Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Monday, February 6, 2006

I can’t even begin to talk about where I have been since the last time I wrote in here. Let’s just say that life took me way off the page for a minute. I am back and it is my intention for all focus and metaphor to be pointed toward lacrosse and how much I love and appreciate the fact that I have this game in my life to obsess over. In that deal I get a true family that is not really mine at all to take the journey with. I like this team very much. I think I can honestly say that I appreciate having my lacrosse family more right now, and I mean today, February 6, 2006 more than any day that ever came before. Now I just hope we don’t suck.

OLD JOKE – NEW APPLICATION
Q - How do you get to Carnegie Hall? (okay, really old joke). A – Practice, practice, practice.

Ever since I was a little bitsy coach I have had some core beliefs that have not changed very much as I grew up and became a little old bitsy/bitchy one. Among that very short list of unwavering tenants has been that you pretty much practice how you play. I’ve never been real big on that whole, "We’ll get pissed on Saturday and kick their ass" thing that teams sometimes like to rely on. As corny as it always sounds, you do have to prepare for success. It does not just happen. If I didn’t believe that I would never have gained the passion for coaching that I have. One can have some control over one’s own destiny or one would have nothing to work at.

I take practice to heart every single time I plan or run one. I need rehearsal to learn if for nothing else. When I pay attention to how, why, where, and how in practice then I can get my finger on the team pulse. When I am able to do that I feel like not only can I make better coaching decisions, but I can also make them with more confidence and finality. I strive to make it is as if I somehow think I knew or know what to do just then, and that either way I will not look back. At least there’s your basic plan.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING AT THE ZOO – I DO BELIEVE IT – Paul Simon

We had our first scrimmage Saturday. In recognition of the festivities I came to the game dressed as a zebra (I refereed).
THINGS SEEN AND LIKED –
1) The weather – Is this really February?
2) The atmosphere – there was a game like feel in the air. People even came and watched.
3) The playing intensity – that also felt like a real game in many ways. Enough ways for the first one anyway.
4) Certain players, and we have many young ones, showed their ability to handle game type intensity in a very encouraging way.
5) The whole off-ball offensive movement thing is young, but it has some energy to it and it grew up a little on Saturday.
6) I am glad and grateful that we still have two more of these dress rehearsals before SB Day. They (UCSB) have already played a game and won it.
7) There is chemistry yet to be.
8) They didn’t yell at the ref.

THINGS I WISHED I COULD HAVE LIKED BETTER
1) The energy was way ahead of our actual execution. We are eliminating mistakes, but they are pesky little buggers. "They" are seeing lots of things on the field, however, and that is good.
2) We split up in different ways for each half of the game/scrimmage. In the second half we made it sort of "A" team vs. the "B’ team or whatever. The killer Bee’s were great, but meanwhile the "Alphas" sucked, at least early in the half. This scenario didn’t surprise me, it happens a lot and for a variety of reasons. What did get my attention was that for once I saw clearly what to do about it and that the coaches have the ability to affect this particular little, let’s call it chemical imbalance with this team. I think that it will be a lot about how we sort of mix and match our players and their roles and even how we place them on the field. There is unfounded chemistry here just waiting to be, well, touched off.
3) Our ground ball execution was horrible the other day. That means they/we weren’t very good at getting the ball up and actually OFF the ground, especially on face-offs. But then it is hard to describe the weird ways that lacrosse balls act and react on a jagged field such as this one.
4) Even with all of our attempted extra work in the area of endurance I think we are not close to being where we need to be in terms of physical condition worthy of a game. More 440’s I say. Our overall team agility is definitely better, however, and getting better as we go.

DENVER OR BUST

We already have a game scheduled in Denver at a bigger venue than our non-venue that we use for home games. I love playing home games somewhere other than home, but that is another chapter 2. We will play BYU as the under card for Denver University vs. the real Notre Dame on Friday, April 14. That’s old news, but today we sort of completed the Denver Double. I had been to the offices inside the Pepsi Center a couple of years ago to negotiate a game in that wonderful facility. Well, today, we went to Invesco Field at Mile High (Denver Broncos) and pretty much closed the deal on playing our game with the C.U. Buffs the following Saturday, April 22, 2006, at this N.F.L. stadium as part of a doubleheader over there. This time we will be the main event, however. I suspect we won’t get the full 70,000 for the game, but hey, boy’s got to have a dream.

Too cool, huh?

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