Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Friday, July 30, 2004

YOU'RE HIRED!

I am starting to assemble a Rock-it Pocket staff of people to go with the omnipresent but ever changing CSU coaching and playing staff.  Pete is the latest addition to Rock-it Pocket.  I think we might be using Pete (Goalie, #3) as a real so-called "slash", a regular  triple threat.  He is only a junior in school, but he works for RP, he plays real good, and he even might coach a little before the year is done.  He can do all this without flunking out, or getting suspended by the NCAA.  Aren't we (MDIA and Pete) a breath of fresh air?

THE JOURNAL

Today Pete showed me some stuff on the USLIA web site bulletin board where several had chimed in on a chat session about the journal (this thing here) and how they liken it to a soap opera, or that it is fun to follow us (CSU lacrosse) through the "Journal", and things like that.  Some had posted their favorite "passage" from last February or whatever.  Wow, I was extremely flattered, and as much as I try to write this in a fashion that makes me seem somehow oblivious to the fact that someone else might read it, I know that some people do.

Reading the "reviews" today humbled me, and they inspired me as well.

I do not normally address "yous" out there, but I must say thank you, and that I am grateful for the experience that this whole journal ride has been, and feeling the presence of readers is a powerful motivator for me. 

I DIDN'T KNOW RIGHT FROM WRITE

I started the "Journal" thinking of it as an extension of hand written journals I had done in the past, journals designed to help me become better at coaching.  Putting it on line or in the public light brought many new elements besides just a computer to the word processing (including hot water as we would later learn). 

I knew we had a good shot at winning it all (USLIA Championship) in 2001.  We had won in 1999 and I therefore thought I already had a pretty good idea of what it took to win in St. Louis. I was disappointed about what we failed to accomplish in 2000. I had studied defense all that summer because we had given up 16 goals to BYU in losing the 2000 final, 16-13., and I was the guy who was all about team defense. They (BYU) were good, better than us that day, but 16 is too many on any day.

All these particulars going on at the time made it (journal on line) even more intriguing and got me actually started. I began writing on line in the fall of 2000 with a series recapping my first four years here at CSU. I was cleaning out the closet so to speak.  After that I was able to get on with that great 2001 team to be.  The passion with which that special team played made the words to write about them come easily, and even though I was not really a "writer" I began to feel a little bit like one.

I figured I would do one whole season (2001) of the on line journal thing.  It would have a beginning, a meaty part, and an ending.  I would try to write on most days, but not all days. The idea was to stay somewhere near the subject of lacrosse, and specifically coaching it at all times. I have wandered amuck many times I know, but that was the plan.

Anyway, if all were to go well (other than Durango it did) we would have not just an ending in St. Louis, but an ultimately happy one (we beat Stanford 16-7 in the Championship).  Then that would be the end of it, and I would move on to whatever would be next. 

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE INTERNET

Something strange happened in the process, though.  I fell in love with the writing for one thing, but that alone would not have been enough to sustain "The Journal".  However, when parents and alumni and the extensions of those people began to get interested, and in some cases semi-dependent on the journal to "follow" the team, I began to feel inspiration for sure, but even more I felt obligation, and I mean that in a good way.  It was like I could be (warts and all) somehow useful in communicating our story (warts and all) as well as the message of a home-grown (club) lacrosse program (warts and all). I had a new job that could work with all my warts.

Sometimes I can't believe that people really enjoy reading this, and that many of them may not really even care whom CSU lacrosse legends Mike Roth or Mark Plonkey are, even though I have written so much about them.  They just like the team, or our stories of up and down, or whatever.  This is so cool. 

Now if someone would just get me some games to play so I'll have stuff to write about in 2005 we could get on with this.

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Flip Started Blogging Before it was Cool, Read Over 400 of His Entries Since January 2001
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