Sunday, October 19, 2003

CSU FALL TOURNAMENT

It was a gorgeous day yesterday for what was probably the best fall tournament of the 8 we have had in my time here. What made it great, besides the weather, was the fact that, for the first time there were 8 teams, a tournament field with a nice variety of participants and match-ups. There was no bracketing. Each team had 3 games.

People kept saying things like, "It’s like Spring" or "This is summer weather". The truth is that there is only one month in Colorado that has days as perfect as yesterday’s, and that month is October. It was high seventies with no wind and a cloudless sky, and somewhere not too, too far away the deer and the antelope were playing.

MY FACE IS RED

We (CSU) entered two teams in the tournament, the Green Team and the Gold Team. It was the way we had practiced all week. I coached the Gold, and Alex and Schmiddy coached the Green.

I made a mistake pairing up teams, as I thought Galyan’s would be the better of the two Men’s Club teams at the tournament. They weren’t, Spot was. The other 6 teams were college Club teams. I put Galyan’s vs. CSU Gold, and CSU Green was set to play Spot. I should have turned it around. My intention was for Gold to play the three best teams there.

Green ended the day 1-2, sandwiching a win over Ft. Lewis between losses to first Spot, and later to the D.U. Club Team in an 8-7 heartbreaker.

GAME #1 – CSU GOLD 11 GALYAN’S 2

I went into the day as a coach with one "mantra" in mind. I was not going to let myself get caught up in the emotions of the moment (Halftime speeches excluded) the way I had two weeks earlier in Denver, when I had knocked over all my team "building blocks" in my desperate search for immediate gratification (winning). We had won all right, but I had definitely made a bit of a mess that I then needed to clean up. This day would be different. These two weeks worth of games coming up needed to be used for total team construction purposes only.

Emotionally, the first game was easy, as we were basically playing against CSU Alumni +. We started slowly (poorly), and led only 5-2 at halftime. It was actually 3-2 until we put in two quickies right before the break. I worked on my "halftime Angry Man" thing a little. It was easy. I wasn’t a happy coach.

We stormed the second half, owned the ball, and outscored the opposition 6-0. Zero is good. Birdy (#1) had 3 goals, the attack was well balanced, and it was on to C.U. We had a one game (1 hour) break in between games.

GAME #2 CSU 10 C.U. 3

NASTY BOYS – Janet Jackson

Wow. Another one with C.U. I don’t even know where to begin….again.

We did nothing to enhance our popularity amongst other lacrosse teams in our world yesterday, especially with the CU Buffs. We brought plenty of grudge covered emotion to this particular one, and our "game" took a while to find itself because of that fact.

My mantra changed for this game. It became, "SHUT UP, MARK," because I must have said that a thousand times in the first 25 minutes. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t think of a better way to say it. I thankfully did not have to say it once in the second half.

We all knew this game was going to be the one both teams would get most excited about on this day. Understatement.

Plonkey (#17) can be hard to handle sometimes. A + B often equals C. He has a wild, mean streak, and I love to hop on and ride the gallop, but only if I have firm hold of the reins. Well, he became a runaway bucking bronco in the first half, a regular "Chatty Kathy" of trash talk. There was nothing original or fresh coming out of his mouth, just run-of-the-mill garbage.

We, as a team, played a "not to lose" first half, and Mark punctuated it all by getting a penalty and a zero tolerance referee warning for that mouth as the half ended. C.U. would begin the second half with a full minute of extra man time, and possession of the ball to boot.

We were ahead, 3-1 at the break, but I felt like we were losing. We had encouraged this new edition of C.U. lacrosse. They were playing us tight. I took a deep breath, and I stormed over to where our team was gathering, and before they could get seated in their pews, it was fire and brimstone, Hell and damnation. I rolled.

The most significant thing that happened in those seven minutes was that I basically humiliated Mark in front of the team by making him promise the team (not just me) that he would not cost us any further price with his words or deeds. When he didn’t say it "good enough" for me the first time, I made him look up at the team and say it again. I had no idea what kind of "Pandora’s Box" it would all play into.

We came out hard, and gassed by 3 of KJ’s (#7) overall five assists, we took charge of our game, and therefore the game. It became 8-1 over the next 12 minutes or so, and we were good, and we were physical, and we fought hard for the ball. We were almost nasty. Mark was almost quiet. I was feeling better by the minute.

Then something big happened, and it has taken me some time to sort it all out. Number seventeen then basically took a golden opportunity that was afforded him within the play of the game. Mark had chosen when and where to make his next "statement". He had a chance to hit someone hard and he took it. He de-cleated the kid, flattened him, knocked him out, whatever you choose to call it. Then came a moment where almost everything was frozen in time, including me. Mark stood over the player, like Ali (then Cassius Clay) standing over Liston 40 years ago, with one exception, and that is that Plonkey didn’t say one word. He just looked down at the player on the ground, who was looking up at nothing. He was out cold.

His (Mark) eyes never looked to us (me), even though all he would have needed to do was to look up. It all happened right in front of both benches. We could all feel him saying to us, "See?, I am not saying a word" as the seconds inched by. The whistle blew, but the refs called nothing with the exception of time out to attend to the injured player. The player "came to" quickly, thank goodness.

I was caught in a time warp. Mark clearly stood over the player too long, but at the same time he had spoken with his play and not his mouth. The way to really HIT someone is a situation where when it is over, the player you hit IS on his backside and you are standing over him, perfectly balanced. Check that. The ultimate fact is that the one who should feel worst about what had happened is the teammate who threw that fateful "Buddy Pass" to the player who got knocked out.

I don’t want more bad blood than already exists between the two schools. The new C.U. coach, the 4th in 4 years was calling me into confrontation, but I listened to the voice in my head and "did not get caught up in the moment". I held on and I said nothing. This stuff was here before I got here, and will remain long after I am ashes.

The game was over at that moment, but there were ten minutes yet to play. The final ended up 10-3 for CSU Gold. Again we had nicely balanced scoring. That "third quarter" run was our best minutes of lacrosse this fall. We had a few electric moments when we dominated, as if the opponent was not our focus, and the way we go about playing the game together was our only real concern.

GAME #3 CSU 11 C.C. 6

A wave of fatigue came over me as we began the final game of the day, CSU Gold vs. Colorado College. I was fried. Where was my whip? I had eaten the last of my Super Blue Green Algae, and I drank twenty-four more ounces of bottled water right before the game, but I was still close to "empty". Both teams were tired, and albeit my first win ever (8 years) against my alma mater (even if it doesn’t really count) and all, the whole thing was, as Thomas pointed out, a bit "anti-climactic" after the whole C.U. experience.

We were down 2-0 to the Tigers before we woke up, but we never really woke up. We just hung in and hung on. We crawled on top, 5-4 at the half, before once again surging after halftime. K.J. (#7) had 2 goals and an assist, proving over and over that he was going to continue to be a threat on this afternoon. Harper (#2) had 3 goals and an assist, and was taking shots from really excellent "spots" on the field. Teammates were finding him inside and giving him great opportunities. Clint Chafin (#18) had saved his best game for the last one, and we needed it. Timmy (#13) had one or two in each game, and while his game is coming back it is hopefully expanding as well. Thomas (#22) was great all day long, opportunistic and smart. Dave Clark (#14) was solid on face-offs all day.

Sometimes our defense was, as my wife calls it, "A wall", and other times there were, as she is quick to point out, "holes in the wall". Yeah, Swiss cheese all the way to the crease. We’re working on it, Honey.

(Psssssst - There's your complete Pre-Vegas "scouting report" on the CSU Rams)

One of the CC players made a "Rock-it Pocket" comment, one meant to push my button. It did. It cracks me up every time. I love this game. I thank the Lacrosse Gods every day for passing some of this great sport along my way.

Next Entry | Previous Entry


Flip Started Blogging Before it was Cool, Read Over 400 of His Entries Since January 2001
Jump to a Period:
2006: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov
2005: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2004: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2003: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2002: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2001: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Sept Oct Nov Dec