Wednesday, April 30, 2003

SEEDS HAVE SPROUTED, SPRING HAS SPRUNG, MAY ISN’T FAR AWAY

I love this time of year and this time of lacrosse season. Part of this whole post-season experience is the way you prepare for it. I choose to enjoy the process. I am not in a hurry to get to St. Louis. Nor is it coming up too fast. It just is what it is. I'm more than grateful for the time to have a few more practices.

CSU earned the #2 seed for the tournament. Our first game will take place at the Busch Soccer Complex in Fenton, MO next Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. UCSB and Sonoma switched places in the poll, UCSB lept up to #1, while SSU tripped over us and fell down to #3. We would seem to be a consensus #2. I am pleased with the seed. The bracket is full of teams we haven’t played, and I kind of like that, too.

We will play Boston College, the newly crowned Champions from the Pioneer League. This team has only lost one game, and avenged that loss with an overtime victory over UNH (New Hampshire) in the Pioneer League Championship Game the other day. In 2002, only last year, B.C. was a Division I Program. They dropped to Club status this year, but I am sure there will be some talented and skilled players on the team, much like there are when we scrimmage against D.U.’s Club team every year. That is never an easy game for us. Actually there pretty much are no easy games for us. Anything can happen in a four-day tournament anyway. I must never forget that. We have "scouts" working the phones and surfing the internet night and day to find out what they can about these Eagles from Boston, Massachusetts.

We have evolved as a team this year in spite of it all. I am proud of them no matter what happens from here on out. The thing is, though, that I still think that there is so much more potential here, and now. I think we all feel that. I am not ready to think about Boston College too much just yet, either This week is a way and a time to make some more headway as a team. I want individuals to think and work on specifics. I want all of us to do a little more. I want each of us to improve a little between now and when we leave on Tuesday. If we all do, then how can we as a team not improve leaps and bounds? (Very old, recycled Flipism used for many years for motivational purposes with many different teams).

I am not interested in fine tuning just yet either. Having a practice today will give me a "turkey", three in a row. Wow!. Usually this particular week leading up to St. Louis is hard because everyone is taking exams, but this year they don’t start examing until we get back. We could conceivably have 5 or 6 really decent practices between RMILL last week and St. Louis next. I am thrilled simply by the possibility. Having said that, I am sure we will start to have thunder, lightning, and rain or hail by 3:30

Monday and Tuesday we had practices that I would characterize as "fine". I am doing a lot of drills that break down the game to its most fundamental parts, but I am doing them in sort of a laid back, or "chilled" way. At the same time, it’s all gotta have PACE!

During practices, I often ask them verbal questions about what we are doing that they all (should) know the answer to. If everyone, to a man, knows the specific answer to a specific question, then aren’t we always on the same page? I am Mr. Chatter this week, too, and believe me it’s not as much "Attaboy" as it is "It’s your job to do your job. Now here's what to work on so you can do more" When they do things well, I nod. If they did the same thing as well in February, I probably would have run across the field to give them all a hug. It is not February anymore. This upcoming trip is a business trip. It’s like our design team is preparing our presentation this week to show to the big brass at the "Home Office" in St. Louis next week. I’m a busy bee at practice. Everyone is.

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