Thursday, December 4, 2003

Since I call this thing a journal, I should at least attempt to be a little semi-journalistic once in a while. So here goes:

A PRESEASON PREVIEW
(The Amelda Marcus Tour?)

Choosing the right shoes could be a major part of what we (CSU) do as a team this season. We will play in many places, in all kinds of weather, and on various types of playing surfaces.

WELL, BLOW ME DOWN (Popeye)

The preseason top 25 MDIA poll was announced yesterday. We (CSU) were placed number one, as I already knew we would be, but what surprised me was the fact that we (CSU) got 29 out of the 30 possible first place votes. I knew who the dissenting voter was right away, because of course it was I. I wish I shared everyone’s opinion about us, and wonder where it all came from because UC Santa Barbara (#2) has virtually everyone back (except the coach) from the team that came to St. Louis as #1 and supposed to blow us away in the finals last May. We on the other hand, have lost a few very important seniors, including our goalie. We played a lot of 6-5er type games last year. I can’t believe they (UCSB) didn’t get some #1 votes.

We will play 12 of the other 24 teams besides us that are in this top 25 poll during the regular season this spring. Included in that list are the entire top 6, and with only BYU (#4) at home. I am already worrying about it all. It’s never too early to fret.

BY THE TIME WE GET TO PHOENIX….

The text of our schedule begins in Tempe, AZ in early February, with the earliest games we have ever played. First up is Arizona (#14) on Friday night, February 6. The U. of A. Laxcat wants very badly to beat us. I sense it and understand why, too. Arizona State is on tap the next night, Saturday, February 7. My thought is that ASU will be far better than a few of the teams that made the pre-season top 25. The Sundevils are far too eager to play us for them not to be thinking that they have something good going on.

FOR THOSE WHO THINK YOUNG

We come home from the Valley of the Sun with a couple of weeks to prepare for our excellent Box adventure at the Pepsi Center (Can=Box) which will happen at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, February 22, 2004.

LIONS, AND TIGERS, AND AGGIES, OH MY

Texas A&M (#6) will be part of a doubleheader weekend the next week in Colorado Springs (February 28, 29) at The Colorado College on their new turf. It should be a frigid little affair. The A&M Aggies had us on the ropes in the quarterfinals in St. Louis last May, and they just get better every year. We have never beaten the Division III C.C. Tigers in my time here.

WELCOME TO OUR LITTLE STEPHEN KING NOVEL

Our first home game will be March 6 against Washington University of St. Louis (Bears? #20). We will just hope for the best on that one. There should be a big snowstorm that weekend. It’s a Colorado tradition.

SPRING BREAK IN THE NORTHWEST –
The LOUIS (Janke) and (Dave) CLARK Trail

Our inaugural discovery tour of the Pacific Northwest begins March 11. Tops on the schedule is a Saturday afternooner with the Sonoma State Seawolves (#3) in the neutral city of Eugene, Oregon on March 13. This comes on the heels of playing the dangerous Ducks of Oregon (#19) the night before. Sonoma will be fresh, not having to play the day before, and no doubt they will arrive early enough on Friday to relax and watch our game with Oregon. They (SSU) get M.J. Crickmore back as a fifth year senior this year, and this kid is a pain for any opposing coach. They have a very experienced, veteran team, and they always scare me.

Can you say, "Play in the rain"? Both these teams do it all the time.

A HUSKY WEEK

We are looking forward to the huge 2004 spring break test. We have 6 games in the span of 9 days, all in the Pacific Northwest. Many of us have not spent much time in that part of the country and we are really excited about the trip. From a coaching point of view I just foresee bigger snakes up there, in taller, wetter grass.

After the comparatively economically sane weekend in Eugene we will take Amtrack on Monday to the trendier and much more expensive Seattle for the remaining 6 days. It should be interesting.

IF IT’S TUESDAY IT MUST BE TACOMA or…. THE ENDLESS BREAK

Then it’s a midweek (Tuesday, 3/16/04) affair with Pacific Lutheran. We will take a bus down to Tacoma for that one. Chico State (#12) is on the docket for Thursday, Washington’s (UDUB) Huskies are Friday, and Simon Fraser (#8) is the Saturday night finale. These last 3 games will all be played in Seattle. The four teams we will play in the state of Washington will all be eager to help us find our own little Waterloo right there in the middle of Pudget Sound.

The Seattle tilts will come at the end of this record-breaking long spring break "whirl". I started worrying about this second weekend of it before I even finished scheduling.

We played SFU in the 1999 USLIA Championship game and not since. The Clan from Canada are #8 now, will still be unbeaten when we get there, and it will be the 6th game in 9 days for a no-doubt somewhat weary group of Rams. It all sounds fun, scary, but fun, like the old hammer ride at Asbury Park.

I am pleased that we are a part of this inaugural "Husky Invitational". The University of Washington has a new dome on campus with some kind of new-fangled superturf that we have never played on before. Two of the three Seattle games will be played inside where it should be dry with any luck at all.

We finally come home on Sunday, March 21. We are fighting battles on many fronts this year, especially during this part of the schedule. We like challenges, though, and so there you go. This season will indeed be full of them. It will be crucial that our team depth has length.

THEN YOU GOT YOUR UTES

We will no doubt limp home, listless from Seattle, only to have to prepare for a Utah Ute invasion the next Saturday, March 27. The Utes were the only MDIA team to beat us last year. Is a Ute a politically correct mascot?

MICHIGAN INVITATIONAL - THE PIRATES’ JOURNEY CONTINUES

Michigan (#5) will be solid, and very capable of beating us anytime or anywhere. We had to choose to travel all the way to Michigan to play the Wolverines in their dome in Ann Arbor for the third time in four years, to a place where they have only lost one time ever. We will meet Minnesota Duluth (#9) there on that same Michigan Invitational weekend of April 2-4. We have never played UMDuluth, and we’ve been trying to get that one together for a couple of years. The Bulldogs have very quickly become one of the top teams in the MDIA. They took Sonoma to overtime last year. This trip could easily be the toughest test of all as UCSB (#2) will be our final game of the trip on Sunday. It will be a rematch of the 2003 MDIA finals, and it comes at the end of a marathon weekend. Last team standing?

B..Y.. AND OTHER EWES

BYU (#4) comes in on April 9th, Friday, only five days after the Michigan trip. The next in the on-going big game series between the two schools will be a night affair in Fort Collins. After BYU come three more important league games, homers at the Fort with Boise State, up-and-coming Utah State, and then the clash that counts, CU vs. C.S.U. April 17. That one is a CSU "home" game, too, but might be played in a Denver area stadium as part of a big CSU alumni-planned event.

The regular or "First Season" completes itself when we host Lyndenwood (MO) University (College?) on Saturday, April 24. Wow!

TURN THE PAGE

The second season, if we survive the first, will take us to Utah and St. Louis by the time it becomes the middle of May. Final exams will be sandwiched in between the bookends that are our post season destinations. The ending of this 2004 odyssey, happy or otherwise is way too far in the distance to even dare to sneak a peak at. We will go one page at a time. Then we will turn the page. Open to chapter one in just about 64 days.

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