Wednesday, May 28, 2003

ALMOST TIME TO CLOSE THE BOOK, BUT NOT JUST YET

I’ve been thinking lately that I perhaps had dismissed 2003 almost too quickly. Being dissatisfied with our performance in the final in St. Louis earlier this month made winning the game somehow not satisfying enough for me. So, I moved right on to 2004 and to thinking about how to assemble all that. I began to ask questions about 2004 without ever taking very much time to ponder what had happened in ’03. This was folly.

Upon further reflection I see how much there is of 2003 to take with me and to strive for as we get into 2004. I wrote to a friend the other day, "If we could do what we did in 2003, then it really is about more than just talent. If this season proved anything it proved that". The 2003 CSU lacrosse team was very far advanced in "little" things like "Family" and interpersonal relationships. Their on-field communication was great. These things are invaluable, but their exact value is not possible to measure. I love that fact.

WE MAY HAVE HAD LESS IN 2003, BUT WE WERE MORE

To a man the team came first this year, something that was sorely lacking in us in 2002. In 2002 we made the final game all right, but we lost to Sonoma, 13-10. They (SSU) were better that day, but their mission was clearer all year than ours, too. You could see it. They had "IT". Of course I wanted to win the game, but I somehow never felt like we "deserved" to win it all in ‘02, because we had so much dysfunction within.

Last year, 2002, was extremely frustrating for me. We had some that thought they were more important than the team as a whole. We had plenty of returning talent from our 2001 team, butt half of them had their head up their you-know-whats. They acted too often like all we had to do was show up and the other team would lay down and start trembling. In September they were already talking about being "Undefeated", as if this were something to strive for. The word alone makes me cringe. Then, I felt alternately, anger and disappointment as I fought against the tide of team arrogance all spring season long. Needless to say, we were defeated early and fairly often compared to what we were used to.

I never think or talk about things like being undefeated. It is not my goal. It never has been. To me this is a goal that leaves no room for change. Once you lose a game, you have failed for the season? This is not the team mind-set I ever strive to attain. I rarely talk about winning and losing to my teams anyway. Winning is not the goal. It is the result of achieving your goals. Thinking about winning them all before you have played the first one is simply stupid. Hell, I never even mentioned St. Louis this year until April 26, or whenever that became the next thing. This does not mean I hadn’t made plane reservations. I did that in November.

A BAND OF BROTHERS

In 2003 we were less of a lot of things, but we were so much more, too. Everyone bought their ticket and willingly got on the 2003 Magic Bus. Any time that there was someone showing signs of being a "Non-believer", he stuck out like a sore thumb, because we were indeed a "Band of Believers" from start to finish. This team in ’03 had commitment, but it also had courage. Once we lost some of our "Big Guns" to injury early on, everyone "Checked their egos at the door".

THINGS HAPPEN FOR A REASON?

We lost against Utah, 5-4, in Salt Lake without me there. They came home, I was reinstated from my "sabbatical", and we beat the #1 team in the country that was on a winning streak that had just reached thirty-something. We did this only three days after losing to the Utes. I cannot tell a lie. That win against Sonoma at the Fort was validation for me of the highest order. They (players) now hung on my every word or whistle. We won our next ten en route to the title, and though it wasn’t and we weren’t always pretty, we got better every day and every game, and we always had spunk.

Even though UC Santa Barbara had clearly better offensive talent in 2003, and they too were on a long winning streak, favored to beat us, and all that, I entered that final Championship game against them in 2003 confident that we would control it (game). We did. I did not come up with this feeling by looking at game match-ups the night before. Of that we can all be sure. This team and its resolve gave me that feeling of confidence. In spite of our lack of firepower all year, we had somehow managed to control most every game we played. Why would I doubt that we would do that on the final day? The game is indeed never played on paper.

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