Friday, January 9, 2004

MY LITTLE CHICADEE 

On the whole, "I'd rather be in Philadelphia", and here I am.  The travel was not completely anxiety free, as I almost tried to do too much in the 10 hours that I had at home between flights.  There became a possibility of missing another plane.  I didn't want to go there.  Another occurrence remotely like the last screw up, and the stress might just kill me.  I think I need to space out my calamities just a tad in order to survive.

ACCURACY – CONSISTENCY – DEPENDABILITY – DURABILITY

Rock-it Pocket mantra since forever

We are here for the National Lacrosse Coaches convention.  There will be over 2500 coaches here.  This might be my 18^th one.  In 1987 I shamelessly invaded what was then a very small good old boys club by bringing in my little patent pending pocket that I was so sure-fired up about.  I had dared to come from the west with an idea about lacrosse sticks, and only one guy, Lance from the original Lax World even noticed I was there. 

That first convention was also when Sam Sadtler pointed me on my way back into coaching after I had been away for almost a decade.  I guess I owe some big thanks to Sam.

We are setting up the Rock-it Pocket booth right now. I use the word "booth" loosely here.  Many of these companies that attend this annual trade show have huge and clean and interactive displays.  They strut out their new stuff and try to outdo one another with their newly appointed, better playing versions of more or less the same things that lacrosse players have always needed.  Then there's all the new-fangled stuff, too, like anti-concussion mouth guards and Underarmour everything.   Many bring famous players to represent their company.  They are here to grip and to grin and to tell you what makes their helmet or whatever better enough for you to order 35 of them. 

We (Rock-it Pocket) are just "another roadside attraction", almost lost inside the big show.  We are not Ambercrombie.  We are not Warrior Lacrosse. We are more like vending in a van.  We usually kick ass anyway.  I hope we still do.  I am actually hoping for something even more from the convention experience this year.  I don't know yet what that is. 

RAMS AND ROCK-ITS – ROCK-ITS AND RAMS

We are an entourage.  I'm excited about the possibilities of the "staff".  Kale (#1 - 2003) and Davis (#16 - 2002 – as in Davis Dog) are here.  They can sell Rock-it Pockets better than I can by a million, so that's that.  I try to help where I can.  This fairly recent positive development (Third trip for Davis and maybe 4^th for Kale) helps me sleep better at night as we prepare every January to change our clocks to Philadelphia time for a few days.

This year we added one to the Rock-it Pocket/CSU Lacrosse-in-Philly Team.  I wanted 2004 assistant coach Alex (#26 - 2003) to "tag" along.  His future includes coaching, he's never been to one of these conventions, and I never have time to take as much of the coaching clinics in than I would like for one reason or another.  It was a no-brainer. I wanted him to "take notes" at the clinics held here.  In the deal there came a bonus, because he is going to set up and run a CSU recruiting table complete with brochures and everything. There is so much going on here, and with the Vail Shootout there are actually three things that need my attention and some networking. 

With four of us I feel like I can float around and taste more of this lacrosse smorgasbord.   My plan is to sort of oversee.  I always think and often say that I don't have a real coaching staff to help me, but I really do.  They just all happen to have played lacrosse at CSU.   I am comfortable sitting here tapping away right now as they continue to set up the booth because I trust them to set up a good booth without too much meddling from me.  They have fun with it.  That's what I want.

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