Friday, May 16, 2008

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

We have still two more days here.  It has been almost two days since we had any reason to be here in the first place.  Perhaps next year I will consider taking the bus again.  We have done long trips on buses before, including St. Louis twice, and I totally never want to be stuck for an extra four days or even one that I don’t need to be in Dallas.  In fact, I think you could stretch it to where, and I apologize to Texans for having grown up in New Mexico, there might be only one or two states that I can think of that I would want to be stranded in less than Texas.  Get me out of here.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY

Why do I feel that way?  Well, for sure it starts with the very homogenous look to everything including the landscape.  I pretty much hate the 'architecture', and the climate isn’t exactly suited to ‘my’ clothes.  Besides, most of my toys do not need holsters.

DROP KICK ME JESUS THROUGH THE GOAL POST OF LIFE

There are no “Bert’s Burger Bowls” here.  I use Bert’s because Bert has just the one location world wide there in Santa Fe, NM.  Nothing here isn’t a chained something or the other sitting in a strip mall just off of a four-lane avenue, and those come with a traffic light signal every .8 of a mile. The UPS Store and Quizinos likely share a building with your insurance agent, and you can get it all done during the 30-minute lunch break.  I get it, really I do.   It’s all-good, too, and especially if your establishment links rotation includes places like Appleby’s, TGIF’s, and Chuckee Cheese.

CINDERELLA STORY……

So here I sit.  When I come to ‘nationals’ I crave the stress of the event and being in it.  Being ‘out’ of the mix early with not a consolation game to be found left me empty.  We did have a very nice senior dinner last night and that was packed with high energy and plenty of emotion so that was good.  Unfortunately, however, the most stressful thing has become something that I have done through the years but only came to really hate just this year.  That thing is being the guy with the singular and lonely task of proctoring and administering final college exams to some of the players here in Dallas.  What a daily stress generator, almost nightmare that has been.

HOT FOR TEACHER

Every professor has his or her own way of exam-away-from-home procedure operation that ensures the highest level of security.  They all are guarding the integrity of the exam, and against cheating or unfair practices.  I respect those things and want that outcome as well. All I can say is that I am doing the best I can to be each and every one of their (excuse me) 'bitch' on the road on this deal.

I had to go in before we left and show my ID to one suspicious professor.  I have faxed, emailed, Fed Exed and phoned.  Did the fax really go through?  Ohmigod.   The kid’s grade (future?! Argh) depends on me and all this weird little technology that I am supposedly in charge of and orchestrating.  Anyone who knows me knows that as hard as I might try or as well as I might actually do, this scenario does not describe the ideal situation for the future advancement of college students in general.  I had more than 20 of these exams to get done, and in fact there are still, here on Friday, a couple of loose ends undone.

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING?

So then I’ve gotten a few of the teachers that might think I’m some kind of fancy coach who is just running rampant through and over the educational system, trying to get preferential treatment and priority for his ‘athletes’ by allowing them to take a test away from the classroom and in 'unsanitary' test conditions or whatever. 

On the other side of the coin there are the very clever ones who know that we are ‘just’ a club, and are quick to point out that in effect I (Flip Naumburg) am nobody, and I don’t work for the school, etc., and why should I be allowed to proctor anything, especially their precious exam.  Then I must jump a little higher to get through the very important hoops. 

It was interesting to me that the most demanding of all the ones I dealt with this year was a man who teaches Philosophy. Maybe he has had tenure for a while or something. At any rate I didn't find his approach to the whole process the least bit philosophical. What is up with that, and it wouldn't have been that way with any of my college philosophy professors.

Some of the Teachers, Professors, Associates, etc. that I worked with were supportive and wrote "Go Rams" on the emails and stuff like that. The world really does take and use all kinds of people.

THE HATER AND BEYOND

After reading all that I just wrote here on Day Four I say get me the hell out of here before I become the ‘complete’ cynic. Perhaps it is aleady a bit late for that.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

IT NEVER WAS A PARTY

CHAPMAN  14 -  CSU  9  -  MCLA QUARTERFINALS

The party is over.  Actually it never was a party in 2008.  We lost to the Chapman Panthers last night.  The score was 14-9, and by the time I got home (very late after dinner, etc.) I had nothing left to say except that they (Chapman) were simply better than we were.

We were never really in the game as it were but we got close a couple of times, including 11-8 pretty late, but then the Panthers crammed a couple in on both occasions and ultimately they did to us exactly what we have done to so many others over the years at this tournament, and that is put the lesser team away, as in say good night, Gracie.  However, we never stopped.  We never quit.  The kids never thought they were out of it.  They had stronger faith than the head coach did.  They were awesome and so was their effort.

NEVER SAY NEVER

One thing for me is for sure, and that is I do not want to come back here with the kind of ‘long odds’ we had this year.  We need to get our team and our caliber to a higher level.  We were in great shape/condition this year.  They worked hard, loved each other, and got better, but the truth is that we need to become bigger, stronger, faster, and indeed more talented as a team to compete here.  I guess I need to sit down and think about what to do with all that.

I LOVE MY WIFE

I almost felt worse last night for my wife, Ada, than I did for me.  Poor girl was crushed by our defeat.  There were many tears all around the tables at dinner.  I feel bad for the seniors who tried so hard to refuse to lose.  For me, however, I have no regrets, really I don’t.  I will not spend the summer beating myself up this year because of what happened in our final game of the year.  Last year was more difficult to take somehow and ultimately I suppose I was resigned to the finger of fate that fell on us last night way before the final deal got done.  My struggles with the ‘finality’ emotion happened quite a long time ago when I knew that we needed something more that, in this year of 2008, we were not going to have or get.  After that I just worked to ameliorate as much as I could.

BE ALL YOU CAN BE

I truly believe we gave our best and got the best from this team.  It just happened to not be good enough this time.  As stated I have no regrets, just disappointment in my heart.  Somehow it seemed like these kids should have earned more for their efforts, but I have no complaints about last night.  Chapman was a little better and they also appear to be very much on a mission.  Maybe that was part of our burden.  It was hard for us this year because our mission was mostly just to find out who we were after so many changes to the roster, etc.  Chapman already knew what kind of talented team they had going into the year.  Now they are riding the wave of some very good momentum and are headed to the semi-finals.  As much as I like BYU’s chances here I wouldn’t rule out the Panthers.  I do think those will be the two in the finals on Saturday, but what the Hell do I know?

SENIOR DAY

Tonight we will have a team dinner at a local establishment.  I will try to make it a tribute to our seniors and am glad to have a public forum to address and encourage these six wonderful young men that will be moving on to the next ‘phase’ of their lives.  By the way, in many ways it is often harder to lose the parents when the kid goes.  They (parents) always say that won’t be the case, but of course it always somewhat is because it can never be the same when your son is no longer playing. 

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

AND THEN THERE WERE EIGHT

CSU 16  - VIRGINIA TECH  7

MCLA FIRST ROUND – DALLAS, TX

The weather held off nicely.  It started to rain only as the game ended.

GREAT COACHING?

So all week we/I talked to the team about how we could not win if we didn’t bring the energy right away and score a few early goals and on and on from that starting place.  Well, the truth is that that totally did not happen, so it is safe to say that it wasn’t just ‘my’ game plan that made the difference tonight in our 16-7 ‘dispatching’ of Virginia Tech in the MCLA first rounder.  We got the job done, but it certainly was not exactly my script.

SOMEONE SAID IT WAS A “TALE OF TWO QUARTERS”

Metaphorically we were two teams tonight.  We were the team that gave up a couple of ‘cheap’ goals to the opposition with a couple of early breakdowns.  We were the team that couldn’t penetrate the Hokie defense and finish in the first quarter.  We were the team that trailed 3-0 after one and after being pretty much outplayed for most of that entire first stanza, and we weren’t bursting with all that energy I had been taking about either.

Then, we suddenly became the team that outscored the Hokies 8-0 in the second quarter to take an 8-3 lead at halftime.  At the break I very much talked about those ‘two’ teams we are capable of being, and in fact, which one were they going to choose to be.  When we looked bad we didn’t look so good, but when we looked good tonight we looked very, very good, almost like a team capable of competing with any and all the teams that are here. 

I guess that’s why we are here.  That is, we are here to exactly find out how good we are.  I love the challenge and opportunities of a 16-team, four-round tournament.  Here we go. Let's see if we can make it through DAY TWO.

MORE ON BEING MORE

In fact we had that 8-0 run in the second, and later we also scored the last 7 goals of the game after the Hokies came out strong in the third quarter to pull within 9-7, a place where they totally had a new ‘look’ at the game.  This came after we had done some good work to make it (game) appear to be far off on the horizon for them and for quite a period of time there in the middle of the game.  Lacrosse can often be a game of goal runs, though, that is for sure, and I know this.   I also didn’t for one minute think that the Hokies would ‘go away’ once we seemingly took charge of things in our very productive second quarter.  I knew they had talent and no quit as well.  However, we also put together the 7-goal run to finish things off, and that was in fact sort of the rubber stamp on the proceedings for this night.  I think it is a fair assessment to say that we wore Tech down late.

BREAK IT UP

We had some defensive breakdowns that led to Hokie goals, especially the first two, and I do not think we can afford too many of those tomorrow against a very fine, #2 seeded Chapman Panther team.  I know this team we will play is very good, and again, be careful what you wish for, but at the end of the day I very much have exactly what I wished for when the day began, and that was the chance to play Chapman in round #2. 

MAKE ANOTHER PLAN STAN

I wanted to have a full team meeting to game plan for tomorrow, but I am too tired, and if I am too all in to do it I can only imagine how tired the team is.  I do want very much to put together some kind of educated plan for the Panthers.

GET IT BACK UP OR 'GO HOME'

Tonight was tough, but I still feel like we have the team, the time, and the energy to recover and get ready to go hard again tomorrow.  We have played Chapman before, but it was certainly not this team that they have here. We have never been looking up at Chapman as it were, with thoughts of an upset, but that is exactly where we are now.

SEE WHAT TOMORROW CAN BRING

I am tired, so much so that I cannot get too far into the game and a summary of it right now.  I will try to write more about the game itself tomorrow.  At the same time I am far more concerned with trying to get us rested and also properly prepared for the next challenge that is now very much at hand.  Tomorrow is also a 7:00 game.  I liked that today and I’m glad it is the same tomorrow.  I guess I hope we are not on the same ‘tilted’ field that we played on tonight.  It definitely was sloped and almost all the goals for both teams were scored on one side of the field (the one going downhill)

Next Entry | Previous Entry