Wednesday, January 29, 2003

We’ve got all the stuff going on now. The 18" x 24" color lacrosse schedule poster came out today. It looks real good with most of the seniors individually pictured in action and labeled, as is tradition. Our actual game schedule has already changed from the one I "finalized" for the poster less than two weeks ago. The shot of me running around pretending to be a player is especially amusing. The background is our fan section rooting in St. Louis in 2001.

I alluded to our schedule changing. The University of Northern Colorado dropped their program for at least a year. Two games gone from the schedule just like that. It is a shame when circumstances cause an older club like this to go down. It is understandable to see Division I programs drown when they can not swim with the financial demands of scholarships and all, but this is a club. One of the problems with clubs is that they can easily be mismanaged into chaotic crisis in a relatively short period of time. That is unfortunately what happened here. The school did not cut it. This was a case of new people coming in and biting off more than they could chew. The financial spill over mess comes later, in this instance, now. These club things can be made successful only by cooking them slowly, carefully. Talk don’t pay the bills, and the bills add up quickly there can be no doubt.

YOU LOOK LIKE ELVIS BUT CAN YOU SING?

Anyway, now we got posters and brochures, we got black sweats and grey ones too, we got beanies, we got warm-ups, we got custom Warrior Superstar gloves, and we got the new Cascade C-Pro green helmets with gold visors, which are apparently much better than last year’s C2’s, which were all green. Then of course the new white uniforms are almost done. With all this new stuff I feel confident that we will continue to have a general look and aura that will make us appear as rag tag as ever.

So my question is, now that we (CSU lacrosse) have all this fancy gear, are we any good? I can relate to some degree with all this stuff getting. When you look good, you play good, and all that, but my simple, antiquated, hippie kind of truth is that I liked to ski (Some still remember that sport I’m sure) in blue jeans and I hated all that striped stretchy stuff that everyone thought was so cool. But then, I didn’t want the new helmets 3 years ago either, and they have become our CSU lacrosse trademark, so what do I know? I like them now. I still hate wearing any kind of polyester, though.

Are we worthy? My answer to that original question is that I think we are potentially a pretty good team. I certainly don’t know for sure, and I won’t know for a while, but what has gone on for the first week is farther advanced than any January I have ever experienced here. We've touched on a lot of things already. Maybe we really did start in the fall.

My assistant turned to me the other day and said, "We were never this much of a team." (when he was here). I found this an interesting comment because he (Chris Gemperline) was here only two years ago, and played on both the 1999 and the 2001 USLIA National championship teams. Heck, we named an award for him. The "Gemp" award is given at the end of the year, and it goes to that player who is voted the best teammate, for whatever the reasons may be. I have been pondering that line for two days. I don’t know exactly what he meant, but my hope is that in some way he was saying that though players come and players go, this team continues to improve on itself every year, stronger in its basic principles, prouder in how it performs as a unit.

The seniors are practically oozing motivation. I hope it is contagious. We have some great underclass talent, too. People want to add on to this team. The "positive vibe" is powerful. In most any group there tends to be one or two that can suck the energy from the team at times, or worse, all the time. Are you out there somewhere D. V.? There isn’t much of that here right now. We only have one whiner (besides me). Most of these players understand the importance of simply not messing up what we do. It really isn’t going to be about individuals this spring. Let the stats fall where they May (Get it? May?)

There is an innate hunger in this year’s team. You can see and feel it in how they practice. I’m not just doing coach-speak. I know we lost an All-American defenseman and our entire All-American attack, but just the same I see things that I like in practice a lot more than I’m having tantrums. We’ll see. It is a long season, but I do not fear it.

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