Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Wednesday, September 1, 2004

WE BE MO THAN PIFTY

Practice has been a little crazy. There are so many fresh faces. I want to see them all play (scrimmage=tryouts) more before we do get too far along. We have kind of tried to set practice up to teach "the system", but also we want to get a good look at as many as possible as quickly as possible. I don't want to let one get under the radar and quit before I even have a chance to show him love.

WHEN I WAS A KID SPANKING WAS NOT A GOOD THING – Now it’s having too many "timeouts" that you need to watch out for, ....but we all want to be spanked

Make no mistake, we (I) are (am) on the mission to find the largest possible CORE GROUP this year. I will personally be begging no one to play. They pretty much all have to want to be part of the nucleus for us to create a real electrical charge from a certifiable power source (TEAM= real deal). If you are playing here for only personal reasons, we will cease to be fun or worth it at some point. Individual sacrifice for the overall cause is requisite to what we are. It must be done willingly, not forced, coerced, or paid for.

The team has a brand spanking new attitude. I think our CGP (core group potential) is through the roof. This will hopefully help make up for what is a much less seasoned, and perhaps less talented team than the 2004 one was.

THE ROOKIES.

I often do not like things that are "rookie rituals". In a way, though, I am finally beginning to understand the need for some of it. There is an overall "weeding of the herd" process. This is especially good when we only have 45 numbered shirts on the way, and I think we have close to sixty bodies at practice. Yesterday at one point captains led the whole team to a traditional place we visit each season, a place where they could baptize rookie heads with a little nasty water from the scum pond, which is puddled only a short jog from our practice field. There were a few who didn’t like this custom very much. The rest went willingly for and with the wet look.

I admit I never did this duck pond dunk. I did, however, shoot the famous boot. I did it willingly long ago, because that’s what I had to do to say to all that were present that day in 1997, "I will do what it takes to be part of this". In this case yesterday you are swearing your allegiance to the covenant by putting something like toilet, or perhaps Typhoid water on your head. As long as you run home to take a shower it ain’t so bad. You just gotta do it (things) sometimes. It’s like saying, in some small but large way, that you are willing to do things as and for THE team. Coaches are not excluded. They, too, must be good teammates always.

UNASHAMED

Len, the Brine rep. came to practice yesterday. Brine has some nice new stuff competitively priced.. I'd say the Warrior guy might already be in a hole. We are usually all Warrior pretty much all the time.. The times might be a-changin'.

MY THREE SONS (reprieve)

BY GEORGE

My one year-old George does this funky chicken dance thing where he lifts his legs and arms in a random yet rhythmic way while twirling around. If there is music he smiles, and if there isn’t he cries quite loudly for some. George smiles a lot, and as if he were still only practicing. He has been working on building a better smile ever since he was born. I can’t wait to see whatever he considers to be his Mona Lisa. He is our little brown Jew. Ada calls him, "Patito Feo"(ugly duckling) It’s true. He looks and acts a bit like me, Mini-me in cinnamon skin.

George is a goof ball. He bumps his head on the wall and then acts like it’s part of his schtick. My father called me, "Goof ball". By the way, is the term goofball some medical slang word from the 1940’s? Was the goofball the designer drug of choice after WWII or what?

FRANKLY MY DEAR....

The four year-old Jordan is becoming the master of communication (two languages) and manipulation. He is always brokering for toys, as in he is or might be rebellious to distraction unless we cut some kind of "good now, toy (toys) later" deal. He is both creative and subtle in his approach these days, having learned the potential virtue of tact. His mother and I are currently not buying. All times contain troubled moments I suppose. This child has the good looks and, come to think of it, also the temperament of Scarlett O’hara.

MICHAELANGELO: OUR ANGEL HAS HIS WINGS

Then we have Michael, who is twenty. He is moving out of the house today. I’m shocked. I guess he would rather be hanging with his college-aged homeys rather than listening to the screaming volleys of runny nosed little brothers. I am a little sad. I know his mom will be. It hardly leaves us empty nested, however.

At least (hopefully) his home experience over the last few years should have gotten his attention (frightened him) enough to make sure that he practices certain things with safety always first in mind.

These three boys to men couldn’t be more different, head to toe. I also think we couldn’t be much closer as a family. I couldn’t love them any more if they were all my own. Wait, they are. How time does go by. I hope Michael starts to find whatever it is that he is looking for. Fly away little birdie, fly, fly.

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