Cats and Dogs

I have never understood exactly what it means when people say that "it is raining cats & dogs." But whatever that means, I'm pretty sure that it was happening in San Diego this evening, and we practiced in it. I experienced two years of rain while living in the Pacific Northwest, and went through one flood while living there. This is pretty damn close.

We got some good news at the start of practice tonight, our mid-semester transfer from Chapman University (the same Chapman that we play in 2 1/2 weeks), Alberto Gonzalez, was accepted to USD. Alberto will see time this year, and I expect will be a good contributor by the end of the season. The kid definitely has ability, we just got to help him put it together. Alberto grew up playing Attack, and since coming to USD we have moved him to midfield. Once he gets the nuisances of the position down, as I said, I think he will definitely help us this season.

When we started practice at 4:10pm it was only slightly raining. "Maybe we will get lucky," I thought. After reviewing several administrative items with the team, we got underway. After warm ups, we went to four corners of 2 vs 1, groundball drills. The effort was sub-par at best. One of my biggest pet peeves is when the guys are doing a drill and they have to eventually shoot on an open goal (as was the case with this groundball drill). Why do kids lob the ball or roll it into the open net? Why wouldn't they shoot like they would in a game? I don't understand it.

To make matters worse, I caught one of our Attackman who is particularly lazy not rotating through the different stations. So, the whole team ran for the remainder of the time we had allotted for that drill. After they ran, I quickly brought the team in and expressed to them how weak of an effort they were giving. I think one of the differences between great players, and simply average players, is that great players use ever chance they have to get better. Most of our guys do not, they instead do just enough to coast, or just to get by. Average production, for average personal expectations.

I blew into my whistle to single us moving on to the next drill. However, before we moved on, the Captains had a few words for the team. I generally walk away and let the guys go in situations like these, there are some things that they must come together on, on their own. For the second time though in as many practices, I have been pleased to see something different from this team this year. Last year all of our Team Captains were more reserved, lead by example type of guys. This wasn't a bad thing, in fact I REALLY appreciate the job the Captains did last year; we needed guys who hustled and did things the right way, and thus, tried to get their teammates to do the same. But I firmly believe any team will do better if they can motivate themselves, and this starts with the Captains of the team. I am not sure exactly what they said in their conversation, but it worked. Around the same time that they were chewing out their teammates, the sky opened up. It started coming down in buckets, and the wind was swirling around the field. We could have easily let up and had a poor practice, instead practice after that point went very well.

We put in a lot of defenses tonight, and the guys are definitely getting better. Coach Rob Warner is really finding his groove as our Defensive Coach, and the guys seem to be responding well. We are going to be tough on both sides of the field.

There was one other thing that I noticed tonight though that I always find interesting. I am sure that all of us that coach have players who come up to us and declare, "How can I show what I can do as a player when I am playing with the second unit?" Well my answer to that is, "Why aren't you dominating the second unit defense that you are also matched up against?" Our first 19-20 guys who play have the potential to be very good, after that we fall off of a cliff with ability and talent. I know that those other 20 guys are going to be needed at some point during this season. I hope that they realize that as well. We have 24 games this year, we need EVERYBODY to contribute. It is up to me as their coach to help them become the best player that they are capable of. Everyone is different, and all of us have different ceilings as players, but anyone playing at their best can tremendously help our team. As I said, it is my job as their coach to find out how to get them there.

Friday is supposed to be one more day of rain, although I HIGHLY doubt as bad as tonight. 7 practices to go before the big game. We are starting to look like we might be ready. If we can play this well in a monsoon, I am curious to see how we can perform on a nice evening.

All thanks and glory to God and to his Son