Saturday, June 14, 2003 - The road to 2004 -

BY GEORGE, I THINK I’VE GOT IT

George Elkan Naumburg – Born Friday, June 13, 2003 – 7 lbs., 13 oz. – 20 inches

What better way to start a new and clean journal year than with the announcement of the arrival of a new and clean actual life? Yesterday my beautiful wife, Ada Luz (and she is my light), gave birth to a lovely, young Yoda-looking thing named George Elkan Naumburg. So there are no misunderstandings, we also made it so that this kind of baby thing will never happen again. Phew! In only about 25 years Ada and I will be able to go on that honeymoon I promised her seven years ago, and I won’t even be eighty yet.

The call came on Friday the 13th. I should have known. I had the 14th in the office pool. She went into labor as I was giving my little farewell address to the campers from the very successful 4-day CSU High Altitude Lacrosse Camp we had just finished. As I started to drive home, the call came on my cell phone from eldest son Mike. She (Ada) was already at the hospital. .

I was fine (not panicky) until I got to the parking lot at the hospital and there was nowhere to park. I should have listened to my family and gotten one of those handicapped parking permits a long time ago (fifteen previous surgeries should qualify me). Anyway, I instantly became something out of a movie (cartoon), raging and racing around the parking lot, desperately searching for a spot while trying not to run over a walker or hit a wheel chair. I did find one (parking spot) eventually. I ran inside. When I got to her bedside she was still two hours away from landing the baby. George was well into his descent, though. She wanted to know where I had been and why I had done this to her.

The contractions looked like giant earthquakes on the monitor screen. All I could think was that I really can’t even imagine what that kind of pain is really like. Thanks, God, for that one.

In the end it was all relatively quick and painful. Son #3 would seem to be healthy and good to go.

In retrospect my timing (late) was just about perfect (for me, not Ada). I am very familiar with spending time in hospitals, but it hasn’t made it so that I like spending time in them, whether I am visiting someone else, or if I'm in for some kind of slice and dice on me.

George was kind enough to wait until I had finished the camp. He already clearly shows far more patience at birth than either of his older brothers (father, too) has been able to muster in all their years. This one is calm. How can that be?

I am off to the hospital.

OKAY - LET’S RECAP SEVEN YEARS OF FLIP AND CSU LAX:

1997 - WHEN’S THE NEXT BUS BACK TO SANTA BARBARA?

My 1997 vision of my own "Triumphant Return" to Colorado lacrosse didn't go quite like I originally planned. I had my brand spanking new "Three Stooges" team defense, and these CSU Moes weren't buying it. My first game as the head lacrosse coach at CSU was a 25-7 massacre at the hands of CU, in Boulder. I was shell-shocked. Maybe I wasn't such a hot-shot coach after all. I questioned my ability to make this CSU lacrosse team into a real program. How did that simple little goal-setting idea thing land me here with this bunch of non-believers? I needed believers. Thanks a lot, Tony Robbins. It's all your fault. We were way behind CU and BYU. These facts were clear. Hope was just something that I wanted to someday have.

I eventually made a simple pact with two players, Mike Roth and Jeff Walker, or was it actually the Devil Himself? Anyway, the team played on, and after all, I stayed on.

1998 - A TASTE OF ST. LOUIS HONEY

We traveled to Califorrnia for spring break. We needed to play and be seen by other teams on a national level. The USLIA was exploding. We had a practice on Venice Beach. I shot the beer boot in Claremont, California, and so did my son (14 at the time). We (some of the players) were on "The Price is Right" TV show with Bob Barker in Hollywood..

We made the semi-finals at the national finals, but we were not yet good enough to beat BYU, and we were eliminated by them for the second time in as many weeks. On the last night (morning?) in St. Louis Garth Heth jumped into the Mississippi River, taking a freshman along for the dive, presumably so both would have something extra to remember about their trip to St. Louis. My guess is that they don't remember any of it. They almost missed the plane home. We were still the "Wild Bunch", and I was still "just along for the ride" at certain times.

Senior Attackman, Pat Shanley, had 200 points for the season. That is an average of like10 for every game we played. We had progressed greatly, but had far yet to go. There was now this thing called "St. Louis", and I saw at the tournament in St. Louis, exactly what, and more importantly where we could be by the next year, same time, same place. I saw a world of possibilities out there for us all of a sudden. If I could just keep plugging along.....

1999 - LOOK WHAT WE FOUND?

I wasn't sure if we were ready for prime time after a poor showing in the league championship in Utah, just two weeks before St. Louis. I remember thinking that I knew we could win the national championship, so why the Hell can't we win our own league? We were up to the early tournament tasks, however, playing our best ball of the year by far, and getting ourselves that first chance at the "Final" Dance. We beat Simon Fraser (Vancouver, Canada) 15-11 for the championship, after trailing 4-1 after one. We won it all, eh? Yes, and we won it going away. We had our first pretty good team defense in 1999. I used two goalies all year long, not just one and a back-up. This was a new coaching thrill for me.

2000 - CLASSIC UNDERACHIEVEMENT

The Trip to Alcatraz was my lowlight. The whole trip to Cali was dreary. I'll have to get back to you on my highlight. Wait. I've got it. The family was finally coming together, and in subtle ways. We were still having "growing pains". We did beat BYU in the spring season for the first time.

It is very hard to repeat. We had virtually everyone back from the 1999 Championship team, and more, yet could not do it. Our attack was a 4-man scoring machine. In the end, BYU was better because we let in 16 goals. That's always just too many. We had a good stretch run at the end of the season, and we played in the final USLIA game of the year again. I studied defense all summer after we gave up the 16 in the final.

2001 - ALMOST PERFECT

A.K.A. "The Haters Revenge Tour". CSU lacrosse was branded as "The Pirates" by one of our rivals in 2001. We liked it, and it has stuck. Our first trip to the Michigan Invitational and to play on Nexturf was in 2001. We were beginning, and I emphasize the word beginning, to learn the meaning of the concept of a "Business trip", which is not to be, but often is confused with spring break This was my first year writing the more public, internet accessible Coach's Journal, and it had a happy ending, too. That BYU team was their best that I had seen. Fortunately, our team had hunger and talent to match them. Our 10-9 win over BYU in the semi-finals was the best game that I have ever seen in St. Louis. The championship game vs. Stanford the next day was almost anti-climatic, but very enjoyable from my vantage point. Who's House?

2002 - DYSFUNCTIONAL REALITIES

Tastes great! ... Less Filling!. Did I already say that it is not easy to repeat? The way we pulled ourselves together for the stretch run remains a positive and vivid memory. We almost made it in spite of ourselves.

We finally had enough speed to be a real force in the middle part of the field. This was something we had always lacked.

2003 - A SEASON ON THE BRINKS

A.K.A. The Last Team Standing, and we, in fact, were. There are many who think the best team did not win in St. Louis in 2003, and that the format was wrong or whatever. Four games in 4 days is a killer, no doubt. Too bad. I got the thing (trophy) that says we won right on it.

I will never forget the seniors on this team. I will never forget how eager this team was to be coached. Suspension, weather, schedule, etc. made this my most formidable coaching challenge to date.

2004 - ?????????????????????? It is very difficult to repeat. Onward and upward!

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