Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

SUCH A DAY

Today was a pretty intense lacrosse day for me considering it is so far out of prime lacrosse season.  My entrepreneurial assistant coaches had set up a clinic in Aurora (Denver Burb) at Rangeview High School for Rangeview Raider players to start things off.  There were about 20 high schoolers there and an eighth grader or two as well.  Public schools in Denver are off all week, so that is the reason for the weekday mid-day schedule. 

I sometimess think a clinic is not going to be as much fun as I always end up actually having.   What is my problem?  Maybe I fear that I won't be able to make it feel fresh when I am teaching some basic thing I have taught hundreds of times before, but somehow it almost always seems to work and feel pretty new again.  Maybe it doesn't "feel like the very first time", but it still brings the passion to my surface almost every time.

WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?   OH, ME YOU SAY?

We did the "Rangeview Cool" thing until about 2:00, at which time we jumped into my Tundra and hastily made for Fort Collins, arriving 90 minutes later at our regular CSU practice just in time for its 4:00 start. 

My practice plan for our boys in the Fort (CSU) was neatly tucked in somewhere between my brain and the seat of my pants.  I had made up no written paper plan for the morning clinic, I guess because I didn't realize I was actually going to be in charge.  The morning actually rolled off my brain rather well, so we decided to keep the plan of no plan for our regular practice as well.  The only hard copies anywhere around were the past practice schedules littering up my multiple glove compartments.  To use a used practice plan would be cheating…..  By the way, who keeps gloves in their glove compartments?  They must have a new name for those things that I don't know about.

PRACTICE DOESN'T ALWAYS MAKE PERFECT

We have several team injuries right now, and other conflicts today, but we still had over 30 out on the field.  We went minimal on stick drills, conditioning, and stuff like that, and maximum on playing and having fun drills. It's hard to miss when you keep it fun for them.  It may not always make you better as a team, but it can always help make you a better family, which in turn can help make you a better team.

DE JA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

No matter how much benefit might be available to self, the team, lacrosse in Northern Colorado or even the world, I think I need to take the "martini" drinking approach to this sort of a day at my age.  That concept is that one (martini) is good, two might just be perfect, but THREE is definitely way too many.  So, by the time we headed over to the Edge right after the CSU practice to put on another clinic/Chumash extravaganza I was beginning to run out of gas.  The scheduling that brought the three sepearate items of lacrosse together on one day was coincidence.  It just came up three "parties" in one day, it wasn't a plan.  The thing was that the full day of it all didn't register in my mind until just last night.  Well, it was starting to sink in big time by about 5:00 this afternoon.

I did not have time after the CSU practice to stop and wake me up by hitting myself with a coffee "whip" before the start time at the Edge   I did not have a piece of paper telling me what to do next (again) for this deal either.  Upon arrival I learned that this would be a two-hour session, not the one hour that I had figured on, and many there had played little or no lacrosse.  The ultimate challenge was in front of me and I needed a nap.  On top of the scene as was there were also parents sitting right nearby the action, staring at me, and likely they were also wondering what this weird little old man might be doing to or for their children.

I GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

Several CSU players helped out on this last one, so it wasn't just the three of us coaches.  It went fine, but I was Sr. Hamburger Helper at the end, just trying to stretch the time into something "edible"  and or useful.  I was really lucky to have General Lee (Cates, #2 – M – 2008) out there this evening.  He is magical with the "little ones" who don't have much experience playing (can you say none?).  Garrett Fitzgerald (G- #8 – 2008) was, as he always is, there and being help.

I meant only to make a notation about today's events in here.  I did not really intend to document them at length.  Oh well, I digress again, or maybe it is progress.  At any rate I sit here whining about how tired I be, yet here I still sit.

THE TIMES THEY ARE ACHANGIN'

I like the way we are changing as a team right now at CSU.  I want to write about the players a little and the things I like about them in particular.  I want to do this in case I need to remember what those things were at some point down the road.  I'm cat-like that way, a little finicky, and not easy to impress.  By the way I have seen the movie Garfield at least 100 times in the last two months (George).  I am not kidding.  This could have adversely affected my brain in many different ways.  I plead the fifth.

I guess I want to now talk about some of the players for a while because I haven't really done that very much in here recently.  I know it is strange and it may sound selfish, but lately it always seems to be about me.  Wait. Oh yeah, that's right, it's okay.  I can do that.  This is my personal journal.  It's supposed to be all about me.  REALLY?

One of my players told me today about a book he has to read for a class.  The book is called "All the President's Men".  It's about Nixon and his time in the White House and stuff like that.  Do tell?  He was surprised that I was familiar with and had actually read the book.  I assured him that it was likely to be more interesting than he might anticipate.

I am almost old enough to be these kids' grandfathers nowadays.  Most of the parents of players that I coach are younger than I, and for the second time in my life I am coaching someone who's father I also coached at Colorado College back in the day.

ANYWAY:

THE WANDERING JEW

One of the things that recently helped to change the complexion of us was the moving of one of our seniors from Close Defense, and all the way back up the field to his original position of Attack.  Matt Reiss (#10 –A-2006) has spent the last two years on a lacrosse odyssey that took him wandering away from his home on attack, a place where he got no quality time for two years. First it was on to Long Stick Middie, where he adjusted to and excelled at a completely new, totally different position.  Not only had he not played any long pole position, but he literally had never even touched a stick that was as long as 72" previously in his entire lax life.  Finally, and only weeks ago he had settled into the rotation on Defense. 

All this Matt moving began for two reasons. First we as a team had a long pole need following the Plonkey years.  My intention was to take two players with different special qualities, and then to somehow use them in a way that would add up to one semi-Plonkey.  It would take too long to try and explain what that all exactly means, but the experiment actually worked pretty well, and it came without the potty mouth, trash talking part that you get with the other guy (Plonk).  The second reason for change was that I looked at Matt as a junior last year, and I saw him as too talented of a player to continue to sit during important moments and big games.  The fact that he had hung in on the team as long as he had was great, and that alone declared his love for the game.  As a coach it is my job to never let that kind of passion go to waste.  I was determined not to let that happen, and as it turned out, Matt was too.  He eagerly embraced and worked at making a change that is perhaps as difficult as any change of position available, with the possible exception of getting in the goal after never having done that.

WHEN I SAY LAB I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT A DOG

What our team needed a few weeks ago was some kind, any kind of chemistry on attack.  It seemed that no matter what or whom I dropped into the mix, the end result was not a chemical compound in need of a catchy name.  No, everything I tried seemed to just be another pile of chemicals, but there was in fact no chemistry.

I'm not very patient, as we know, so this situation had me feeling FRANTIC.  I was a man with way more questions than answers.

I went to Matt and asked him if he would be willing to "go home again", back to attack.  Actually at first he was hesitant because he loved what he was doing as a defender.  He went for it, though.  Maybe it was the personal challenge that peaked his interest.  Maybe he wanted to help the team to find its way.  Whatever the reason I appreciate how he has gone about shifting this huge gear again. 

Matt, our attack, and we in general have a ton of work to do, but moving Matt to attack has been a kind of catalyst, and it has sparked some sort of small flame that, with work and luck, we can fan into a bigger, smellier flame that becomes much more offensive to other teams than it and we had been earlier on.

I want to plant the Reiss boy at attack, and to keep him healthy for his senior season. I want to fertilize the whole bunch of them playing up there on attack with whatever growth helper available.  The plan of the late autumn planting is to reap a nice harvest sometime at the right time later in the spring.

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