It will be difficult for me to write this entry without being disrespectful to Claremont, who beat us this weekend 7-6, but I am writing this as the coach of USD. Saturday's lose was arguably the low point of my lacrosse career; possibly not as a player, but most definitely as a coach. Last year we lost by one to Claremont in OT of the play-offs. After that game, we graduated a few players, while Claremont graduated 17 players (almost all of them on offense). Needless to say, we were expecting a much different outcome then what happened yesterday. If we play that game 10 times, I think we win 9 out of 10. However, yesterday was the day when we rolled a zero.
To start things off, I asked all of the guys on the team to be there dressed and ready to warm up 1 hour and 5 minutes before the game. 4 starters showed up 10 minutes late (I tried to delay things 5 minutes for them, but they took another 5 minutes after that). So, those 4 starters did not play the first quarter of the game. We also had 3 other guys who showed up 25 minutes late, claiming that one of their cars would not start that morning, yet they did not call me when this happened to let me know what was going on (instead they called a teammate). We also had 6-8 other guys who barely made it on time, able to quickly throw on their gear and make it to the pre-game talk and prayer, only to immediately leave to run to the bathroom as soon as we started our stick work drills.
This lack of focus/commitment/energy rolled right into the game. For the second time in a row we came out more then flat. At one point in the 2nd quarter we were down 6-1. I couldn't believe it, Claremont has one of the worst offenses I have ever seen at this level. Now they do have an All-American on defense (and he, as usual, had a great game) and their goalie, Sam Bennett, was outstanding. But, I don't know if they have an offensive player that could start, let alone play, for our team. The final score of this game was not determined by individual ability however, it was determined by hard work and capitalizing on mistakes. They won because every kid on their team outworked us, and we made WAY too many mistakes; we finished on the day with 39 turnovers.......................as I said, truly a low point for me and for this team.
One other negative thing from this weekend, we had players on our team getting in a fight with each other on our sideline. Now this wasn't guys caught up in the moment and arguing over a play, instead it was name calling back and forth between people, and then causing a scene. All of this while we are trying to come back, and during a one goal game.
So there's the recap of the game with Claremont. Afterwards, I am left to figure out what is going on. One of the problems is that we are the "softest" team I have ever been around. I couldn't figure out why this was exponentially more prevelent this season, until now. We only practice MWF from 4:10pm-6:50pm. The coaching staff decided before the season that we were going to use the entire 2 hours and 40 minutes this year to practice stick skills, fundamentals, and game situations. We would not spend a half hour of our valuable practice time conditioning, instead we would ask the players to go for a run on Tuesday, Thursdays, and the weekend.
I did not think this would be that hard of a thing for them to commit to. The players decided as a team, that they wanted their goals to be to win a play-off game, and to qualify for the national tournament. I thought that this desire to do those things would be enough for them to go for a jog on what is our off days, but is when every other team is practicing. I also thought they would want to get themselves in top physical shape, with an opening schedule of Chapman, Claremont, Stanford, Arizona State, UCSB, Cal Poly, Sonoma, and UofA; all of them expected to be in Top 25 this year, with the exception of Claremont (which was in the Top 25 last year). Lastly, I remember when I was a college player (a broke and bored college player), that we used to go for these 7 miles runs around the Santa Barbara airport all the time; they weren't runs that we dreaded or avoided, it was in some ways fun and gave us something to get off of the couch.
Well, needless to say, only about 4-5 guys on the team (if even that many) were conditioning on Tuesday, Thursdays, and the weekend. Whereas you would think that this would be most detrimental to the team from a cardiovascular standpoint (and it is), the main problem that was caused by not conditioning is the lack of toughness that comes along with pushing yourself.
So, we will have to make a change. We are going to bring in for Strength and Conditioning a friend of mine, Rico Curtis. Rico was a 2 time All League strong safety for SDSU, was drafted by the San Diego Chargers, and went on to have a standout career in the Arena Football League. He is a good guy, and spends a lot of time doing individual workouts with high school football players. We are lucky to get him, and I am thankful as a friend that he has agreed to start working with our team. I am going to have to pay him $1,500 out of my own pocket, but at this point I don't know what else to do. We are behind the proverbial eight ball because we have not been conditioning, nor taking things seriously. The bottom line is that I still always think of the guys on this team first, and this is the best thing that is going to help the quickest. If I have to fork over the money for that, well then so be it I guess.
The team is now going to condition for the first hour of every practice, then go to 40 minutes of fundamental and skill work, 20 minutes of unsettled/fast breaks, 10 minutes of instruction, and 30 minutes of competition (Mondays it will be Rides & Clears, Wednesdays Man-up vs. Man-Down, and Fridays 6-on-6).
Hopefully if the guys weren't motivated to condition on their own, they might be motivated to have fun by getting together to play pick-up and compete against each other.
Each season is a journey, each step along the way a chance to figure out what is the best coarse of action for us to succeed. It would be easy to pass blame, it would be easy to say I am not going to deal with this s$*%, it would be easy to not pay Rico and keep the $1,500 out of the little that I do make already............but success, and winning in sports, does not come easy. If it did, everyone would do it. I think that these changes will start getting us rolling in the right direction.
I still believe that these guys have it in them, but they need to stop always looking for excuses or the easy way out. Life has been pretty easy for a lot of the kids on this team (and that is something that their parents should obviously be proud about), but with that privileged lifestyle, many of them expect things to be given to them. A lot of them growing up, when things didn't go the way they wanted or they faced adversity, their parents either pulled them out or had the means to protect them.
Well there is no protecting them from this: we are an underachieving team at this point, one that stated very high goals for itself at the beginning of this season. No amount of entitlement or money is going to buy a victory, let alone a run in the play-offs and an invitation to the National Championship Tournament. That is going to have to be earned with sweat, preparation, and hard work. We will get there this season, it is just taking a little bit longer, and unfortunately is going to be a lot harder then anticipated.
All players, all teams face adversity each season. By no means are we out of the woods, in fact we are going to be facing more adversity and have much harder tests then we have already faced over theses next 30 days. But, I hope the the young men on this team see that challenge as an opportunity to work harder. Adversity, like money, does not define one's character; it simply reveals it.
All thanks and glory to God the Creator, and to this Son, the Christ
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