Saturday, June 21, 2003

WELCOME TO THE CAMP - I GUESS YOU ALL KNOW
WHY WE’RE HERE

We had a really excellent camp adventure last week. HAC (High Altitude Camp) #2 has left HAC #1 (camp 2002), in the dust. I had thought last year’s was really good, but after finishing this year’s camp, there was no comparison. Three specifics were clearly better in 2003. First we had a better and more focused staff (almost all were CSU players). The staff "vibe" was far superior to last year. Second we had a good number of "campers" at all positions, including goalie. Having good scrimmages and games was easy. Last year there weren’t enough goalies. The third thing was that we just had more kids, and from more different places, including many more out-of-staters.

I was pleased that we had some 120 kids for the 4-day camp. My greatest challenge was to keep a pace that could make me happy, because I hate it when kids just stand around ON the field. I think we did better than we did last year on that score. I want to keep getting better at this putting-on-a-camp camp stuff, and with the good feedback I get from staff and from the experience itself, I should.

One thought that came to my mind after the camp was that many of our current CSU players had done an excellent job of coaching, and that this will in turn help their game next spring in some small or large way. Another thought was that we could probably easily fill two sessions with campers in the future, and that if a CSU player worked two sessions, he could work off about 1/2 of his costs for the next season in just 8 days. It isn’t quite D1, with scholarships and real budgets, but it wouldn’t be a bad start.

AT LEAST ONE THUMB UP

We had a group of kids from the Missouri state championship team, Rockhurst Jesuit H.S. in Kansas City. We had a few pockets of players, kid groups from other places besides Fort Collins. This pleased me very much, and made for some good competition during the camp. Anyway, this one Rockhurst kid comes up to me right after the camp (on my way to the hospital as it turns out), and tells me that he will recommend this camp to everyone. He had been to the Such-and-Such (Division I top ten team) Camp last summer, and this HACamp had been way better. I did not ask him why. I didn’t want to spoil the moment. I was just impressed and flattered that he had noticed anything at all. I usually don’t expect fifteen and sixteen year-olds to think about stuff like the quality of life, and or coming up to me to tell me things like that.

Other than that I didn’t hear too much one way or the other. I am grateful to simply hear no complaints at all, because I think, in this day and age, that people (parents) tend to have high expectations when they spend $400 to send their kid to a camp for 4 days. My hope is that the kids all had fun and that they learned something that their coach might notice next season.

There were no outside coaches at the HAC recruiting or talking about how to get into college. No one timed anyone for the 40 yard dash at the HAC, and of course, there were and will never be jumping jacks of any kind. I do reluctantly pull out the speed gun to measure their shot speed. They love it. Deep down I’m not crazy about this form of competition either.

My greatest weakness is my inability to learn names. I stop even trying after about ten minutes. I apologize to all those who were addressed by me during the week with something like, "Hey Boulder Boy", or a similar kind of no name.

WHAT THE HECK IS THAT CHEWMASH STUFF?

Again I wonder how you can run a lacrosse camp without something like Chumash, or another "small" game of lacrosse for the kids to pick up and play almost any old time. Chumash is a 3 on 3 lax game played with no goalie and on a skinny goal. It teaches good lacrosse fundamentals to them while they are playing in a game. It also helps to familiarize them with real game situations like fast breaks, clears, and extra man without someone constantly stopping to explain it all. They can learn while playing and having fun, and most importantly, competing. Less coaching is sometimes more learning, at least in this case.

WILL YOU STILL NEED ME, WILL YOU STILL FEED ME
WHEN I’M 64? The Beatles

Paul Mcartney turned 61 the other day. It is looking like we will still need him and feed him when he is 64, after all. As for Pete Townsend, he did not die before he got old, as he had once hoped. I digress.

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