Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Friday, August 5, 2005

THE ASYLUM OPENS SOON

As stated, I have been busy scripting the beginning of Fall ball. For the umpteenth time Fall ball means a great deal to me because so much can happen and change between now and springtime. I want as much in place (sort of) before then as is humanly possible, and this is especially due to limited practice time available after Winter Break. Besides that, whatever might be available to practice on at that future time might also be covered with snow and unplayable.

Doing more early allows me to not be altered as much by all the changes that are yet to occur.

THE THEME PARK THEORY

I am having fun splitting up or breaking things down in my mind right now to where I can basically spoon-feed them in practice on a daily basis the basic parts of how we play. In that process I will always try to also give them morsels that this individual or that one can focus in on, develop or create, and with any luck add to his individual game.

So, on the theme idea, one day will be a "communication" day, and everything we do will put an emphasis on the audible aspects of the game (talking/listening). Another day might be a "slide and recover" day, and all my drills and thoughts will be predicated on that aspect of defense being the most important thing on earth.

Fall ball allows me the luxury of time, but there is no doubt in my mind that time not used well on the practice field is time wasted, whatever time of the year it might be.

EXCUSE ME, WAITER, THERE IS A GAUCHO ON MY RAM

We will need all the preparation we can get leading up to our opener at UCSB in Santa Barbara on the night of February 23, 2006. As of now that one is the first game we will play that does count for something. It falls later on the calendar than did our first trip to Texas last year.

This should be a tilt and a trip that tells us a lot about where we are at the time. That is okay. We are coming up with quite the testy little schedule anyway. We might as well play the best first.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that our two main trips next season will both land us in California. We have some real tests to be taken out there.

I LOVE L.A.

The Thursday night fracas with the National Champion Gauchos in February will be followed by a Saturday date with Division III Whittier. That one will be an afternoon game and will take place in Whittier (L.A.) on the Poets’ home meadow. I have always wanted to play Whittier since I have been here at CSU. We played them when I was coaching at UCSB back in the day. We were scheduled to have a CSU/Whittier thing several years ago, but they got a "better offer" to play Colorado College and they bowed out of our game in favor of the one with the Tigers. We have already made the plane and hotel reservations, so it is best if that were to not happen this time.

HAVE TEAM WILL TRAVEL

We will play three Division (varsity/funded) teams this year, which is new and exciting. Along with Whittier, as usual we will play the Division III Colorado College, and we have also added to the schedule an emerging Division II Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, CA. Nickname: the Argonauts sometimes called the Argos.

These (games with Division teams) are always away games for us. These teams won’t travel to play club teams, but I don’t care. "They" always pay for refs, etc. "They" have to worry about fields and rain or snow, not me. We like to be on the road, so whatever home field advantage "they" might have "we" don’t care about. We (I) like the just show-up-and-play-the-game thing a lot.

Our spring break in March will take us first to Sonoma State in Northern California for a free-for-all with the Seawolves on their home turf, where they rarely if ever lose. I’ll bet they have lost only like one game there in the last 20 years. We (CSU) lost to them there in the rain and their hand crafted, knee-deep mud pit in 2000. The fans there heckled us to death while they were at it. We came in to that encounter ranked number one, and we left to chants of "overrated" after losing by one, 13-12. I would like to pipe those people down by not giving them 13 chances to cheer this time. De fense is De wall in front of the De goal. Thirteen is too many goals to give up in a lacrosse game for us, then and now.

We will also play Notre Dame de Namur and Stanford on that same 2006 Northern California trip.

FALL STALL

Annually we have gone to Las Vegas to put a cherry on top of our Fall harvest for the last seven or eight years. Our punishment from another incident last fall, Vangate, also known as, "It only took me one block to screw up" will prohibit us from making the Vegas trip, which has been mostly up to this point nothing but money for CSU lacrosse throughout the years and for more reasons than one (won).

TEAM 101

It (Las Vegas tournament) was always most importantly Travel Experience 101 for us. It (traveling as a team) is a class I believe every college team needs to take. That first trip together is crucial for team bonding, even if it has traditionally been a trip to the fantisy that is Las Vegas to play short games that don’t really count.

DURANGO WILL HAVE TO DO

The punishment handed down last year was that we may not travel out of state this coming autumn. Fortunately there will be a little round-robin tournament (hopefully) in Durango on a Sunday at the end of September. Since Durango, Colorado is about as far away from Fort Collins as you can get and still be in the same state, this will have to suffice as our first team road trip. We will make do.

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