Tuesday, May 21, 2002

I guess I have finally arrived mentally to the "off-season". I am ready to stop, though I am not quite yet done obsessing over the "Wooda, cooda, shoodas" of the 2002 season in general, and the final game, specifically.

Every year I sort of focus on keeping my "vintage" juices flowing during the summer by taking on some kind of fresh endeavor, aspiring specifically to make myself a better coach, and therefore, and by some strange osmosis, a better person (theory). Topics and methods in years past have included studying defensive videos every day while riding a stationary bike, writing a "book" on lacrosse, getting myself in top physical condition (a humorous thought now, but a sentimental memory for sure), and even totally getting away from it altogether. Planning the event and watching teams play at Vail (for 20 or so out of the 30 years) gets me going, too. One time I even spent all summer making "boards", where I posted information and displays to take to practice for players to read the next spring.

For a variety of reasons, this off season for me will include a strong theme of working with younger players in a variety of situations.

The first thing that I am excited about doing is our first full blown CSU lax camp in about two weeks. I have done lacrosse camps before, many of them in fact, but none this large, and none that I have looked at with the same excitement. This is part of the concept of building my "ideal" college lacrosse program here at CSU. It is my first "real" camp in my own mind. Even though most of the kids will be from Fort Collins, I have it in my plan that others from other places will come in the future, because, and as everyone knows, if you build it, they will come.

This has me all pumped up. Ultimately, the camp will help the program financially, and will hopefully begin to ease my "personal financial burden". It will be a permanent part of earning our keep as a program. We can begin to build another new tradition here, too, both for players here now who will learn by "teaching" in the camp, and also for others who might want to come play here at some future date or even in the fall. More than that, though, it is intense (for me) to think about designing each little part of the daily camp schedule, etc., and I am in the middle of that right now

I want our "High Altitude Lacrosse Camp" to compete with other camps in only one way. I want kids who come to this camp to later say (even though we have no famous instructors or big sponsors) that this was the most fun they ever had at a lacrosse camp, because learning and fun are on the same page of Flip’s Lacrosse book. This is perhaps why I look for passion as the thing I most want in a player anyway. When they love the game it’s easy to get them to work on stuff. When they think they are great, it basically can become a pain in the ass. People who really love the game know that they can never become good enough at it, no matter how long they play, or how great their stick might be.
-

Wednesday May 8, 2002- Saturday May 11, 2002:-National Championship in St. Louis

Tournament Information Web Site with complete tournament schedule is up
:
http://www.uslia.com/championship/2002tourney.shtml

Wednesday, May 1, 2002

I am going to do the May days chronologically from the beginning. The most recent entry is at the bottom.

DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

I wonder sometimes about my approach to them psychologically. If I want us to leave at a certain time, say 1:00, I might tell them we are leaving at any time between 12:15 and 12:45, but (and even though the truth sets you free) I would never say we are leaving at 1:00. I could never say we were leaving at 1:00 if we were actually leaving at 1:00. I know it sounds confusing, but it simply couldn't work for this team. Besides, my watch is always 15-20 minutes fast. Maybe the answer to everything is for me to put the "truth" on my watch, but that would be too much stress. I simply could not handle the pressure of having the actual time on my watch, so how can I possibly demand that they be sane and well adjusted either? Well, I'm certainly glad I got that straight.

THE BUSINESS AT HAND

We had a quick, crisp practice today. It was that way by design. The practice was well under two hours, but it felt like everyone was really there for each of the 100 or so minutes. As practice progressed the weather deteriorated, and it ended with me getting pelted by tiny ice particles during my "speech" at the end. It has since snowed about an inch near my house. We finished with ten minutes of full field scrimmage, and then we (most of us) went to watch the video of the BYU game from last Saturday night (It was my third time, and I promise I will get a haircut before St. Louis). I was pleased with the video session as well, because I think they saw on the tape exactly what I had hoped they would, which is that we can play a lot better. We made mistakes, and fortunately we didn't have to pay for some of them. After we got into the rhythym of the game, we made things happen all over the field, and we made all our own "luck".

You can't always hope that a game goes a certain way. You have to drive it there. Sometimes a game can feel like a demolition derby, and sometimes hopefully, for a moment in time, it becomes a country road and you're in a Porsche, speeding and taking in the scenery at the same time.

The phrase that keeps popping into my head is, "We are back in the game". Two weeks ago I was unsure of where we were, and now I think we are headed in a direction that can lead us to being as good as I had always thought we could be. If we play the way I know we can it will be a beautiful thing to watch. I can't wait to see, if our best is yet to be.

Friday, May 3, 2002

I’m starting to love to watch them play. I have to fight the urge to just let them scrimmage all practice long, but I know there is an order that we must do this in. I have two more fully planned practices for 2002. Only two. In St. Louis we practice in a park with a pole or a backstop instead of a goal. It’s all-good.

Yesterday’s practice was fairly good. There were quite a few cranky people and for once none of them were I. Here we were, playing lacrosse on a gorgeous afternoon, and it was certainly one of those, "Where else would you rather be?" deals, but everyone is pretty stressed out with exams and stuff. Still, for a group that is in love with each other the way this one is, it often amazes me how well at times it appears they all hate each other (but in a "good" way). I won’t even go into the Provo controversy that was the Olive Garden vs. that cheeseburger version of Chuckie Cheese that we ended up going to that I have a mental block with the name (Fuddruckers) because it was absolutely the worst place that I have been all season in our season on the road. Ada and I were just discussing run-on sentences. Was that one? Microsoft Word doesn’t seem to be at all pleased with my knowledge of the English language and how to use it grammatically. I digress. Ya’ think?

We are starting to get ourselves balanced as a team, and we depend on Dr. Ron Krugman (Team Chiropractor), Steve Wade (Head trainer CSU), Christa Pearson, and Chris Ourganion (Trainers) to keep all of our bodies together or as in tact as bodies can be at this late stage of the season. This odd "training staff" has turned out to be the best we have ever had, and I don’t think I have ever mentioned them before. These guys always do whatever they can to help the injured get back on the field. They are part of our family. Players want to play, but they also want to know that there are people who can help them, and who also care about how they feel when they are hurt, and or "injured". With the number of collisions that there are in lacrosse, along with "awkward moments" that only come with intense action coming at you from all directions, pain can show up anywhere as well. Sometimes the pain is a scarey one. There is no equivalent to "tennis elbow" in lacrosse. Pretty much any part of your body can get messed up playing lax. Anyway, I hope we make them proud with how we play on the field next week.

The greatest quote that I have ever heard a player say about a coach was something Anthony Carter said once about his college football coach, Bo Schembechler. He said, "If he (Bo) didn't have an All American at a position, he got somebody else to play like one." I am no Bo, that is for sure, but I always think of the quote. The truth for me is that only the players themselves can go to the next level. I think the best thing I can do as a coach is to try and create the environment to let it happen. Sometimes the hardest thing to do as a coach can be to not screw up a perfectly good player.

This 2002 team has shown that they can be warriors, "road" or otherwise. Many different players have stepped up at different times. When it is obvious that a player understands his role when you watch him play, then he is playing like an All American to my way of thinking. Get them all going and all you see in the picture is TEAM. I hope we all just play our roles, and then let's just see what happens from there. The great thing about lacrosse is that for the most part it really does "take a village". The great thing about games is that they let you know how you are doing. The great thing about tournaments is that strange and amazing things can happen in only 4 days.

Last year was a mission. This year has been more like one extended road trip. One business trip to go. This will be a 3 polo shirt trip. Something new to the program.

It’s a war we are about to wage. Playing four days in a row is a war, but each next battle must be won, one at a time, on ground that is equally neutral for both teams every time. I must admit, though, that when I think of going to St. Louis on Tuesday to do battle on Wednesday, it makes me feel excited and all warm inside, like going home when you haven’t been there in a while.

Saturday, May 4, 2002

Yesterday’s practice wasn’t really planned as a "fun Friday", but it was; a mix of good work, nice weather, and having some fun fooling around, together, as a team. We have a good feel right now. While not ideal practices, these last few have been pretty efficient in as far as including my coaching points of emphasis for the week. We have been touching on all the parts of our team game in 6 on 6 and during scrimmages of the full field variety. I’m trying to be careful to give them extra time to stretch out at the start of practice. We work and run, but I have also tried to leave ample time and energy for them to sharpen individual skills. We are not busily trying to reinvent the wheel anymore. Thank you! We just want to get it rolling down the road.

I think that this road/travel metaphor seems to be my 2002 journal "thing". I’ve done boats, roads, and cars all season long. I’m sure it has something to do with how much the 2-year-old Jordan adores trains, planes, and automobiles, not to mention trucks. I guess I can’t help myself.

About 30 guys came over to the house on the hill last night after practice for a BBQ. It was a lot of fun, and we watched the second half of the BYU game and ate a bunch of burgers. Everyone seems glad to take the weekend off, away from lacrosse, just to re-fortify and finish up the stuff that is real life before we leave Tuesday morning.

WHEN YOU GOTTA’ GO………

My morning was a flurry of activity today with folding jerseys, shopping for things I will need, getting caught up with Rock-it Pocket, etc. One of the players asked me yesterday if I just couldn’t wait to leave and get going. I thought about it, and yes, I am excited to go, but I also enjoy the whole process of getting ready; packing, resting, focusing (over-used word, but I can’t think of a better one), and spending a little quality time with the family before the crazy week ahead. I’m happy that wife Ada and son Jordan are coming again. Mike has his own play-offs in Colorado.

This afternoon I started making my "organizational piles" here and there. These segregated "messes" will become CSU lacrosse on the road. Things will all be placed neatly, everything handy, in a few hockey bags, with everything from mouth guards and string to a drill, heads, and shafts. On the way home…. well, you do what you can to get it all back home again.

My life and my "office" will be in two brief cases, which I try to keep very close to me at all times. It’s hard because I always trap someone into schlepping my lap top computer, a.k.a. "the tractor" for me. Then I just worry about it while whoever has it is off getting a Big Mac or whatever.

WE ARE A FAMILY, AND ALL CSU PLAYERS THAT HAVE EVER BEEN
ARE ALWAYS WITH US WHEN WE GO ST. LOUIS
Loren Husson played on last year’s championship team as well as all the CSU teams that have been to St. Louis (4) until this Tuesday. He came over today and brought with him a video and soon-to-be CD that is a wonderful visual/audio capsule of action from the two USLIA championships that we have won. The video was long enough to show it all, yet it is short and to the point,. It very much reflects who we are. Set to music of its time, their were clips of the 1999 championship final vs. Simon Fraser, as well as last year’s (2001) semi-final with BYU, and even a little from the championship game with Stanford. For me, seeing the little snippets from last year’s two big games was like finding footage that had been "lost in the film vault", because I didn’t even know it existed. It was the first time I had seen any more than photos of those games since the time I had seen them live almost exactly one year ago. Anyway, with the music and all, it got me pumped up and hungry. I think we will watch it as a team when we get to St. Louis. I’m sure I will be sending a copy to all interested CSU potential players for the near future. Thank you, Loren for this gift to the program, a gift that obviously came from the heart.

Loren also e-mailed and called me from time to time during the season. Sometimes he has had a suggestion or two. One particular suggestion came when I was busy opening my head and draining the "sewage" that was in my brain. He helped me click on to something. I began to allow some fresh thoughts back in, which allowed me to start asking some better questions. After a little time, some answers started to emerge. Our change needed to come from the inside before it would be visible on the outside. Change from within can often be the most profound.

I think we are still in the process of coming together. Hopefully, all teams remain ever in the process of becoming more together. See, it really does take a village? I hope Loren coaches some day. He will make a fine one.

Sunday, May 5, 2002

In about 36 hours we will be getting on the plane to St. Louis. We leave The Fort to drive to DIA at 9:30 a.m., Tuesday. I am so glad to be flying non-stop out of Denver. We are back with United again, too, after a brief affair with American Airlines.

This morning Ada got in the car and took off. As she sped away, she mouthed to me the words, "Thank you", and she blew me a kiss. The actual translation of this is, "So long, Bozo, Jordan is yours for the day, and I'm going to the mall with Julie". So, I spent the day pretty much doing 2-year-old things. We had a great time. I'm not sure if this is the best way to prepare as a coach, but I am not convinced that it is the worst either.

Almost everyone has exams tomorrow, but hopefully our final Fort Collins practice for the spring of 2002 will include most by the time it is over. For the most part, however, our work here is done. Once again it's time to go back to the future.

Tuesday, May 7, 2002

The other day I wrote about how I enjoy the process of getting ready to go to St. Louis and all that. Sounded good when I wrote it. Fohgeddabowdit. Yesterday was the day from hell, as I tried to do 3 days worth of work in one, with a practice squeezed in. I announced my grumpiness to the team at the beginning of practice. We were all lucky enough to get through it without me having a tantrum of any sort. We were having our last regular Fort Collins practice, and I barely got a chance to enjoy it, because I knew all that I needed to get done before we left this morning. Still, it was a very good practice all in all, and we even ran one more 440 for the road. Actually, I just blow the whistle and pivot in one spot while I "encourage" them to "FINISH" .

Well, we are here. Our traveling as a team works much smoother than it used to, for the most part. We arrived on time after enduring a bumpy pocket over Kansas City, and a two year old that would not nap.

I don't know if it is at all serendipitous or not, but Sonoma State (#1 seed, and we lost to them in SD in early March, 13-11) got on the same plane that we did in Denver. It was strange at the very least. We (CSU) were all seated in the back, and a few guys from Sonoma were sprinkled in among us. There actually was a referee on the flight as well. If there had been any kind of delay, we could have set up some kind of playing "field" there on the B Concourse, and faced it off. We ran into Cossacks again at the rental car place, and then some at dinner, too. I know we are all headed to the same place and all, but I still ask, what does it all mean?

To a man we are happy to be here, confident in what we can do, and looking forward to tomorrow. Usually, I am running around giving individual and collective "pep talks", or at least having an important team meeting about tomorrow's first game right about now. I do not feel the need to say anything tonight. They know how they have to play. I have circulated some papers that have "good stuff" for them to think about, but these are not mandatory study sheets either.

The rain is coming down as I write at 9:00 p.m., and the first day's games have already been moved from grass fields to the newly surfaced (8-day old Nexturf) fields at the AB complex. Bob Schulte (St. Louis lax chapter who met us at the airport) said it rained three inches yesterday. Flying in the entire landscape looked like a series of giant mud puddles.

Wednesday, May 8, 2002

I am tired and it is late. We beat Washington earlier today 21-4.

The rain finally let up just as the early games began this morning. By the time we played at 4:00 it had stopped raining for the most part, but the air was so drenched with moisture that it felt like it was raining anyway, even when the sun peeked out. We played a "game" University of Washington team today. In my 5 years here I have never seen a team come to St. Loo the first time and not be a bit overwhelmed by the "immensity" of the experience and the level of competition. This was the case for "U Dub" today, as it was for us in 1998. We did win our first game that year, but we were taken out in the "Lightning Round" which was day 2 as well as the semi-finals in those days when it was still an 8-team tournament.

In a way I think the Huskies would have been happy to come in (as a 14 seed vs. us, the #3 seed) and just hang with us for a while. When it became 6-1 after one quarter and 13-1 at the half the hope of playing a tight game had disappeared. After that, and from a coaching standpoint, it becomes an entirely different kind of game. All 38 CSU players that dressed, played. Nick had 5 (g) and 1(a), Davis had 3 and 3, and Napi had 4 and 3. Jimmy had 3g on midfield and Tim got 2g. Plonkey dominated the face-offs as long as he played. They (Washington) only had 12 shots for the game. They could not get the ball to their offensive end very often on this day. I tried to rest as many as I could in the second half.

Tomorrow we play Stanford at 4:30 in the afternoon in the second round. Other winners today were BYU, Sonoma, Michigan, Arizona, Auburn, UCSB, and, of course, Stanford. We played and beat Stanford in early March, but everyone says that they just kept getting better all year long, and at the WCLL Championships they were playing great. I'm not sure of the score, but they beat Texas A&M handily today. We will be on the Nexturf again tomorrow. I wish we were on grass, but that's the way it goes.

Many of our guys are taking exams tomorrow, and this has me concerned. Bringing final exams into this whole St. Louis thing in such a big way (25 or 30 of them) puts a lot on the "student athlete", no doubt. You do what you have to do, I guess, and that's how you go about getting the things you want in life.

Right after the game we hustled back here to change and go to the USLIA Awards Banquet at the 100 year-old World's Fair Pavillion in St. Louis, where 6 of our players were honored as All Americans (or whatever the official designation is this week). Our team was honored as the 2002 RMILL champions. Sonny Pieper put together an awesome Power Point presentation announcing all the winners, and it "rocked", too. When different teams were displayed on the screen with a picture, a name, or even a logo, roars went up from different parts of huge outdoor "room". Each team was proclaiming the strength of their own presence. We got decent seats, but I missed out on the salsa.

I was sandwiched between BYU players and "Noma" players. I liked it. I clapped loudest for the ones who put in the hard work that makes all this stuff (St. Louis, national championships, etc.) happen. The players reap the rewards, but for the most part don't yet get what a guy like Doug Horn does all year long to make it all just appear to happen, as if it has always just happened. I know because BTDT (been there, done that).

Tomorrow's game will be a test, too. I know that Stanford is highly motivated to go that elite level of USLIA teams, and we are sitting on the next step. Their next step must now come through us. I love these kind of challenges. As a team, we at CSU live for this time of year, we live to be here for five days or whatever each year.

Thursday, May 9, 2002 1:30 p.m. Stanford in 3 hours.

Last night a huge deluge of rain descended upon us, complete with crackling thunder boomers. We got more rain in 10 minutes than we had during an entire night of "pitter patter" rain the previous night. Either way, we had our second consecutive PLP (parking lot practice) at 10:00 a.m. this morning. The sun is out, but that would seem to be, according to the experts, only an interlude. Where the concern in Colorado is "wind chill" and wild fires, here it is "dew point" and flooding.

My message in practice was directed at points of the game for them to think about, and not who we want to shut off and things like that. I told them that I want us to show everyone every part of our game, and also that we are getting better at each part every day. After all, that is always my main strategy; to improve every time we play, be it practice, or be it a game. I'm thinking that I do not share Allen Iverson's current views on practice and practicing.

Nineteen exams are being taken as I write.

I had a revelation about coaching while I was in the shower the night we arrived. This is where most of them happen for me. I know it is simple, almost to the point of mundane, but ultimately coaching is not about what the coach does, it's about what they do on the field. I can help steer, but they have to drive. Everyone has to really listen to one another, co-pilots. My question to myself is always, "What can I do to help?"

At the banquet last night, as my good friend and rival Doug Carl received his well-deserved (Sonoma) Coach of the Year award, it occurred to me that there is really only one award that I will truly ever honest-to-God care about, no matter how long I coach, and that is the one they give to the last TEAM standing, on the last day of the season, and after the very last game.

12:30 a.m.

What a day! We came out a little flat, and perhaps more significantly, Stanford came out inspired and with another in the long line of good game plans we have come up against this season. The Cardinal play a very deliberate style, trying to hold the ball for long periods of time. This can be effective against us, and other "run and gun" types of teams. Stanford converted on a couple of fast break opportunities, and scored a couple more on Extra Man Offense to take a 5-0 lead early in the second quarter. I wondered if we would ever score. We trailed 5-1 at the half. Halftime was a soul search.

We played a fantastic second half overall. Our third quarter was strong, especially defensively, but we still trailed 7-2 at one point, and then 7-3 going to the fourth. We would not die, and we did not quit. We were controlling the game and we were putting lots of pressure on their defense, even though our shooting wasn't that great. Still, I felt we had a chance, even though there were only 15 minutes left. We were trailing by 4, and we hadn't even scored a total of 4 in the previous 45 minutes of play. Now we had to score 5 in those fifteen minutes and keep them from both scoring, and also taking all the air out of the ball when they had it (stalling). No doubt we had arrived at a true crossroads. Then we got on a roll. We kept going hard to the goal offensively, and we kept pounding at Stanford hard to take the ball away when they had it.

The stick work of their long poles was by far the best we have seen. Their whole defense was extremely well-coached. We were chasing, and that was definitely the way they wanted to play the game. Yet, here we came. We drew as close as 7-6 early in the 4th, and then they got a quick fast break goal back to give them the two goal, 8-6 "cushion. That one stung, but we were not deterred. Time was ticking away, though. We finally tied it at 8. They scored, and we scored. It was 9-9 with less than two minutes left. Anything could have happened, but we were on the come, and I was already proud of what we had done to get back in the game. We appeared to score, and finally take a lead with about 40 seconds to go, when we committed a silly "turnover" by calling a time out just as we scored, and since we actually had already used all our time-outs, the infraction took the goal off the board, and turned the ball over to Stanford. They had one more chance, but they got nowhere near our goal again, and to overtime we went. We scored the winner on a rebound that Jim Hasson "flicked" in less than a minute in. We had the ball from the face-off until the O.T. winner hit the net. It was the first and the only lead we ever had in this game. The final score was 10-9. Onward to the the semis.

We had many parents and fans there. It was great. At the same moment almost, on the field next to us, Sonoma had beaten Zona in overtime. Very compelling stuff. As I looked up on the hill I could see hundreds of people watching both games, and even within the intensity of the moment, this seemed pretty cool to me. I am very proud of what we accomplished today, but there is no rest for the weary. We play an excellent UC Santa Barbara team that smoked #2 seeded Auburn, tomorrow (today) at 1:00. Who knows? Who knows even what the weather will be. As I left the AB facility workers were actually peeling up and removing the Nexturf from two fields in anticipation of the flood on the way, which will supposedly be under 5 feet of water by Sunday. We will be on grass (or water) from here on out. The other semi-final is Sonoma vs. BYU, who beat Michigan.

The Katz' took the team and the families to the Spaghetti Factory. Our parents are so wonderful. So is our CSU "family". This was (in 5 years here) my first trip downtown. Where else would you rather be?

Friday, May 10, 2002 (actually Saturday 1:00 a.m.)

Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. I was granted my most recent one after we beat Santa Barbara 12-9, and Sonoma beat BYU, 9-7. I wanted to play Sonoma in the finals for many reasons. They are the #1, and they are a team that we don't play that often. I think both teams like and respect each other. I thought it could be a great game and I knew it would be a great challenge. Tomorrow (today) we play at 3:00 for the 2002 USLIA Championship. I just found out that SSU has changed from "Cossacks" to "Sea Wolves" for their mascot designation.

Our semi-final with UCSB was exciting, though not quite the "thriller" that we played yesterday with Stanford. One of the tournament staff said to me today, "Congratulations Coach." And then he said something else about the Stanford game. He said, "That was the best game I've ever seen".

The UCSB game today almost became an upside down mirror image of what happened yesterday. We got up 5-0 early, and they slowly but surely came after us, and with only a few minutes left in the game, we led only 10-9. We buried a man up goal and then an empty netter to get to the final score.

Kale was great and had a hat trick. Tomorrow is his birthday, and I hope he gives himself a nice birthday present. We had great offensive balance today, as 8 different people scored our 12 goals. Alex's goalie play was bright. The defense was solid, although we made a few mistakes defensively on the crease, and the Gauchos converted them. UCSB is a tight team to be sure, and still, for the most part we dictated the game. It's great to see us play this way, even though we are beginning to look like the Cardiac Kids. The level of competition here is rising almost as fast as the flood waters approach St. Louis. This tournament is really cool.

I used to coach the "B" team at UCSB in the late eighties. I have friends from those teams even still. I applied, and was denied the head job there three times in the early and mid nineties. Lots of people know this, so they automatically think that I get some sort of extra "charge" out of beating them today or any day, but the truth is that that sort of thing for the most part does not motivate me. What motivates me is trying create an environment where good things happen for my team. I cannot achieve this by focusing "hate" on some other team or person. Maybe that's why we haven't beaten Colorado College since I've been at CSU. They are my alma mater, but for some reason I really want to beat them, like it's personal or something Yet year after year we seem to play our poorest game against them, and even at that it's almost always close. Food for thought.

Anyway I feel fortunate, even blessed to be in the finals once again. We worked very hard to get here, and we found our way around so many different road blocks and detours, but we did not come here just to get to the finals. That is not enough. We came to find something special inside ourselves, together; forty hearts beating as one..

Sunday, May 12, 2002

Well, I guess you can't get everything you want in life..... Why is that exactly? We had every opportunity to beat Sonoma State yesterday, but we lost, 13-10. It was a game that saw the Cossacks go on small "runs", and each time we answered, until their surge that came late in the third, and early into the 4th. One of the guys who interviewed me after the game pointed out that we outshot them 50-25. Time and again we would be putting pressure on their goal for short and long periods both, and time and again their goalie Gomez came up huge or whatever, and then SSU would go to the other end and immediately convert. We controlled the tempo of the game a lot, and it is completely to the other team's credit that they can adapt and play whatever kind of game they need to play to get the job done. This ability is what I have always called "team resolve".

I have no problem with the effort of our team or the way we played overall. We made a few mistakes on defense, but so did they. We handled their invert fairly well, but they did get some production in settled 6 on 6 situations because they are sound fundamentally, and their middies made some great plays. We needed to come up with a few more defensive stops, and we could not.

It was fun to watch what I perceive to be the two best midfield units in the USLIA go after each other. The speed of the game was such that the referees almost never were in perfect position to make calls. When something happens on the midfield line, they need to be staring down the line to make the right call. Often, they were just arriving as the play happened instead of already being there. It is getting to the point where the refs really need to be great runners, too.

Our final record is 17 wins and 5 losses. I knew over a month ago that 18 could be a magic number, and we almost made it. Even so, I will always remember this team as the "Phoenix" team, the one that rose from the ashes and a crash, and flew again.

This season in many ways was 2000 all over again. We lost by 3 in the finals that year, too, to BYU. As lousy as I feel right now, we have been in 4 straight championship games, and 5 straight final fours here in The Gateway City. This year's seniors played in the finals every year of their college career. This is truly something for them to be proud of. They do have two rings after all.

At one point during this season we lost the "family". Everyone worked hard to overcome our dysfunctionality and the differences inside our team. We came together and won 10 in a row before yesterday. We got the family back, but we couldn't go back to back. In the end the family is the most important thing.

Happy Mother's Day. Sorry, Ma.