Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Monday, November 21, 2005

PROOF THAT ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE

I am in Florida visiting my mom for a few days.  She lives in what would seem to be the frontage road that runs next to the Hurricane Alley Highway.  Wilma blew the roof off of her carport a few weeks back.  I can only imagine how she felt at almost 82 years old; sitting here alone in this tiny tin house while Mother Nature herself was ripping the carport roof off 20 feet away.  I feel guilty.

You've got to love the frequent flyer thing, though.  As long as you upgrade and spend 40,000 miles you can go from Denver to Orlando without stopping in Fairbanks on the way. 

I am a little disoriented being here without little kid distractions.  So this is what peace is like.

I am old I know, but if a Vanderbilt can beat a Tennessee in college football it is a sign to me that all things really are possible.  I almost feel the same about the Denver Broncos being 8-2 at this stage.  The schedule would have seemed too much to hope for that, but here we are.  Dare we whisper about things that might be?

JAWS?

I went swimming in the Atlantic today. I never can believe how exhilarated I always feel after a run/waddle on the beach and a dip in the ocean. The beach has been altered by storm, but it's still there.

Well, today I was actually swimming with sharks so maybe that was why I felt extra invigorated. I thank goodness I didn't really know that sharks were swimming about until after I had been waved out of the water by a regular dude on the beach. Some man had just been bitten by a shark not 100 feet from where I was and it had happened only a minute before. Since I swim without my spectacles I was oblivious to most of it and I was out there paddling around like an idiot with no one nearby and no cares whatsoever. I could fortunately make out the man who began waving me frantically in, and to get out of the water.

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

The headlines could have read something like, "Five foot something, fifty-something man eaten by four foot shark!"

This shark "attack" took place in less than 4 feet of water depth so it's not like it couldn't have been me and my shiny white body. It was in fact a surfer who was bitten on the foot and quite severely. It all made the evening local news. He was seriously freaked out and didn't want to be interviewed, but of course "they" asked him questions anyway.

Many surfers and swimmers were unaffected by it all and went right back in the water after the flashing lights and sirens went away. I was not among them.

OH YEAH, LACROSSE

As noted we have 4 captains for CSU lacrosse 2005-2006.  Also noted was that I try not to get involved with the choosing of captains, but somehow I always seem to accidentally or otherwise stick my nose in where it doesn't really need to be if I really didn't want to be mixed up with it.  Doctor?

I KNOW IT LOOKS GOOD ON THE RESUME', but I don't care

One thing "new" I did this year was that I changed a long-standing policy of mine that goalies may NOT be captains.  Why have I had that rule?  Goalies ARE captains, it is the nature of the position.  They don't need to be elected as one.  I don't want the goalie at the coin toss ceremony before the game, etc.  I want him getting ready to play in the goal. I do want him to help decide which goal to defend first, but I'm not sure that one needs to be captain for that.

Goalies cannot usually conveniently lead the team during daily drills as well as for those exercises they do (everyone but the goalies) every day before practice and games, the ones that used to be called calisthenics, but now carry many specialized names. 

Goal tenders need to have personalized and individual warm-ups and routines that are for them and only them.  Often they are far from the others on the field doing whatever it is that goalies do.  All this other extemporaneous other "junk" is a distraction for a goalie. 

Being a captain is a very important every day job with several kinds of responsibilities and duties that Captains need to pay constant attention to. Captains need to do these things, not goalies.

For my way of coaching, getting the goalie ready to play is a very high priority aspect of overall team game preparation. He needs no distractions to make it more nerve racking than it already is.  Maybe it's me that doesn't need the distraction….

Because I knew how much it would mean to Pete (G – 2006-#3) and because at that moment when the meeting and electing was going on at the "banquet" we were reeling from the "Incident" that climaxed that very day last May, I threw away my no goalie as captains rule like it was trash for the dump, and the kid from Kansas City was a quick pick as one of the four.  I will, however, be going right back to the no goalie captains rule next year if, of course, there is a next year.

GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY

Our 4 captains more or less reflect our geographic diversity.  Pete the Goalie is from K.C. as stated.  That is K.C., Kansas, and apparently not to be confused with Kansas City, Missouri.  Michael Murphy (2006 – M -#9) is from Lake Oswego, Oregon.  Kellin Bershinsky (#29 – D – 2006) grew up in our very own Fort Collins, and Pat Bird (#1 – M – 2007) is our lone non-senior Captain.  He is from Oakland, California.

When I was first interviewed by the CSU Club members back in 1996 all four players at the table with me that day were Denver products.  Almost the whole team was from Denver then.  I don't know what any of this means.  I just find it interesting, and yes, we still have lots of kids from Denver.

BIRD WATCHING

The West Coast Whirling "Pat" Bird (#1) is a rare species.  As a "chic" (freshman) he was likely to give you the finger "bird" or to send his stick flying as if it had bird wings, and out of frustration.  The refs never missed what he did, how could they?  He has always had presence.  So when he was on his bad ass "Streets of Oakland" behavior we were pretty much destined to be a man down at some point.

FLY AWAY LITTLE BIRD (Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs)

Then in the next game he would amaze us all with his skill and composure. 

THE MAN-CHILD GROWS UP

We have spent a couple of years trying to calm the Bird boy down.  As a player he has always had moments when he appeared a man, or at least a man-child playing among boys, as in he could and can be a force when he chooses and prepares to be that. 

Now he has been elected Captain and he is held very accountable for everything he does both on and off the field.  It is quite a switch for him I am sure.

THE REBEL HAS A CAUSE NOW

I enjoy talking to Pat nowadays about classes he is taking and or books he reads.  What's better is that I think he too likes talking to me about real world stuff.  It wasn't always this way with him, and it definitely wasn't always this way in general.  Most of them keep it (conversation) to lacrosse, partying and some form of broad jumping or another anyway, so having an intellectual conversation with a player who is semi-college educated is practically a thrill for me.

Actually they all talk a lot more about school than they did in the early days.

SINGLE MINDED, MULTI-FACETED

In some ways I feel like I loaded the captain dice on Pat Bird.  He is a junior this year.  Every team needs a "Brave heart", one strong of mind and spirit that the team can and will follow willingly into battle. I referred to the Bird Man as ours (Brave Heart) on more than one occasion for last year's team.  I fear that by doing that I more or less anointed him to be a future captain in a way, and so they naturally elected Pat as one of our 4 captains for 2006.  Pat takes the role of captain very seriously, which is great.  I wonder, though, if he was somewhat startled by becoming a captain so soon.  I think it has always been in his mind to become a captain, but I'm not sure he was quite ready for the reality when it actually came to pass. 

My plan with Pat is not to make him feel more pressure to bear or to put more weight on his shoulders.  I do want him to feel more love, however, and I guess I do hope that he will indeed be one who is leading us in big ways and into the frays.

I hesitate to give my total blessing to the Captaincy, but only because as much as I see him as a very bright person and a natural leader as well, I know in my heart of hearts that all I want him to really have on his plate and to focus on at this point in time is how good, or should I say complete of a player he can become if he sets his sights on that. 

HOME ON THE EMOTIONAL RANGE, or NEVER A DULL MOMENT

Pat's emotions run extremely high from time to time, and when that is channeled to a good place, he is a beautiful force on the field. When you are just sitting around with him or whatever, sometimes he exudes so much wild and nervous energy that it feels like if something really big doesn't happen in the next five minutes that he might actually just explode right in front of your eyes, like some kind of latter day incarnation of a Spinal Tap drummer.

HERE TO THERE = STRAIGHT LINE = GO!

Birdie understands goals (I am not only talking about the kind with nets attached to the back) and the power that setting and achieving goals can bring.  Truthfully, not all these kids do understand much about this simple and immediate life-enhancing fact.  I want Pat's goals to be things like seeing the field better and making more good choices because he already has plenty of the no fear, lead with your face mentality that I like so much in a player. These are qualities that make it easy for me to have faith or believe in he who has them. 

I HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT GREAT PLAYERS ARE THE ONES WHO MAKE THOSE AROUND THEM BETTER

I worry a little that the Bird Man will spend too much time trying to be a good captain.  I don't know if that makes any sense, or if one can ever spend too much time trying to become a better leader, but I do know that with this Bird my plan is to get the positive waves sucked or blown in, and the even stronger, more positive waves will then come flying out like fire from the Dragon's nose and the heat from that flame will heat up all those that hover nearby.  At least that's my fantasy scenario.

FUTURE GAMES  (Fleetwood Mac)

If I could be the "little bird" sitting on Birdy's shoulder right now, chirping in his ear as it were, I would be singing a song with a single refrain that goes something like this, and I am quoting a great "songwriter" I know, "Go to the Gym! Go to the gym!"  Get yourself strongrrrr….

With strength and discipline (found at the gym) comes the durability and true clarity for the decision-making process happening both on and off the field.  With the ability to stay strong and healthy comes the added perk of greater belief in one's self.  Greater confidence in one's own ability brings with it greater overall potential, and with what you, Pat Bird already fly with the sky really does become the limit.  You have two entire seasons to find out what you might become.  I envy your possibility, but all I ever really expect or need to count on for sure is that you will always bring that passion you bring so well.   The rest will find its own level. 

Anyway, if I could say something in print for his mind's eye to see on a regular basis, it would be something like that.

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