Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Thursday, August 12, 2004

MAN WHAT A SUMMER

The Colorado State University school year commences in less than two weeks.  We will start practicing lacrosse two weeks from yesterday.  Some of them (players) are already back.  The rest will be here any day.  If there is one thing I know for sure it is that we will have many new faces, fresh players that we will have to evaluate and encourage.  There will be a generation gap to bridge as well.  There always is.  It is never as simple as the term that is often thrown around with us, which is that we "reload".

If nothing else I have tried to create an avenue for evolution with this team over the summer.  Be careful what you wish for.  The winds of change can be powerful.  The first practice should be fascinating.  What kind of kids did we (I) attract this year?  Who has had enough of me?   

WHO SAID YOU CAN'T TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS?

Recently I have exposed some psychological stuff that needed to come up, and not just with the "State of the Team", but also with the state of me.  As fall approaches I am beginning to feel refreshed and ready for the many new challenges.  Meanwhile I am juiced about some of the changes in store for the team and our approach to the game.

Last year I thought of myself as a "manager" at times more than a coach.  In my opinion I coach better than I manage, so this year I am entering the year with the feeling that I need to once again be a teacher, and with a little luck that process will lead us down a road where we (Kale and I) can at some point really coach.  I won't start with expectation.  I will start with a plan of attack. 

BACK ON THE FARM YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW

I am going to continue to try and sell the team on the fact that the only way we can really prepare for the rigors of a USLIA season in the spring is to get after impregnating ourselves in the fall.  This (fall ball) is the best time for us to grow and to learn and to put things and people in their proper places so that in theory the spring is continuation to some degree, and not always starting anew again.  In the winter and early spring we are all-too-often not able to practice, either due to restrictions or snowstorms.  We are also apart for almost three months in the middle, November, December, and January.  That makes it a little more difficult to keep the family ties as tight as I might like. 

We need to "make the hay" that will sustain us through the long winter now. The "horses" will be in the barn during a stretch of time when they really would rather be outside playing ball and feeling their oats.

MODERN MARKETING

We are in the process of ordering new uniforms for 2005.  It has been determined that white will not be one of our (CSU) primary colors this year.  Our home whites will therefore be this new color called titanium.  It's amazing what you can do nowadays.  Take a simple color like gray, rename it something catchy, like "Titanium", and before you can say, "Jack or Jackie Robinson", it's all the color rage.

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