Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Today is our first snow day of the year, and it’s really more like everything has been frosted. It is icy. To be less than delicate, my guess is that this morning would rank as one of the high water marks of the year when you are talking about the number of people in Fort Collins who slipped and fell on their ass while getting out of their cars. There was like a 30-car pile up on I-70 near Evergreen, west of Denver, last night. The weather change arrived at the end of our practice yesterday, low clouds getting lower, spitting tiny little ice particles on the proceedings, as it darkened quickly. Nobody wanted to quit playing, though. We had a "spirited" scrimmage, and if that’s all we get before Vegas, I can live with it.

It’s awesome beautiful, but the deciduous trees all look sad. Many still have their autumn colors beneath this silver white blanket. They had been teased into keeping their leaves one day too long by the enticing Indian Summer weather that had stretched well into October. This storm almost crept in, with no preceding wind to act as leaf blower. The ice-covered leaves are now beasts of burden, pushing tree limbs earthward.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

I drove to the practice field around noon today, and called our "hot line" to put the cancel practice message on soon thereafter. It’s very cold, very wet. It’s not worth getting everything and everyone wet, sick, or both. We have had more, and better practice than we have ever had in the fall. Except for that thing last week, which becomes knee surgery tomorrow, I am pretty content with our progress. I think we rebounded and adjusted nicely to the injury change this time. We shall see.

We are as ready as we ever are going to be to play in Las Vegas. This is not the same as a St. Louis preparation, where I still might be trying to put in new wrinkles, or just generally obsessing. This is much freer. Let it all hang out for 4 games in12 hours. "Let’s just face it off and see what we all got" is what the deal is Saturday. It is a showcase to ourselves, and to a bunch of other teams, too.

I expect us to play well, because I always expect us to play well, and it doesn’t matter where we are, or what time of year it is. I expect us to play well, because we have played pretty well in practice, and on many different levels. I expect us to play well, because we have pretty decent team skill, speed, and a good overall understanding about how to deal with different kinds of game situations.

We have practiced a lot of situations in our scrimmaging this fall. This team might be young or whatever, but I still expect them to look like they don’t need a coach (not to be confused with looking like they don’t HAVE a coach). I expect them to look like they know what’s going on at all times, and not just carrying out "instructions" that I scream from the sidelines or whatever. For the millionth time, I don’t want to control them. I want to instill fundamental concepts that make the decision-making process easier for the individual player. By doing this well, I can take great pleasure in watching THEM create their own game on the field. I like to think of it as an artistic collaboration. I do, however, use the hissy fit (mine) as motivation for the team to do certain things perhaps better, and I am not ashamed of this fact. I am very serious about the basic things that I want. The "cleaner" they play the game, the less I am a "control freak".

I have no idea how good Cal Poly (first game) is, but I know they will be way better than I remember from my Santa Barbara days. I know they will want to pull the "upset". They gave BYU all they wanted last May in St. Louis. They are legit. I assume that Sonoma and BYU would be ranked the two top teams in the USLIA if they took the pre-season poll today. We will have our work cut out for us Saturday. I have no idea about Chico State.

I can’t wait to see how we stack (stick) up anyway.


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