Sunday, March 2, 2003

GAME #3 - CSU 9 - ILLINOIS 3 played in Lafayette, Co.

We went guerilla today. I knew they would close our CSU field and eventually they did. We found a possibility in the field that CU played Illinois on yesterday, a brand new elementary school with a brand new artificial surface. It was lined (taped) and ready to go. I put the message on the hot line and the latest plan was in motion. The field was almost to Boulder, about an hour away. Actually, we even had fans show up thanks to the hot line and everybody’s cell phones. It is great the way the parents and friends support this team. Anyway, I couldn’t get a hold of anyone at this Peak to Peak school where the field was located, so I knew it all could be very iffy, even dicey. I heard there might be a Men’s club game there today…….. We just went for it.

As I pulled up to the field (it’s like a little oasis out there in the farmlands, a very cool facility) the men’s club team practice was just finishing, and they were taking the nets off the goals. I ran over and frantically offered the net owner $50 to let us use the nets for our game. I had already forgotten a clock and a horn, but somehow I had the cones. I definitely had no extra nets. These are all absolute bare necessities for the home team. Oh yeah, that’s us. The guy took the cash and even started restringing the net for a bit. We finished up attaching them to the faded iron goals with whatever we could find. That included some string and some tape. Great, now if nobody came to throw us out we would be golden.

The game started on time, and no one was coming to play youth soccer or whatever, so everything looked good. It was warm, and there were no clouds to be seen. We pulled ahead in the game, slowly, almost painfully so, until it became 7-0 in the third quarter. Then we stumbled to the eventual 9-3 final.

TAKE IT EASY COACH

I asked myself all the way home why I felt so much anger. The kids had fun, even if I didn’t, and the game was never in doubt. What is my obsession here with excellence NOW!? I know that much of my anger is in limbo with nowhere to go right now, and I can’t always just put it away either. The things I can’t control have gotten out of proportion to the things I have a chance with, and that always brings out the worst in me. However, I am making this supreme effort to just go on, and to just try to do our business as best we can.

Yet when I see us play like we did today it makes me crazy. I could name all the things that drove me nuts today, like too many offensive players landing in the crease (turnovers), but I won’t. We made tons of bad decisions, and we had Long poles running Hell-bent for the goal with no idea what to do with the ball if it eventually becomes plan B, but I hate to point fingers, so I won’t. We had way too many "Chirpy Birds" out there today, too, getting us flags, but what is a game without trash talking? I’ll tell you what it is, it’s much much better. I’m going to make a contract for everyone to sign. It will have a distinct "SHUT UP" clause at the heart of it. All I want is for them to take all that energy they use talking to the officials and trash to members of the other team, and put it into talking to one another on the field. It would be like magic. It was for Alex today.

Maybe I was angry because I got this collective "vibe" from the team that last night they were sure that there would be no game today because there hadn’t been one yesterday after all was said and done, so why would Sunday be any different? There was snow on the ground Saturday evening, and huge flakes were constantly floating down ever so gently so that they might pile up into inches quickly.

Maybe I was angry because I have been screwing around with all this logistical stuff so much lately that it is making me crazy. Even so, I got up at 7:00 this morning and I got after it. I never gave up on getting to play this game. How could they? I’m not saying that everyone didn’t rally and make it to the game on time, because they did, but we played without much of the hunger and emotion that I had hoped to see. I feel urgency because I know how good we will have to get and I know how far we are from there right now. I fret that our practice time will never be enough at one hour per day at best.

I guess my bottom line (coaching) anger after all is said and done is the simple fact that we had every opportunity to crush the opponent today, and we did not.

NO GOOD DEED EVER GOES UNPUNISHED

So, there is a punch line to all this soul-baring that I seem to be doing. As we left the field I noticed a very official looking fellow, but his face was one that I had not seen. He had that, "Whom do I get mad at for using this field?" look, so I wandered back and offered myself up for sacrifice. He of course wanted to know who told us we could play there and all that. I started telling him the long and arduous tale of what had brought us to this particular moment in time. I might have been tap dancing, I’m not sure. He was ultimately gracious. He understood and said we could have the field for the same as he had charged CU, $200. I paid gladly, plus he gave me his contact info if we ever need the field again.

Besides the clock and horn, I also forgot for a minute that nothing is ever for free. It cost us/me $250, but it was worth it, because at least Illinois got to play two games on their trip. The fact that we got to play at all on this very bizarre first weekend of March seems mostly miraculous. I am grateful, though. I pray we are injury free as well.

P.S. Yes Nick, we looked great in our new whites today. They are phat. Call me.

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