especially in-season, make spare time a rare commodity. All four students agree that it's not any individual class, but the sheer volume of work that puts the challenge in being a Princeton student. That and adjusting to the school's professors, which in the case of Roy has actually required him to lower his expectations.

``At Norfolk Academy I had the best math teacher on the face of the earth,'' Roy said, referring to Tom Duquette. ``The guy here's not that good. I mean, he knows the material, but he doesn't get it across that well.''

On the other hand, Roy said he's been amazed at the variety of study halls and upperclass tutors that have been at his disposal.

``It's like everybody here really wants me to succeed,'' he said.

Given the bill Princeton presents, perhaps they feel it's the least they can do.

Taylor smiles and rolls his eyes when the subject of Princeton's costs come up. Dwyer said flat out her parents couldn't afford the full costs. And Ivy League schools don't offer athletic scholarships.

According to LeMenager, the ``good news'' in Princeton's tuition rate is that the school will pay 100 percent of demonstrated need, the difference between what the financial aid office determines a family can pay and the actual price of attending. Seventy percent of Princeton students, including all four Virginia Beach fall athletes, receive some form of financial assistance.

LeMenager added that in virtually all cases, the money is well spent. Ninety-four percent of the students who start as freshman at Princeton will graduate in four years.

The trick is getting into Princeton. Only 12 percent of the more than 13,000 applicants for this year's freshman class actually enrolled at Princeton, where the average combined SAT score is around 1,400.

Athletes catch a slight break, though.

``The coaches will let us know who they like, and we'll fold that into our admissions process,'' LeMenager said. ``If someone has a special talent, artistic, musical or athletic, it certainly helps one's chances.''

Despite the selective nature of the school, Princeton wasn't an automatic choice for the Virginia Beach natives. Taylor mulled over offers from other Ivy League schools before choosing the Tigers. Hale considered Virginia. And Dwyer visited Virginia and Duke before sampling Princeton.

``Kirsty said some really nice things about the school, and coming here confirmed what she said,'' Dwyer said.

And refuted a lot about the school's image as an elitist, stuffy institution.

``Princeton's not what people think,'' Roy said. ``It's better.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Clockwise from the left are former Norfolk Academy football standout

Damien Taylor; runner Biren Roy, also a Norfolk Academy graduate;

and Robin Dwyer and Kirsty Hale, both former Cox High School field

hockey standouts.