June-Aug '02 Journal

Wednesday, September 10, 2002

The much-needed night of rain last night was followed by a day today that was mostly gloomy, yet universally welcomed here in this neck of the woods. I was in my "front yard" a few minutes ago, surveying all that I am fortunate enough to see. The gray day was disappearing under a soft blanket of night. The city lights of Fort Collins twinkled below, spreading, and becoming brighter as each second passed. The air smelled wet, and good. A cool breeze stirred, and I got my first whiff of the cold weather to come. For once I almost relished the aroma. For the first time since I got here to Northern Colorado just over 6 years ago I liked it when the initial sense of winter came to me. It did not send the shiver of dread down my body that it had the six times before. I think there are a lot of reasons why. Certainly Underarmour type underwear and learning the fine art of layering, along with always preparing for sudden changes in weather are part of it, but I hope it is more. Maybe, finally, after 50 years, I am at a time and in a place in my life that makes each season seem just about right. I no longer feel the need to try and impose my will on Mother Nature. It can be whatever She wants.

As a coach I feel renewed, and excited to build a "Pyramid of success" for this team. We begin the Mission Friday. It is not just fall ball anymore. Before, the thought of starting the "real" season (in my mind) this early would worry me as a recipe for potential burnout. I no longer fear the pitfalls of the changes that will and must happen to this and every team as it goes along. I have a vision for this team, and somehow, a nine-month long season sounds really good to me right now. I think these players truly love to play.

>From a coaching standpoint I am a content. I am much clearer about the things that I want from a (this) team than I have been in a long time. That alone should make me better able to coach. I am not banking on their ability to see everything my way. I am banking on our ability to build something we all understand and believe in.

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Working on basic fundamentals must build skills and teach as well. It must do both. If a lacrosse "fundamental" doesn't teach you how to do something fundamentally better in a game, then this particular fundamental is, to me, fundamentally useless. I feel confident right now that with this team I will be able to recognize the things that work for us, and hopefully the ones that don't, too. Fundamentals are big with me, because, of course, they have "fun" built right in. I'm not sure the players always get the "fun" part, but hopefully the process of improvement is fun more often than not in "my system".

Anyway, fundamentals build skills. Trust evolves from players believing in and understanding each other's abilities. When skill and trust are connected by communication, it will manifest itself in the simple, but often elusive intangible, which is the cliché, CHEMISTRY. Whatever that ultimately really is, I want it. I have always wanted it, but perhaps too often I have waited for it to come to me, or to just show up at some magical moment. I know now that I always need to have a vision, and in order to see it I have to create it. It will not show itself without work. I must at times use some strange components. It's all combined in a certain way, and in specific or unspecific amounts. You never know. At least I don't. I have established here in print many times that I do not project the future very well, but I can be Hell on "now". I must create the compound. I must find the right catalysts. My "lab" at this moment is fall ball. Lacrosse and this kind of chemistry are made for one another.

I write about what I see. I do not create a fantasy, and then try to make it come true. To my way of thinking, true goals evolve from the perception of possibility. My focus is to see the possibilities.

I got totally pumped up watching us play last Friday, It was not because of potential pre-season All Americans , because the ones that might be weren't actually looking the part. The ones nobody knows about were out there looking mighty okay for early September in terms of how they played, and more importantly, in terms of how they were collectively thinking.

Tomorrow is September 11. Millions of people will together reflect upon the significance of "Ground Zero" and the 365 days that have gone by since those two words joined our everyday language. I believe it is always important to know where you came from. I figure that the things you saw along the way will help illuminate the path to where you are going.

I think the origin of Ground Zero has something to do with being the place where something very powerful originates. I know my world is small, but if this is the case, then my hope is that this Friday will be a Ground Zero for a bunch of Lacrosse Yahoos here at Colorado State University.

Saturday, September 7, 2002

We have had 3 pre-season scrimmages so far. I even threw in a drill or two before they played. They have been about as demanding as "non-practices" could be in my program. There were probably 40 playing out there yesterday on an awesome pre-fall kind of afternoon. We have one more of these informals before the meeting on Thursday, and the official start on Friday next.

I think I have made it clear in these few sessions that I want to do things at a very rapid pace at all times, and for now that is enough message from me. In general, I do not like to "stop" practice and run sprints. I want to see them run various types of drills with passion and to go hard any time there is a ball involved. I like to get a lot of the conditioning done within the intensity of practicing the game. The more they can buy into the concept of work being fun, the faster we will progress. I want practice to most always have a game type of intensity. In many ways I want the most pressure that players on this team feel, either individually or collectively, is the intensity of me in practice every day. It is simply fact that you do reflect in games the attitude with which you practice. Fortunately for me, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out these kinds of things.

One of my alumni, and you know who you are, has absconded one of our young guns. They drove to L.A. to see our beloved Rams play the mighty UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl. I know this from a message Alumni Boy left on my machine, and it came in at about 7:00 a.m. I am thinking he hadn’t just gotten up to get an early start on the day as he was leaving Vegas.. I like the bonding thing, but this does frighten me, as I have seen said alumnus turn a perfectly good former High School All American attackman into an ordinary hung over loser in less than two days. Anyway, GO RAMS.

Saturday, August 31, 2002

On Wednesday I sent an e-mail announcing that we would have an "informal" practice and scrimmage on Friday afternoon. I knew a bunch of guys would come out, but to my astonishment there were more than 35. A few graduates were there, and they won’t be playing when it counts, but even so the number seemed absolutely huge. In a way it was scary, because remember, I am the "Lone Coach". There is no way that everyone (team ‘02-’03) was there, yet there was a hoard.

What I did was set up a short field, so the back and forth would not render everyone, and therefore the entire scrimmage useless. We played with a three-second "rule", three seconds being the longest a player could carry the ball. I will likely do a lot of this sort of thing. I made a larger crease outside the goal crease, instead of a "restraining box". A team had to move the ball inside this outer crease within 30 seconds of having the ball. It was fun for them, I think, and actually worked well for me, too, allowing me to see a lot. Even though it was 10 vs. 10, it had a "Chumash" feel to it. The pace was quick, the way I want us to play all the time. They played for most of 2 hours. I am going to get some decent sessions for evaluation before we even officially start. Yeah, baby!

EVALUATING A NON-PRACTICE

With so many out to play ball on a lovely late summer’s afternoon, it became clearer than ever to me that I do not want to have a team of 45-50 players. That is just too many. With a group that size there are too many cracks for things to slip through, too many variables. I’m getting too old of course, but I also want to work more with and spend more time shaping the "core" of this team. I want to spend less time developing a J.V. than I have in the past. There is lots of "family" on a huge team, but it never seems to translate into making us deeper. The extra 15 or so players come and go. They are not "core"

One of the first things I noticed yesterday was a reminder of what we won’t have this coming year. Davis and Priebe were there, and scoring goals at will. Since these two have graduated, and taken with them their ability to create instant offense, it is clear that this year we will have to truly play team offense, and to play offense as a team. Scoring goals at past rates will be a challenge I know, but it is one I look forward to.

I do not want us to rely on specific individuals. I have really never liked the modern style of play where you are always looking to settle the ball and go after the almighty match-up that you want. I want us to break down the other defense. I want us to pressure their goal. I want us to rely on one another and what we do as a unit at all times. If one player gets hot or whatever, then let’s ride him like a pony, but let’s never "wait" for certain people to do things. Let’s create an environment where, when it becomes a player’s time, he will have the opportunity. Opportunity + Conversion = Playing Time. O + C = PT

I have been thinking about these offensive realities, and the hopefully logical changes to come all summer. I am taking a little different approach to "attacking" the opponent's goal. I am trying to increase our chances of "finishing" a given sequence without worrying about personnel or the individual scoring talents and capabilities of this player or that one. Scorers will always score. I want to get important goals from lots of different people.

Alex the Goalie and I are working on the whole defense, sort of from square one. We are also remodeling Alex the goalie a bit as well. We have had some good sessions already, and yesterday’s scrimmage was excellent for him. He was left "naked" a few times by the defense, but I suppose it is a bit early to expect us to be playing good "team defense" yet. Too bad. I expect it anyway.

I have been talking lately about the John Wooden "Pyramid of Success", and though I don’t spend a lot of time on how players should put on their socks, as the old coach did, I do intend to build a strong fundamental base with this team.

It looks like the Las Vegas tournament this year is going to have 16 teams. Maybe it will really be the "Best of the West" tournament after all.

As I write I am watching the CSU vs. CU football game. God bless you, Sonny Lubick, I have gotten to be a very rabid CSU football fan. They are fun to watch. I love the QB from my old home town, SB, too. Go Rams.

They just hung on to beat the Buffs (ranked #6) 19-14. Great game.

Earlier that summer:...:....:

Thursday, June 13, 2002

The first CSU High Altitude Camp went pretty well. We probably had it too early in June, and the numbers included mostly kids from the Fort, but that was fine with me. I was glad to have the numbers we had, which was about 90. This gave me a really good feel of what it might take to do a camp for pretty much any number in the future, without having to find things out "the hard way" this year. Ninety is easy. I think most all of them had a great time, and I’m thinking that in spite of our obvious lack of big name coaches or players imported from the east, they all learned something about lacrosse as well. My greatest hope is that they learned some lacrosse and a little something about family and being a part of a team as well.

Conceiving the camp was interesting because I had always wanted to do a camp for 100 or more, and in fact, didn’t want to do one for less than 100. I always wanted to have an overnight camp, too, and I never had. Also, I never went to coach or observe one of these modern lacrosse camps to see how they do stuff. The last big camp I was part of was outside Philly when I was 10 or 11, and it was a football/baseball kind of camp. As June 4 got closer, I wondered if I had any idea about what the hell I was doing after all. I decided that my plan of basic organizational patterns mixed with adapting on the fly would work fine as long as enough of the right people like Kale and Jaybird were in the right places and doing the good things that they do. I think I was right, but I also feel like I was rewarded in new ways, because having players like Matt Hamm and Josh Loose take the kids that had never played under their wing was great. To see these two work with the new players, passing on their knowledge and passion for the game was a bonus, and made those particular kids really feel like this camp was there for them too, and not just for the ones who were already "good" players.

We worked in different age groups at times, and we worked and played all together, too. It was awesome to see Chumash (3 on 3 and 4 on 4 lacrosse) games where a Mike Napolilli or a Kale Nelson is feeding little (11 year-old) Jake Sutherland for an overtime goal and the win. Watching different levels competing hard and having fun while playing on the same field at the same time warms me, and, in a (family) way, defines the game for me.

I don’t see how they run camps without something like Chumash, a game that breaks down lacrosse, and teaches while it plays.

We had two interesting sections. We had an afternoon of "guest specialists" talking about different parts of the game broken down. We also had an afternoon with just competitions, like fastest shot, most accurate, etc. These were both low-key, but I think everyone liked the pace and rhythm of those days. There was a long mid-day break each day, too, which also seemed popular. The camp was not in any way, shape or form militaristic in its approach. Our methods might be considered somehow "antidisestablishmentarian".

I tried to spend some time personally with each age group during the camp. They all heard me and saw me at one time or another during our time on the field. They saw me not in the dorm (Thanks, Kale, Phil, Ike, et al), and I could only stomach the cafeteria "food" twice, but most of them had at least one face to face with me. I learned only about 8 names, but I did apologize for that. I think they all got to know me a little. I show a lot of me over 4 days.

I was surprised at how most of our camp coaches from the "outside" only seemed interested in working with the best high school players. That is what is great about mostly staffing the camp mostly with our CSU players. Each group of campers, no matter what age or skill level, had a few players that were there and happy to be working with them throughout the camp. I think all CSU team members in the future should make the supreme effort to be a part of the camp staff. Teaching is a great way to learn.

One thing I didn’t want this camp to be was elite in any way. I truly believe that great teams must be comprised of many roles rolled into one roll. Stars are simply not enough, but of course you need some. Role players shine best when there are stars to keep things lit, and it works both ways. Maybe you can have too many stars, but you can never have too many "role" players. It's all in the balance...........

I would not be frightened by a performance survey on this camp, whether it be filled out by player, parent, or staffer who had been here. In fact, I would love to see the answers. Perhaps this is not the best way to measure what happened at the camp, but you gotta start somewhere.

Friday, June 14, 2002

I worked on scheduling for CSU lacrosse 2003 before the camp. The plan is to have a trip to Arizona in mid-February, and to go to Florida for spring break 2003. Nobody wants to schedule just yet, but everyone involved at least knows my intentions. At any rate, I am tired of just sitting here writing about how much the weather sucks while we aren’t playing in February. I want to go someplace early in the season where we can have not just games, but hopefully a few "normal" practices as well. By normal I mean without things like frostbite and broken windows to deal with.

In and around the time of the camp I did the closest thing I do to recruiting. I mostly do not recruit until a kid shows interest. Other coaches can’t understand why I don’t go to all the high school games around the state and talk to the kids. For one thing I need balance in my life, and for another, I am only interested in players that already think that CSU might be a good fit for them. The only thing I ever promise here is that they will get opportunity. Players that need to be recruited usually expect some kind of financial "aid" for choosing that school. I want kids that understand the commitment involved here, both financially and spiritually. Nothing is given here. You have to come and earn it. I don’t want the responsibility of offering guarantees to 18 year-olds.

I chased down and called a kid (home in Massachusetts for the summer) that I know is at CSU. I know he could help us, and I think he really wants to play, but didn’t last year as a freshman. I called him because I thought of his athletic ability, and that it could be an asset to our 2003 team. I wanted to make sure he still had the passion for the game before I told him what I was thinking. I don’t know if he will come out or not, but if he does not, it won’t be because he didn’t get a sign from me.

I love getting players that had gone east to play "somewhere", and for whatever reason decide to come home to Colorado. Often they have friends that play here already. It would appear that we have one or two of those coming in next year. Players from the program past or present are often my best recruiters anyway.

I forever remain convinced that it is about the Program, and never simply the players and coaches who are the make-up of a given team.

Saturday, June 15, 2002

I am thinking a lot about next year’s team in a conceptual way right now. I guess I can never stop coaching or at least preparing to coach.

Anymore, at our level of lacrosse, you either give concussions or you get them. Sometimes it is a little of both. One needs to always be aware of where one is going and the potential perils that can be lurking somewhere if you take a certain path. Sometimes it is best to just "run for your life", and not always just rumble Hell-bent toward the "Gauntlet". Given the choice of giving or getting a concussion, I vote for dishing it out. What I really want though, is a team that is tough, skilled, and conditioned; pretty much in that order. Depth is always a key, too, and we didn’t have enough of that in ’02.

The center of the field in front of the goal has become a war zone in lacrosse. Team defenses are getting really good. I relish the offensive challenge of getting inside. It is exciting for me and for a team. On the defensive side of things, I love defining an area as "our house" with a "You can’t come in here" attitude. I like the process of deciding what we will permit and what we will not on defense, and how it changes with each new year with teams having different characteristics. I like the challenges of this "era" of lacrosse very much.

One focus for me this coming year will be to make sure that we have specific mind sets at certain crucial points in a game, or even practice, for that matter. In 2002 we had a few bad tendencies. One of these was that we often did not finish great scoring chances or opportunities with a whistle and a striped shirt guy running toward the net with his hands raised (goal!). Finishing is everything, or the play is nothing. Maybe sometimes it becomes even worse than "nothing" after you don’t finish. This did hurt us at times in games, but worse than that it showed itself as a trait far too often in practice. You do play the way you practice in so many ways.

Another thing that happened too much was what took place after we scored a big goal at a big moment in a game. All too often we would let the other team answer right away with a goal of their own. This is truly part of the team’s mental approach within a game. PAY ATTENTION is my "stickie note" to myself on this one. I believe that I need to do a better job at framing some mental pictures for the team in order to bring about these changes that I want. This year if "they" want to answer our goal, I want it to be accompanied by a "bill" and extensive long distance "charges".

I am already obsessing on points of emphasis or places I want us to improve. These are things that CAN be controlled by the approach you take as a coach and as a player.

I also want many things. I may or may not get any of them. I want more depth. I want more speed and skill, especially on Long Stick Middie. I want more Short Stick Middies that love to play defense and think like a dog. I would like more competition at the goalie position. I actually miss having the 2-goalie system we used to employ because we had in effect two "starters". I want some face-off people who can really work as a team to improve all year. Using long poles to face-off was kind of fun in 2002 in a desperate sort of way, but certainly not my dream come true. I still like the idea of Plonkey working on a few face-offs every game, but not 20 or more a game. I want to put him back down on Close Defense again, where he can create for us in so many more ways.

I believe that competing for playing time is an important part of the player development process. Hopefully Santa will bring me at least one surprise.

People (?) want to know who I project to play attack next year, and I think they think I am kidding when I say that I don’t even think that much about it. A couple of things do seem pretty sure. Since Harper was a star in 2002, there is a good shot that he will be one of them, but nobody has "inherited" the jobs made available when Napi and Davis finished their CSU careers last month in St. Louis. Auditions are open, and I think that should be pretty exciting. I want us to redefine what we do on attack as a unit anyway. The ones that can help take me where I want us to go are the ones who will become part of the rotation.

I am still waiting for the "contract" for next year from the team. I hope they do not think I am kidding.

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The following is a reprint of the welcome article I wrote for the Vail program this year. I guess I put it here, because I liked it. It took only about an hour to write. I didn't beat it death. It felt as if it wrote itself. Maybe I like it because I think it is a good representation of the way I go about writing:

Welcome to the "Vail, Eagle/Vail, Avon, Edwards Lacrosse Shootout", 2002 edition. This is the 30th annual summer lacrosse festival that we have put on. Research has revealed that the 30th anniversary is symbolized by the "Pearl". A pearl becomes a pearl because an oyster forms a lustrous shell around a nucleus of stuff that is irritating the oyster. If Vail is the oyster, then this lacrosse tournament is the irritant. The lustrous shell has become the entire Vail Valley, as places like Eagle Vail and Edwards have helped us find enough fields, and saved us from becoming extinct, victims of our own growth.

Every healthy oyster has a helper, a crustacean who lives within and helps it function. The pearl forms itself best with less stress. Pearl "farmers" know this, and so do tournament directors. There are a few very special people that really make this tournament happen. The work of these "helpers" often goes on all year, far beyond the eight, er nine, er ten days that we spend each summer enjoying the fact that lacrosse is being played high in the Rockies.

This will actually be our 25th year in Vail, after spending the first 5 in Aspen as the Colorado Invitational Lacrosse Tournament. We spent way too much time, money, and effort patting ourselves on the back five years ago at the "25th" anniversary, so in this bench mark year we want to simply acknowledge a few of the precious people who really make this tournament happen.

Connie Streich is more than our glue. She is our paper clip, our phone line, our e-mail coordinator, and pretty much anything you can think of administratively. She handles correspondence, advertising, travel arrangements, and vendors. She connects us. Connie is always stuck with the task of chasing down deadbeat teams, deadbeat sponsors, and deadbeat tournament Directors to keep everything flowing smoothly toward the first week in July. She does everything that is asked of her, and more. There is no way we could ever pay or thank her enough.

Jeff Phillips Strain has put together every program we have ever done for the Shootout, and we started doing them in 1982. Even those first low budget issues, so far from the computer graphics of today, had a simple elegance that always shined a light on our tournament image. He has always made us look good. His passion and feel for the game has annually showed itself by his choices of subjects to put on the program cover.

Liz Scott first came to Vail as a teenaged scorekeeper in the late eighties. She has grown up here, a "daughter" of the tournament. She is now very much a woman, and she still brings her skills to our staff every year because she still loves to be part of this "family". Liz knows stats and Liz knows how to run a lacrosse game table. A word to the wise: if she asks you for your ID or how to spell your name, you are going to want to accommodate her, because otherwise there will be no game for you.
Kate Drescher has brought her drive to the Shootout by creating the High School Girl’s division. We are grateful to keep current with this rapidly growing demographic. Paul Schearer and Pat Gartland work long hours to keep two fields spinning like tops in the High School boy’s Division. This tournament has become a very popular destination for high school all-star teams from around the country. There is always a long waiting list of teams trying to get in this event.

The Directors, Jim Soran, Flip Naumburg, David Soran, Brian O’Farrell, Michelle and Jeff Secor wish to express how thankful we are for these individuals, as well as many other "Dudes" and "Sub-Dudes" for this string of 30 pearls.

Footnote: In many ways this is the best team I have ever been on.

Wednesday, July 3, 2002

We are in the middle of the Vail Lacrosse Shootout. Eight days at eight thousand has gone haywire. It is virtually endless.. I am home to get Ada and Jordan to go back up. I have never left the tournament before. Wednesday is just a "grunt" day anyway, and there are no games as everything is turned '90 degrees' for the incoming "Elite Fest", so I am glad to be in the office and cutting into some of the workload which will greet me when I return home.

Fall ball is just a little over two months away. (Have you run today????? )Five CSU former and current players are in Australia playing in and around the World Games. The Rock-it Pocket Rock Stars (?) Shootout entry play their first game at 3:30 tomorrow in Eagle Vail. I am the "coach" We must win to get to Ford Field on the second day, the goal of every young lacrosse player in Vail.

When I do return home Monday I will have to get caught up in the office, endure tournament "withdrawal", and then get the knee scoped Thursday. It should be an interesting week.

Alex, Jared, Kale and I have been working on goalie stuff in Vail. Alex has had a session with Quint Kessinich, the great multi-all-American goalie from Hopkins. He is the goalie coach at Boys Latin in Baltimore, and does goalie camps as well. it was a lot of fun, and great for Alex to get a new perspective, too. Quint is a great teacher, and I like the way he "sees" the game. He is the "Quintessential" (used, but not yet by me) TV color commentator for the game of lacrosse. He must be, because they all use him.

Alex is so eager to get better. He must do the work, and find, each day or week , one thing that he does clearly better than the day or week before. Then he must maintain that level. Part of true improvement is keeping all the tools in the bag sharp for when you need them.

I would imagine that being a goalie is not unlike trying to be a major league hitter in baseball. Excellence incurs many failures, and that is the nature of the game. By the same token, I think that if you are in a groove or whatever, the ball can often appear bigger or slower, more controllable. As a goalie, sieve or savior, you must constantly strive to be mentally tough and fundamentally sound.

It is certainly firecracke hot, both on the Front Range, and in Vail, although it cools nicely and quickly in Vail when darkness suddenly comes. In the mountains it seems to get dark faster. Right now during the day in Vail the ash (fires of '02) laden air difuses the sun coming through the atmosphere, leaving only a transluscent glow, even with no cloud in the sky. There is no indication of the expected Rocky Mountain sky, usually so brilliantly blue.

My thoughts are with my "Second Dad", fighting the good fight in a Florida hospital. Hang in there, Bill.

Tuesday, July 16, 2002

The Vail Tournament was terrific from an organizational standpoint. Thiings progressed smoothly and almost without incident for eleven days, which leads me to believe that the 30 years of us doing it every year helped make it so. The core of the staff all know exactly what their roles are, how to keep the machine running in spite of whatever. The things I continue to learn more about are how to know the difference between the things that I can control and the things I can't, and how to deal with each at hectic moments as well as in pre-planning or reflection. Matt Peterson had a hat made up a few years back. It said, "Without Staff it is just a pick-up game". Corny, but it does kind of sum things up..

I got tossed out of the gator (fancy golf cart) and landed somewhere around MY FACE. My gratitude goes out to Jeff Payton of Regis Jesuit High School for driving and demonstrating to me that I could survive such a flop at fifty. When we refer to Vail 2002, it will be like, "Oh yeah, that be the year of the gator Flip". In the old days, the staff feared me, and they were given names like "The Red Army" (post Russian trip), or "Hitler Youth" (I swear I did not make them salute), and "Branch Flipidians" (was Waco that long ago?). This is how we knew what year it might have been. It has evolved (deteriorated) to, "Was that the year it snowed and Flip had knee surgery, or was that the year he broke his thumb and fell out of the raft?"

Our CSU based Elite team won the first game and that insured us of a good seed in 2003. I will try to put together a tighter team next year. There is opportunity for 2003. We got worse over 4 days, and that wasn't that much fun. That alcohol poisoning can really affect the old 'game'. I certainly don't mind the 8:00 a.m. Game, whereas "others" prefer the 3:30 start.

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While I was in Vail I was made aware of an incident that took plce during the high school tournament that reaffirmed a strong pair of rules I have for this program. I constantly preach "family" as a big part of our team, and this includes the "extended" one, like the parents, etc. of players. I love when player's parents and family travel with us. Most come to our home or Denver games whenever possible. Some parents have followed us almost like groupies, seizing a chance to be very involved with their sons.

I do have a very strong line that I draw when it comes to the extended part of the family, however. First, they must never stay in the same hotel as the team when we travel, and second, they must let go. They are not permitted to politic with me for or about their son. When boy becomes part of the "Program", parent must trust me. If they cannot accept this "sacred rule", I am not interested, even if the kid is capable of having a John Elway-type impact on our team.

I must be and feel free to bring along players and groups of players. College kids are learning about things more profound than how to get more playing time, or even what is perceived as "fair". I take very seriously my philosophical responsibility as a coach. I truly believe that "In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". I believe that everything reflects its own evolution in a very powerful way.

I guess when I look at the team dynamic, and the individual within it, the team becomes in my eyes, MY TEAM. I must be free to build it my way. I can cut boards for my project (old woodworker guy), and I can begin to "craft" a table or a team from measured concepts, even though it is very difficult to visualize the finished product early in the process. I do not claim to have always been perfect, and I never had a project turn out exactly like the original drawing, but I know that when I get in the most trouble as a craftsman or a coach, is when I don't trust the concepts I know to be the most trustworthy.

The last thing that I ever want is a parent to be something that I need to think about. While it is never really my goal to be a parent to a player, it is always my mission for the program to have a profound effect on his life

I CAN'T WAIT TO COACH

I always have a master plan of sorts, but I will only get engaged to it. I will never marry it. I trust my instincts and my ability to change on the fly. This is how I work. My plan is allowed to change. It is built to allow for change. The process always evolves from year to year, from team to team, and even at times from minute to minute. I know this year will have many "on the fly" moments. Many things simply are not set in stone. I must admit that this excites me. It simplifies what I am looking to see. This year, one of the FIRST things I want us to do is create our own image. Then I want to spend the year living up to it.

I believe in a few things to the core of my being. They don't change over the years, but they must evolve in the way I teach it or how we actually use something as a team. Moving to the ball, for example, is a thing I believe, and have believed since the first time Bob Scott told me to do it in one of his "Bibles" from the '70's.. The way that I teach and how to use it evolve, thankfully. My belief in what this simple concept can bring your team is without limit.

I read his bible before I played a game in college, every time. As a player I was very ritualistic. What I ate, how long before the game I ate it, and how many hours I slept were keys for me to turn myself on. I jumped on the trampoline, and did breathing and eye stretching exercises before games. I always stood on my head before I played. I drank smoothies all the time, and brought bananas to games, for which I took substantial grief. As a coach, other than the bottled water I must carry, I am not.that compulsive. I still go for a mental state, though. I wish I could better show players how this type of "spiritual" process can make a difference in the way they perform. I know it did for me. Nowadays everyone wants a magic pill or a magic pocket. I say you make your own magic. The Rock-it Pocket can help, of course....

It has been quite a couple of weeks for me, ranging from Vail preparation and execution to arthroscopic left knee surgery last Thursday. The wide range of this personal emotional salad was seasoned with real life economic issues that make me no different from most everyone else in these economically "challenged" times. This journal shall, however, remain woven from a spool of lacrosse yarn.

Even though the summer slows the flow of lacrosse traffic in my life, I never seem to be in a lax-free zone. I talk to, e-mail, or see CSU lax players pretty much every day

Team USA beat the Canadians down under for the "World Championship". Our boys will be home soon from the USA West team.

Friday, August 2, 2002
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I am looking at 2002-2003 as one big season, and not two separate but unequal ones. Fall ball and the "real" spring season, have in the past, been separated by philosophy and expectations, as well as by winter. My plan is to redefine fall ball in hopes of building a bridge to the spring. Fall will retain a partial "country club atmosphere", but I intend to make it very clear, in September and October, that many things not yet learned must be imperatively grasped by the time spring first peeks over the frozen tundra of our practice field.

Because so many things can and do change from one semester to the next, the attempt to construct the spring foundation in September became less useful and more frustrating at some point, because it always seemed like I had to start over after the new year anyway. Consequently, I began to lower my expectations for team accomplishment in October. I moved away from trying to build anything besides a little "Family" in the fall. I have now reached the point, however, where I am tired of feeling behind all the time in terms of spring practice. Due to Arctic weather conditions in February and March in Northern Colorado, dovetailed with a lack of facilities and option$ for our program, I always feel like we start out behind. I am hoping that doing a little more in the fall will help change that trend.

I want to find out right away who is going to be our "core" group of players. I am going to nurture a little less and demand a little more. Who does not shy away from the highest level of competition? Who is going to make a difference every day in practice?

As usual, we will have a balance of freshmen through seniors. We lose several good players to graduation each year. The players here were pretty much all NOT heavily recruited by me for the most part, yet most were recruited somewhere, and, for whatever reason, they are here. They have experience and skills. I aim to find out as quickly as possible which players really came here to play. I am looking for the type of player and the type of person who regularly sets goals for himself and for the team.

Politics will shape our future less as I see myself as more of a dictator this year than the equal opportunity coach that I was at times last year. I see and talk to players on the phone every day, which gives me ample opportunity to expound on the upcoming team and season. Teachin' and preachin' is pretty much how I see this fall, and I'm warming up for it already.

As we approach the famed "Dog Days" of August we remain mired in the extended High Plains drought here in Colorado. The mid-day air is scorching, as if too hot to touch, and it feels that way every day right now. Any open flame puts fear in the heart of a Coloradoan these days. Everyone I talk to from around the country is sure to ask if I have been affected by any of the many fires we have had around the state recently

Our first team meeting is six weeks from yesterday. It is like a Ground ‘Dog Day’ today, Groundhog day turned upside down , as hot now as it might be cold on Feb 2. I stepped out to check for my shadow, but it's too bright and too hot for a shadow to survive. There must be a sign in there somewhere. If I only I could read those cosmic "road" signs better. At any rate, I am personally heated up inside and out over the prospects of having still 6 more weeks of summer.

I like this time of the year. It is relatively stress-free. Everybody is on vacation. There are no holidays and fewer birthdays and anniversaries. In sports there is Major League Baseball and Major League Lacrosse and that’s about it unless you like the WNBA, and I don’t.. Wait, I think Arena football playoffs are about to begin I think. Pigskin track meets. The only thing that will hit you in that game is the wall..

I know it makes me sound old fashioned, and old, but to me, it doesn't get much more compelling in sports than a great stretch run of a tight baseball pennant race, even if the Phillies are toiling inside a generation of mediocrity (organization sucks), umpteen games out for the umpteenth straight year. It looks like the American League West and the National League West could both be interesting to watch.. The St. Louis soap opera should be fascinating, and the wild card races are always fun. One year it would be cool to see a wild-card baseball team get on a roll. It happens in the NFL, but not so much in MLB. As the summer wears on, I'm sure I will be regularly falling asleep during the seventh inning stretch from Anaheim or whatever. When all is said and the dust has settled, the World Series is looking like a rematch of last year, round two of the teams who spend the most money, the Snakes and the Yanks.

I am glad that I have six more weeks before we start up playing. I am studying tapes and thinking about how this next team will come together, and how our player pool might reflect who I want us to be. Remember, this year image IS everything. I do not care how we are perceived, only how we perceive ourselves. The rest will take care of itself.

I am highly motivated by the image burned (frozen?) in my brain of all the WCLL teams in the stands wildly rooting for Sonoma State, and against us in St. Louis this past May.

The pre-season meeting on September 12 will be followed by our first practice on, and by chance, Friday the thirteenth. The meeting should be interesting. It always is. We have only a handful of practices before our first tournament on September 21.. The new faces will be plentiful.

My major goal is to finally have a team here that actually over-achieves, instead of one that almost or never quite reaches its potential. I see my biggest challenge as a coach this year as trying to create an environment conducive to both hard work and having fun. In my perfect world, one could not tell one from the other.

Thursday, August 15, 2002

School time is near. All roads lead to the Fort. They come by planes, trains (probably not), and automobiles. By August 25th most all CSU’ers wil be here. I have never felt so certain about my fall priorities. Therefore, I just can’t wait to get going. And consequently, everyone that comes within earshot of me is getting a speech, (lately it has been Joe). If no one is handy, I resort to my e-coach identity where I send a "team e-mail" letting some or all of them know exactly what is on my mind.

Because I plan on "remodeling" the fall season, it has gotten my coaching creative juices flowing. I’m ready to build again. All I need is my lumber……. Wait, I need to slow down. The delivery truck won't be here until September. We don’t start practice for a month.

How I teach the things I want them to know the most/best is, in my mind, extremely important right now. My most recent obsession has been trying to come up with some new ways to teach (reaffirm) the basics. The first three letters in fundamental are R-U-N, er F-U-N, after all. I am also working on ways of mixing in some simple changes that I have in mind. The "new" must become quickly familiar, while the "old" must seem somehow fresh. Either way, I want certain team things firmly "embedded" in their tiny little athletic brains as soon as possible.

This season this team must learn to "read" at the "college level", individually, collectively.

I will spend more time defining roles, with the expectation that someone or more than one will fill them up. I probably will not expect them to find their own roles as much as I have the past few years. I plan on doing some forceful "driving" this year. A maverick might find himself without a herd. I plan on starting a stampede at some point anyway.

We have lost our two leading scorers to graduation, and both of my assistant coaches have moved on, yet I haven’t been this excited in years. I will miss Jason so much. That is much more than just a coach thing. It is a "one of the young’uns leaving the nest" deals. Even so, I am brimming with confidence that I have a much better handle on how to approach this upcoming season than I ever had on the last one.

Offensively, I do not worry and wonder where our goal scoring might come from, as I might have in the past when losing top two scorers. Rather, I fully expect us to be resourceful and find new ways to find the net as a team. I think we have matured a lot as a program (long way still to go), and the player will step up, when it is his time. Time will indeed tell.

Defensively, we have a lot of people back, and perhaps a "new returner", Robi, who missed all last year due to injury. I am hoping that we have a solid foundation there. We need to evolve a great deal on defense. Most teams play the "Princeton" style of sliding defense now. We are not the novelty which helped make us dynamic for a few years. More than that teams have better ways to break it (defense) down now. Three years ago other teams dreaded it (the slide), now they tempt it, they want you to slide. It’s how they start their offense. We have to change, too. I want our defense to be versatile enough to handle varying styles of play.

I do worry about how much some players on our team worry about if we are getting new uniforms and helmets and things like that, but that is just part of it all, I guess. Besides, it IS important how you look. I get that. I just don’t want to spend $8000 on new uniforms just now. They don’t all understand that Rock-it Pocket is, in fact, me. I think they think it doesn’t hurt "me" when Rock-it Pocket sponsors CSU lax, because all these companies sponsor teams, etc., so it is no big deal for Rock-it Pocket. If they only knew……….

Several returning players are coming back after injury-plagued seasons. I hope they are making it a priority to make sure this season will be different.

Perhaps it is somewhat arrogant to say that we are coming off of a sub-par season when we came within 3 goals of winning a national championship, but that is how I feel. Perhaps it is also naïve to think we can stay at this level after losing so many to graduation this year, with more powerful leagues emerging in the USLIA, and with all the other Cal Poly’s of the world getting good, but I can’t help what I expect.

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

It’s like I’m all dressed up, but the party doesn’t start until next month. I’d like to put all this good energy into preparation, storing "nuts for winter" as it were. I wish I knew how to do that, how to somehow work on things in the fall that we can shrink and review later in a parking lot or re-visit in a gym with glass windows when it is 10 below, and not miss a beat of progress.

It’s also kind of a shame that we aren’t officially playing yet, because I feel like writing more these days, too, and I can’t write that much about something that isn’t actually happening. I can see where this might be a problem if I were trying to write a novel. I guess I write most and best from perception and train of thought, and not from inception and fantasy.

We had about 20 out for an informal workout Saturday. It was totally impromptu. I just went out to work with Alex (goalie) and a couple others, then, boom, it’s a lax party. This is a good sign. Everyone is excited to play. I’m sure I broke NCAA regulations (I was there working with them out of season), but that is one of the great things about our organization as opposed to the NCAA. Our USLIA has plenty of rules and regulations, just not stupid ones.

I hated our schedule so much last year that I have approached this year’s in a different, extremely aggressive way. I think the schedule and how it unfolds has a huge influence on the season. I did not want to just "give in" and be gracious, waiting for other coaches to decide or whatever, like I did last year. This year, I put down what I wanted on a 2003 calendar in June, and I’ve been pounding away ever since. I’m close to finishing the out-of-league and travel portion of the schedule. As schools get back in session I am getting more calls. "They" are starting to schedule 2003, and I am mostly done.

Everyone is buzzing about the fact that I am talking about getting the team down to a certain number of players. The players all use the dreaded three-letter word, C-U-T. I carefully avoid using this word whenever possible. Whatever you call it, it won’t be done in a conventional way where players go look for their names on a board on a certain day, followed by the rainbow range of emotions. No, it will be far more subtle than that. I prefer to think of the process as a redirection anyway, an evolution for person and team.

Either way, I have a "squad" number in my head that is a group size I think I can work well with. I have sworn off nurturing those with questionable dedication. I no longer have the inclination to continually encourage players who do not truly give to their teammates and the team. In distilled form, as a player on the CSU lacrosse team, you will not get more from me than you give anymore. I have high goals and limited time.

It looks like Chris Gemperline will be one of our assistants. He played on both CSU championship teams (‘99-’01) as a long pole. This is good news for me and for our team. He is the definition of a team player, and is one of those players who gets the most from his body and himself and he gives it all to the team with unselfish love.

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

I am very much looking forward to working with a few particular individuals this year. These are players that already have loads of talent, yet they burn to get better and to get more from themselves all the time. These two attributes together can make for an awesome combination. I am motivated, too because these players want to work with me. I can’t wait to watch them play and develop. There is no better time than fall for working in small groups or with just one.

As a coach, I can say nothing better about a player than that I love to watch him play, or that when he has the ball I feel calm; things like that.

There is a good "air" about this team that is about to blow my way. I get a good feeling in whatever sized group of CSU lacrosse players that I have found myself with lately. It is as if they are thinking about the right things, and there is no need to say every single thing out loud. I hope this strong "sensing" of one another becomes a trademark for this team. I want for this unit to somehow have a singular aura, or charisma, and that it is not simply a collection of different personalities fighting the fight together.

There will always be "brother struggles" within, and approval/disapproval of one another, but that is just part of family life. They do need to lighten up on judging other players’ girl friends. I’m not sure what’s up with all that. I know some of it is that they just want to "protect" one another. Personally, I have coached so many Neanderthals in the past that if a player is civilized enough to just have a girl friend, then that is a good sign for me.

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I am busy these days ordering CSU apparel, like game shorts, fall uniforms (not to be confused with the spring ones), sweats, tees, the works. I am actually quite amazed at how many people from outside the program want this stuff. I have reordered CSU hooded sweatshirts 3 times in less than a year.

I am totally redoing the web sites of both csulacrosse.com, and rock-itpocket.com. These have both been lengthy projects, and for the first time, each .com is being "mastered" by a different person, each a good fit in his and her way. I am trying to get things in place before the lacrosse season really fires up. I am grateful to have those who are getting to know the two separate web sites in place, and "Fred" is coming tomorrow to hopefully rescue my Mac, which I might have screwed up the other day while trying to "upgrade". It really is a shame that can I use only about 5% of my computer’s capabilities. God knows what the other 95% could do. I’m sure the same is true of my brain.

The computer has helped me as a coach in many ways. Just having almost every practice I’ve ever run as a document filed by date in a desktop folder on my computer or whatever is invaluable to me. I used the computer as a coaching tool way before I watched much video. Now, I use e-mail as a coaching aid for "talking" to players, and it also allows me to work within the university without having to always connect to somebody on the phone. Sending an e-mail gets me farther than a phone call almost every time. Besides, 12 different people at CSU must give the official okay before we can even use our own field on a certain date. I wonder sometimes what all these people really do over there. It is a wonder, and I suppose a testament to Alex’s persistence, that we ever got through all the red tape that allowed us to play at the football stadium last March. Anyway, they (CSU) are all about "group" e-mails, too.

I watch more lacrosse videos these days than I used to. I usually ride the stationary bike while "studying". I now have plenty of video on us and many of the teams that we play, too. However, I always end up logging many more miles watching videos on "how to do things right" or instructional videos than I ever do looking to scout trends in future opponents from past games with them, or even to evaluate us.

As I was driving through campus the other day, I could not help but notice, and was amused by how many people are actually connected to their cell phones at all times. It was just weird to see hundreds of kids walking on campus, completely oblivious to one another while straining to tune in to someone somewhere else. It presents an almost anti-social illustration of modern life. "Can you hear me now?"