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Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal
Saturday, September 28, 2002
ALUMNIS IN TOWN TOMORROW
Autumn has fallen. The nights are shivery, though not yet frosty. Hopefully tomorrow it will warm up enough by 2:00 to get a small crowd at the Alumni Game. The day will be a lot of fun. It
should be a competitive game, but I want not to be depressed on such a happy occasion. I suppose it could happen. Many of the alums have been practicing with us. They have scorers to be dealt
with. However, if we play more or less improved over what we have to date, I will be happy. When I refer to "we" or "us" over the next entry or two, as much as I love the alumni family, I am
talking about the team that is building toward the 2003 season. The great thing about our recent alumni is that I know in my heart that every single one of them wishes that he were still a part
of this. I hope they always feel like they are a part of it, because they are the program pioneers.
THE ALUMNI HAS BEEN KNOWN TO USE DIRTY TACTICS
This year should be no different. I hear tell some wagering on this game is taking place already. I hope this is just rumor. I know the alums will be out to get the young ones out of their homes
and drunk (or worse) tonight. I fear this. At the very least there will be phone calls after the bars close, and perhaps some house invasions as well.
My message Friday to the team was to prepare for this team and this game as you would prepare for every game, like a warrior, and blah blah. I want us to play well, and I'm sorry, but yes, it
does matter to me what it looks like tomorrow.
The problem is that some of the alumnus' come to practice every day or even live with current players. This gives them an unfair advantage in this little post-midnight war.
IT'S TRUE OUR ALUMNI IS NOT WHERE WE GET ALL THE MONEY
Certain other teams have mocked us in the past, particularly, but not exclusively, when they were losing. The chant would be something to the effect that we (CSU) will eventually be working
for the really smart people from their university, regardless of the game's outcome. I was always curious as to how this soothes the wound, but evidently it justifies the proceedings. I guess
I am a purist, or just old, but losing never made me feel smarter. At any rate, I don't take these things personally. I think it's a State University thing, going back to "Aggie" schools
of yore, and continuing to today's S.A.T. score driven society.
Well, "they" might be right, but I just have a feeling that, even if it is winning the lottery or other dumb luck, one of these CSU grads will have a bunch of money one of these years, and this
program will become "well endowed" for the future.
I look forward to getting the extended CSU lax family together tomorrow afternoon. It will never be boring with this group. We may have more recent lacrosse alumni looking for their niche than
we have getting rich. We surely have more road scholars than Rhodes Scholars, too, but there is no way I could love this (CSU) brother-hood more. The greatness will emerge later. It is surely
there.
TRAINS OF THOUGHT THEY COME, THEY GO RARELY ON TIME
Losing is painful. Only on the rare occasion has losing felt good, and then because perhaps we had accomplished something great as a team, or gone farther than we had ever been. Even so, losing
is, by nature, tormenting to some degree. I always blame me. Generally speaking, I will do far more to avoid the pain of losing than I ever will do to simply enjoy the warmth of winning. I like
the versatility of killing the two birds with one stone, however. I don't think I ever felt, as coach or player, that we needed to lose a game or whatever for a team to "turn it around".
It probably has worked out that way once or twice, but I contend that you can win and learn the necessary lessons just as well for the most part. Losing can teach and all, but, in the end, I
have always just coached away either way, relentlessly trying to help build, and or fix this relatively volatile human dynamic which is team. To me, ultimately, you can only achieve your potential
as a team when you live and become the "greater than the sum of your parts" cliché.
Games are tests along the road, part of the process. Each one is unique, having its own life. They are not the only tests, however. We won our first USLIA championship in 1999. I was very pleased,
because I thought we were close, but I wasn't sure if we were really there yet. At the end of the 4th quarter blitz in the final that gave us a 15-11 win over heavily favored Simon Fraser, my
first thought was how great it was, and my second thought was that it wasn't enough, that I wanted more. We had only scratched the surface as a team and as a program. I still feel that way to
a large degree. Even though we have come so far, in my mind we are still far from finished.
I am annually re-motivated by a fantasy lacrosse game I play in my head, hopeful that this team will have a similar collective vision, and the desire to go out and manifest it. It is not perfection
that I seek, but rather a collective human spirit, the power that can only come when the best part inside a team converges on the field within the flow of the game. Each season starts new and
fresh. This one gleams with excitement and anticipation.
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