Tuesday, January 28, 2003

JUST DROPPED IN TO SEE WHAT CONDITION MY CONDITION WAS IN

On Saturday we played a simulated game (sort of), choosing teams, playing 4 quarters, calling penalties, the whole thing. I tried to call anything that might ever be called in a game so they start to get a feel for the worst case scenario of officiating, etc. Even with that there weren’t that many yellow flags flying around and the scrimmage had a good intensity level from start to finish. The minute we start playing games for real is the test. Whacking is a great way for players to get out the early game jitters. I hate that. I want us to be game-ready with all that junk way before we get to Tucson. When we step on their field for our first game I want us to look first poised, and then hungry to play. No more, no less.

The long scrimmage the other day was good for me, too. I got to stretch my legs. I got to look at a lot of people and see where they are individually right now so that as time goes on I can really gage how much they try to improve, and ultimately how much better they do get.

Even though it was our first live scrimmage I tried to impress game situations on them all game, and also what I consider to be the appropriate response for said situation. I don’t want us to do some of the things we did last year. For example (again), we would score a big goal, and then the other team would turn around and answer our goal with a goal for them before all the high fives were finished on our bench. Well, I want to bench the excessive celebrations and focus on the next thing, and I started "talking" about that kind of stuff during the scrimmage. I believe that team awareness of how to deal with all kinds of real game situations is the road to true team power and constant improvement.

JUST ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY

Yesterday was an excellent practice, though it was shortened by the loss of light at 5:00. I was eager and ready with glow-in-the-dark balls for some late shooting drills, but alas, my excitement was squashed with the reality bite that these balls clearly do not glow in the dusk. In this particular instance the darkness is far from the dusk. My mission to find a use for these glow-in-the-darkers as mystical motivators will continue. So far they are fun on the beach, but that doesn’t help me out here on the frontier.

We had our first team dinner at Paninos after practice last night. They were packed, but it still felt like our clubhouse. It’s so nice to have a place that is always glad to see our hungry hoard.

With four practices "under our belts", all outside and in mostly temperate conditions, I feel like we have taken a detour through Oz. It is a blessed thing to have the weather we have had for practicing so far in this late January. I know the farmers, environmentalists, and lawn lovers are not happy, but I will take whatever I can get and say thank you, too. Three or four more days like the ones we have had, and we’ll be game ready.

BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX…. ER…. TUCSON..

I am looking forward to opening the season with Arizona as well as in Tucson (warm). We will know a lot right away about how we stand because they will be an excellent team. They will have home field advantage, and many of the older Lax-catters will be motivated to pay us back for how rudely (score-wise) we treated them when they were gracious enough to visit us here two years ago. I’m sure they will be pumped for our visit. If they beat us their stock shoots way up.

When we played the Cats before, they played a zone defense against us. I hear they will do that again, and that it has evolved a lot. It will be an interesting challenge for us because we don’t see that many zones during the course of our seasons. We have had our way with zones in the past, but that is most likely because the zones we played against were overmatched by our ability to move the ball and find zone holes. That won’t be the case here. I know that this Arizona team has talent and experience on defense. You can do a ton of things with a zone if you have the ability to attack the offense. A zone can be a weapon. Traditionally it has often been only used to cover weakness or weaknesses in a defense. No more.

I’m sure they (U of A) will have a couple of games played before they play us, too. I need to go on line and check.

There was a time when I liked a schedule where we (my team, whoever) would be 6-0 or whatever before we played anyone good. I don’t want that anymore. I don’t think like that anymore either. Now I want each season to have exciting challenges built in from start to finish. I want the season to have a real vibrancy just from the nature of the schedule itself, where we go, who we play, etc. Excellence comes from being challenged all the time, not just later on when you are all set for it.

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