Sunday, February 9, 2003

OY VEY WHAT A WEEK

This has been one of my more difficult weeks. We haven’t been outside all week due to three different little snow storms. Winter did indeed arrive this week. We had two indoor sessions and one campus run, but these are certainly not my ideal conditions for game and season preparations. I missed my first practice in years on Thursday when I was bedridden with the flu.

This team is so far ahead of many of the other teams I’ve coached that the lack of practice doesn’t scare me. I’m not going to say that it doesn’t concern me, especially in the physical conditioning department, because it does. At the same time there is nothing that I can do about it.

We have lost a couple more players, too. One was declared ineligible due to disciplinary reasons for incidents which took place in the dorm during the first semester. I have an idea of what is going on, but no one involved with the decision at CSU has returned my calls, so it is hard for me to really understand all the events. Even so, the punishment seems a bit severe, especially in light of some of the things that scholarship athletes around here have gotten away with. My biggest fear is that we will lose this kid, that he will leave school. I would like very much to have a chance to work with and "mentor" this freshman. I love him and see so much there, and not just lacrosse-wise, but now I don’t know what he will do. I know that playing lacrosse in this program had a lot to do with his choice of CSU. Out of state tuition is pretty high. He could be not playing lacrosse at a local college near his home just as easily. We’ll see, I guess.

While the snowflakes were falling outside this week, the university officials were meeting to decide what to do with the playing fields in light of the drought conditions in Colorado. There must be some irony in the fact that it is snowing and that the lack of moisture is the reason that we will lose significant field practice time, perhaps all spring. They have come up with a plan that is going to make practice a true challenge. We will be limited to 4 or 5 hours of outside practice time per week. We were e-mailed the decision concerning how things will be, and told that actually we should feel lucky for what we got. Hill said that it could easily have been worse. It is a hard time. Many of the playing fields around the whole state have simply been closed until further notice. Still, somehow I do not feel that "lucky".

GUNFIGHT AT THE OK

We leave Friday afternoon for Tucson. That thought relieves me. Putting my focus back to the business of actually playing and competing in a situation where we at least have at least a chance of winning a battle appeals to me much more than all these other things that are going on. Going to Arizona for just three days sounds like three weeks in Maui to me right now. I want to get into the season so bad I can almost taste it.

I must get extremely creative in order for us to gain the feeling of team resolve that only comes when you know each other so well, on and off the field. This afternoon I have called a team meeting to discuss. I am very big on getting input.

I want us as a team to see some of these obstacles as tools to chisel or shape the road and make it passable. I don't want to always feel the need to bust down any and all road blocks. Sometimes I just want to find my way through or around them. It matters that you get past them, and it matters how you go about doing it as well.

I'm finally getting close to knowing who will and won't be playing and what restrictions we might have. I just want to know what I got to work with here so I can get on with it.

In order to motivate the players I only have to motivate me. That's easy. I love the coaching part of life.

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