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Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal
Friday, October 18, 2002
OY-VAY WHAT A DAY
Just a few days ago I was feeling generally pleased, almost smug about how well the fall had been going. Jordan is doing well at Montessori School. The team has a great attitude. The practices
have been from good up to excellent. The new kids are coming along, and the parts of the team machine were beginning to mesh nicely, thank you very much. Aren’t I good at this coaching
stuff?
Then came yesterday. It became one of those "Momma said there’d be days like this" days. It started at 3:00 a.m. in the morning with the phone ringing. When the dust had settled,
two of our best players are hurt, and it is looking like my only returning starter on attack will be lost for 4-6 months with a dislocated knee that will require surgery.
Often I look at this journal as fun, a pleasurable chore, something that can at times keep me grounded, or help me focus on good things. Right now I’m looking at it for therapy, because
my little world has been rocked a tad, and I have to get over it quickly in order to get on with it now.
Anyway, what had happened was that several players on the team were "out" Wednesday night, and somehow ended up being attacked on the street by a bunch of military types from Wyoming
who had come to downtown Fort Collins for some night life. By all accounts our players tried to walk away from the potential incident. However, when jumped, the players fought back. In any case,
you have to be somewhere near a bar at 2:30 a.m. for these things to happen at all. I am upset at our physical loss as a team. I am upset because I made each player sign an oath of behavioral
standards for when we travel, and somehow it seemed to go without saying that our image as a team is important wherever we are, home included. The players involved need to be our leaders. I
don’t know what to do with all this. I do know that I would run away from trouble as fast as ever I could if I thought it could lead to something that could cost me one moment of time playing
lacrosse. If I were to get hurt, let it be on the field of battle.
I know that my (liberal arts) college years, and my "peace and love" generation bear practically no resemblance to today, and youth here in the still wild west. I was the "hippie
jock." I searched for the warrior inside myself, and I knew I couldn't find him by hanging out at clubs at 2:30 a.m. Lacrosse was, for me as a player, a true expression of who I was. That’s
how I ended up making lacrosse pockets and coaching.
The thing I love about our team (fighters) is the same thing I sometimes hate (fighters). I am most angry because now I have to do coaching work that I wasn’t thinking I would have to do
just now.
I had not had a good night’s sleep after the late phone call and the news, and I had spent the entire morning after getting "drilled" and rebuilt at the dentist’s office.
So, by the time I got to practice Thursday, I was pretty much a 9-10 on the grumpy graph. We had a "family chat," and then we got to work. Those in the know stayed as far from me as
they could on this day. I am sure I hurt some feelings of those who did not deserve to be yelled at. When I am grumpy, the dropping of a pass, or a momentary lack of hustle (BIG sin) can seem
much worse than the act itself by the theatrics of ire that I bring to the scene. But that’s what it is to play for me. I treat them like men, not like slaves, and I have only a few rules.
I become angry and I act hurt when they don’t meet my "standards". Sometimes they all "pay" for the "sins" of a few. Not making the supreme effort to catch
the ball is the sin. It is not the actually dropping of the pass that gets to me. Sometimes all I look for is effort and passion.
THE SQUARED CIRCLE
Life is full of challenges. This is the CSU Fall Smackdown. My task is now. Building a team is a little like doing rehab from re-constructive knee surgery, something I have vast experience in.
You have to be patient yet aggressive. First comes the atrophy from surgery or, in this case it is an off-season coupled with new players coming in to the team. With a knee, you must work on
"range of motion" and building up the muscles around the injury. It is important to go always forward, never back. As the knee starts to get stronger, your first instinct is to want
to do more, and to get better even faster. This is where it is so important to be careful. That whole "no pain no gain" stuff is a bunch of hooey. You must build it steadily up, because
the cost of doing too much is too high. If you overwork the knee, and somehow tweak it, it complicates the whole process. Your trouble is doubled. Time is lost going, and coming and the smallest
step back ends up costing 10 days or whatever, until you just get back to where you were in the first place, which is now almost two weeks ago. This is time you can’t get back. The team
dynamic can be equally delicate. My challenge is to keep this incident from setting us back.
We made it through the day, and I am not ready to let anything change what we have started to build here in 2002-2003. I will be a busy boy at practice today, searching for chemistry again.
I have put on my "fixer" hat.
MEANWHILE…..
Trevor Tierney came out to show us some Warrior Lacrosse equipment on the day all this was going on.. He also was kind enough to work with our goalie, Alex Smith. Trevor was recently chosen
the best goalie at the World Games in Australia as a member of Team U.S.A, the Champions.. He was an All-American, in college and won a couple of national championships while playing for his
father, Bill, at Princeton. Bill Tierney is clearly the best lacrosse coach of his generation. Trevor spent 15 minutes with Alex, and, based on Alex’s practice performance, taught him more
about the position than I have in 4 years. I suppose this shouldn’t surprise me, and I am indeed most grateful to the boy, but somehow it is a bit humbling anyway.
We got the schedule for Vegas. We play 4 games, Sonoma, BYU, Chico State, and Cal Poly SLO. It should be quite a full day. We never have played Poly or Chico.
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