The Creator's Game

Rico!

2010-02-17T22:20:00.000-08:00

Today was our first practice with our new Strength & Conditioning Coach, Rico Curtis, working the guys out for the first hour of practice. AWESOME addition to our program!

What a difference it will make for us. Rico is such an easy going guy, and the team really responded to him and his training program. The other thing I noticed is the difference in attitude while the guys worked out. When one of their "regular" coaches is running conditioning, whether it is me or one of the Assistant Coaches, the players mindset while conditioning is almost like we are punishing them. Well, with Rico, they seemed to approach it like this guys is here to make us stronger/faster; basically they seemed to think, "I need to listen to this guy to get better."

Afterward we had a great practice. After we got through our fundamental work, we shifted to a new way of doing build-ups, followed by Man-Up vs. Man-Down. I have stepped back in to help with Man-Up. Our Asst. Offensive Coach has done a good job, and we are keeping two of his plays as our "bread & butter." But, with our personnel the way it is, we can't run progression on Man-Up like we were; we have to run 4-5 plays, getting certain players, to certain spots.

Our Man-Down is playing awesome this year. Statistically, we are the best I have ever had. But, the season is young. However, if we keep this kill percentage up, it will allow us to play very aggressive, with little concern about penalties hurting us.

The other great thing about practice tonight, is that we figured out that we get an extra 20 minutes of practice each night. This is HUGE for us, it is almost like getting an entire other practice. We used this extra time tonight to close with 6-on-6. It looks like we are improving..................improving enough I hope to get on the winning side of things this weekend.

All thanks and glory to God, our Creator, and his Son, the Christ

Not a lot of love for Valentine's Day

2010-02-16T11:07:00.000-08:00

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

Not ready for the speed

2010-02-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

Quite a game against Chapman. And when I say quite a game, I mean that they played quite a game, and we realized how much work that we need to do. There is one statistic that tells you more then any other as to which team is winning, and that is the score. They had 15 and we had 2.

I knew that we were going to be in a bit of trouble, based on practices and just simply not being ready yet, but that isn't an excuse for how we performed. Chapman was just a lot better, and was greatly more prepared. I really commend their Assistant Coaches, particularly on defense, for the game plan that they had devised for us.

Our game plan hinged on a couple of key components, one of them being how we did at the face-0ff X. Chapman has one of the better face-off guys in the league, but based on how we did against SDSU in the scrimmage last week, I thought we could at least make it a 50-50 contest. I was soundly mistaken, as we only won 4 out of 21 face-offs. This one let down in the special teams, and our inability to make a change, kept us from being able to run what we wanted to. We were down 6-0 before we had the ball on offense.

I scheduled games like this early this season (and we have a lot of them, as we have one of the hardest schedules in the country), because it is important that the players on my team see what the speed of the game should be like. We play, and more importantly practice, at WAY too slow of a pace. In my players defense, I just don't think that they know any other way.

Well, they do now.......Chapman was so much faster then us, and we were simply not ready for their speed. They ran faster then us, the moved the ball faster then us, they shot harder then us, and most importantly they made decisions fast then us.. As I said, they were playing at a different speed.

In situations like this, I always find it interesting to see how certain players react. Will they go back to their fundamentals to slow the game down, or will they panic and become frustrated because they can't figure out what to do? Unfortunately, a lot of our guys panicked.

As stupid as this sounds, that is okay......for now. I really hope that this serves as a wake up call to them about how much better that they need to get, and you can only do that by playing against top competition, and seeing how good they are. Hopefully this serves as a turning point for the way that we prepare and focus during the week. I have said over and over again to these young men, "work extremely hard Monday through Friday at practice, and the games will be easy." The game last night was nothing close to easy.

There were a couple of things last night that really stood out to me:
1) our goalie is eventually going to be the real deal. He was under an absolute barrage last night, and where as most guys would have thrown in the towel, he stayed with it and made some great saves late.
2) I am starting to realize that I would rather play a kid who is less skilled and has a big heart, then wait for some cowardly lions to find theirs.
3) Connor Martin is the real deal. And it has nothing to do with his first step, or his ability when he shoots to put the ball in a cup. That guy plays with great enthusiasm. His level of energy is what makes that team go. I wish more players enjoyed playing lacrosse with the exuberance that he displays on every play.

Oh well, as I have said before, one game will not make the season. Saturday night was awesome, if for no other reason then to really learn about yourself in a butt kicking, to see how fast the game should be played, and to figure out what we need to work on most for the team.

We will have a tough week of practice, I am gone for four days for work, and we are still kicked off of our practice field which is being repaired. Claremont awaits this weekend, time to see how much one team can improve in a week.

All thanks and glory to God our Creator, and to his son, the Christ

Not good

2010-02-04T08:18:00.001-08:00

Lou Holtz once said something to the effect of, "If you can live without coaching, don't coach." This week has been a reminder of what that phrase means.

Last week at this time, I had little doubt that we were winning our game this weekend at Chapman. I felt that we had the right players, the right schemes, and we were moving in the right direction. A week later, I am not so sure what is going to happen this weekend.

We played San Diego State in a scrimmage at San Clemente High School (SCHS) on Saturday night. SCHS has done a wonderful job of putting together an annual event called the Triton Cup, where they invite two college teams from the surrounding Southern California area to participate in a showcase event for the local community.

I have an intimate knowledge of State's team being an Assistant Coach there for one year, as well as still being very good friends with their Head Coach, Matt Holman. I was pretty optimistic as to how we were going to do in the scrimmage, since I knew that State has lost some talent, and we are exponentially better. We got off to at 5-0 start in the first quarter. What a great start. I remember looking over to the San Diego State sideline and then asking one of my Assistant Coaches, "Are we going to blow them out?" That was completely stupid of me, and I know better then that. Everything that seemed to be clicking fell apart shortly into the 2nd quarter. We stopped doing what we are good at, lost our focus, and started to force things. State put in a few, and I think at the start of the 4th quarter the score was something like 7-3. We played very well in the 4th Quarter, concluding with a final score of 9-4. A good dress rehearsal in front of a large crowd, but we played poorly for more then half of the game. The truth is that State had a number of good players out with injuries, and they will play different in the regular season.

On a side note, what I was really happy about was that the Chapman coaching staff was in the stands. They were overheard discussing things about our team, different numbers and match-ups, and what their game plan was going to be. They don't respect us at all, assume that we have zero depth, and in no way can run with all of "their studs." I remember thinking as I heard this told to me, if I had experienced some moderate success, yet graduated as much as they have, would I be as over-confidant as they are? Can you be that confident when you are losing people, yet keep running the same systems over and over again each year? But, after thinking about it for a second, if I was them (right or wrong) I would probably be saying the same thing. They have lost in the Championship game two years in a row, open the season ranked #2 in the country.......they deserve to be confident. And that confidence is something that is important for any successful team to have, and will lead them to a few victories that they wouldn't obtain otherwise.

We lack this confidence, and it is killing me. Confidence is developed Monday through Friday. Saturdays are the time to go out and execute, a time to perform, and an chance to display the confidence you have in yourself and your teammates. This team puts in an average effort during the week, and then thinks that if they try as hard as they can during the game itself, it will lead to victory. But if doesn't work like that. Champions play, AND practice, at a championship level at ALL times.

Last night we had 55 minutes set aside to get through our 4 offensive sets. Just wanted to make sure we fine tune everything and are on the same page. Instead, we never got through the first one. How can we possibly not know our base offense and not be able to run it, after a month of practice? I am at a loss as to what to do to help the young men on this team. I want great success for them so badly, but they need to do their part to know what we are trying to do with our schemes/game plans.

To make things worse, two Attackmen quit today for ridiculous reasons (aren't they all........). One of them basically doesn't want to be tied down so he can do what he wants and spend more time with his girlfriend, the other one though is a complete mystery. He had been playing great. In fact, on Monday I called him to express how well he had been playing and how we were going to try to start working him in with the starting units. That phone conversation (I thought) went well. Instead, I get an email on Tuesday that says he is no longer playing and asks me not to contact him.

To top it all off, at the end of practice last night, (one that was horrible and lacked a consistent focus and effort from the team) one of our Captains gets into a fight with one of the leaders on our defense. Now, if it was an intense practice where guys are really competing well, playing extremely hard, and are getting after it, fights are not a problem and are bound to occur. Instead, I have a situation where two leaders of the team are acting like a bunch of spoiled, immature babies, and setting a horrible example for their teammates that look up to them.

"If you can live without coaching, don't coach."

I have got to figure out a way to get these young men to do things the right way. We HAVE to figure it out. Everyone has their fears, every has their motivation, and I believe that everyone wants to succeed. Therefore in theory it becomes simple, get them to face their fears, find out what motivates them, and decipher if they truly want to succeed as much as they say they do.

One practice to go before our opening game, against the best team in our conference the last few years. One game will not make a season. But, I have been waiting with great anticipation for this contest since we scheduled it last June. All of this does not seem to be a good way to be heading into the game......................we will overcome.

Even with this frustration, it is still always my pleasure to know these young men, to try to teach them, and to experience the journey of this season together.

All thanks and glory to God our Creator, and to his Son, the Christ.

It clicked a little bit tonight

2010-01-28T00:18:00.001-08:00

Practice is a wonderful thing. Don't get me wrong, games are obviously the most fun, and the reason for having practice. But I love the way you work and try to get just a little bit better everyday at practice; and then all of those little improvements hopefully add up to a major difference by the end of the year. I often refer to this philosophy as, "Baby Steps." You might be familiar with Baby Steps by Dr. Leo Marvin, played by Richard Dreyfus, in a movie that also featured Billy Murray in arguably his greatest role, What About Bob. (By the way, if you haven't seen What About Bob in a while, go rent it immediately. So much better then this Dane Cook/Carlos Mencia crap that they try to pass off as comedy now a days.)

Every once in a while though, something clicks for a player or for the entire team, and you make a huge improvement in a single practice. That happened tonight. We are considerably better as a team after tonight's practice.

I say this for two reasons: 1) our goalie for this season, Chris Castleberry, is really starting to feel comfortable in the cage. He is making some saves that he just has no business even being involved in. Chris is a 26 year-old freshman, who served in the Marines for 8 years, and is one of the better athletes on the team. He played goalie growing up, but obviously hasn't played for a number of years. He is a mid-semester transfer, and started off his career at USD as a Defensemen. We put him back in the cage after about a week. Thank God that we did! Initially he was doing well, but was considerably rusty. Tonight it clicked a little bit for him. There was a stretch where he got dialed in, and was an absolute wall! It was awesome to watch from the sideline.
I know that he might not be like this every practice, nor every game, but he is such an improvement from what we had last year. The other exciting thing, at the risk of being cliche, he is only getting better. By mid-season, right around the time most of our division play begins, I really think he could be a difference maker for us.

2) we put our new ride, "Costanza," in tonight. It puts an enormous amount of pressure on our opponents clearing team, and fits our teams strengths perfectly. We will get burned a couple of times this year because of it, and will give up a few easy goals. But I believe the risk/reward is absolutely worth it, because the pressure that we are putting on the other team should create numerous turnovers and easy points for us.
I have noticed that most of the top teams in the MCLA have a great ride. Last year we were a good riding team. This year I hope to be a team that is known for the pressure it puts on you, and for how well it rides.

With these two huge strides that the team made tonight, I am even more excited for our scrimmage this weekend. Finally a chance to see how a different opponent will defend the Spread and handle our defenses. We will fine tune our special teams during this Friday's practice, focusing on face-offs and man-up/man-down, and then look to put everything together finally come Saturday.

There are few things as sweet as knowing that you are siting on something special before everyone else does. Just saying it though won't make it a reality, we MUST go out a perform and win big games this year. However, I can say with great confidence, that this team is going to really surprise people. Not only can I feel it, but I see it coming together with each practice. The only possible "roadblock" so to speak, is if the guys on this team will have the mental fortitude to play a full, 60 minute game. Not 40 minutes, not 50 minutes, not 58 minutes. We need to be on our game, playing to our strengths, and running our systems, from the first whistle to the last whistle. Can we do it? It is hard to get a group of mostly 18-22 year-olds to focus on anything. We will see........

4 practices to go before the opening lights at Chapman, got to make sure that we don't have any let-downs, got to keep it going in the right direction.

All thanks and glory to our Creator, and to his son, the Christ

No Excuses, No Explanations

2010-01-25T23:39:00.000-08:00

We put in a new mantra for our team today, "No Excuses, No Explanations." Tony Dungy made this phrase (and his subsequent coaching style) famous while he was a Head Coach in the National Football League.

Since becoming a head coach, I have noticed that I am very similar to the way I was as a player: loud, sarcastic, intense, and fiercely competitive. As a player, practice was always a time for me to concentrate, be loud, have fun, piss off my teammates, and really focus on getting better. I loved practice, and really tried to get after it everyday (probably one of the reasons that I coach now).

But as confident as I am that we are doing things the right way, and have the correct plan for this program to have success, I have come to realize that both myself and this team need to change. If I am going to expect there to be no excuses and no b.s., then I am going to have to be more of a teacher, and less of a motivator. We have a problem on this team of underachieving and making excuses. This HAS to stop immediately; it is a cancer that has been allowed to spread for much too long. My hope is that by not yelling or putting pressure on the players, they will start to do things better and realize their potential.

After one day, I think that we are off to a good start. We had a pretty simple practice today, a lot of drills on the fundamentals, and then 6-on-6. Our defense is really starting to come together; I am really anxious to see how they do against a different opponent.

Offensively, we are doing good, but the guys on the team just cannot figure out that they don't have to shoot on the first or second dodge. This has been our problem since day one of Fall Ball last year. We have several offensive schemes, all of them with different options and numerous drive spots. However, we for some reason feel the need to almost shoot of force a pass on the first drive all the time. It is starting to get beyond frustrating........Just something that we will have to continue to teach I guess.

We have two practices left this week, a scrimmage this weekend, and then the three practices next week before our first game. After today's practice, although very happy with the effort and mentality, I realized we are really cutting it close with having everything in place before Chapman. Time to stay focused and trust in the plan for this team.

All thanks and glory to God and to his Son, The Christ

What is the solution

2010-01-22T22:25:00.000-08:00

I realized tonight that we are missing something, and I am not sure what it is. There is something that we are not doing right. The team lacks a certain intensity. It is my fault as the Head Coach.

We do our best to keep the kids motivated, we do our best to constantly keep them moving at practice, we instill systems that we believe will give them the best chance to succeed, but outside of 6-on-6 at practice, we just lack that "it."

I realized two things tonight:
1) the guys on our team, again outside of 6-on-6, treat each other as friends. That is great and all, but when we are dealing with drills and competition, those friends are the ones that you are competing against. Any time that you compete, no matter who it is, you need to play with a certain level of emotion.
2) I realized tonight that we are playing too many guys. For now........We ideally want to play between 20-22 guys. But just because that is what we want to do, that doesn't mean that we can. We have aspirations and goals to be a Top 12 team this year. Therefore, at the risk of being cliche, the guys who will get the majority of the time need to be playing at a Top 12 level. However if we only have 14 guys playing at a high level, they we are rolling with 14 guys.

I mentioned before that we need everybody to get better. It just seems that everyone is so satisfied at just being okay. How do you only think about lacrosse during practice? When I was in college, whether it was right or wrong, I think that the "image" that I mostly identified myself as was being a "lacrosse player." Everything I did was about the game.

Although I am a bit concerned with where we are as a team, it is however a long season; one that actually hasn't started yet. I don't need us playing our best in 2 weeks, I just need us ready to beat Chapman. The smart play is to have us playing almost at our best when division play starts, and then we need to be completely on point when play-offs start.

Like I said, I blame myself as the Head Coach. I have often thought of the art of coaching as an equation. Each year requiring a different set of calculations to get to the correct answer. I know the equation for this year, I hope that we are starting to use the right proofs to find the answer. We certainly will find out soon.

All glory and thanks to God and to his Son, the Christ

Cats and Dogs

2010-01-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

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

Torero Lacrosse

2010-01-19T19:13:00.000-08:00

The person who taught me the most about coaching (and lacrosse in general) is John Hughes. I was fortunate to have good coaches in both high school and college, but I didn't realize how simple my understanding of the game was until I was part of Coach Hughes' coaching staff at UCSD, from 2004-2006. For myself and my group of friends, John is without question one of the top two or three people when it comes to being responsible for growing the sport of lacrosse on the West Coast. I know that there have been hundreds who have contributed, most particularly a great man named Norm Webb, who taught John, my father, and myself how to play the game the right way. But, with apologies to Mr. Mike Annala, John is most responsible for making Sonoma State into a nationally recognized program, and while he was at the head of UCSD, we took a team from the unranked to three years later finishing ranked #7 nationally. John is the most organized leader I have ever met, and he is still a great mentor to me now. Even though he got out of coaching a few years ago, he is always there for strategic ideas I might have about an upcoming opponent, or to help me with questions about my own team. Over lunch a few months ago, when I was just starting to come up with "The Spread" offense, Hughes mentioned a blog might be a smart idea. I was skeptical, but usually any advice he gives me is good advice. So, with that being said..........

Being a Head Coach is a crazy thing. YOU BARELY COACH! You organize, you set everything up, you deal with all of the administrative paperwork, and you design the systems and game plans the team is going to use. But, the Asst. Coaches are the ones who do the real coaching; they have the more personal interactions with the players, they are the ones teaching the fundamentals, and they are the ones putting those game plans into place.

We have a LOT that we need to get into place during these next few weeks. We open the season at Chapman (Pre-Season ranked #2), in three weeks. For us, that means that we only have 9 practices to get ready. At USD we are only able to practice on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, for 2 hours and 40 minutes each day. As challenging as that schedule may be, those are the rules that the University of San Diego has for its club teams when it comes to practice. So, we make sure that we don't use it as an excuse or a crutch, but instead we make it work for us. We do a lot of unique things with our team, we call this the "The USD Way," and how we practice is just one of them. That being said, it really hurts us when we miss a practice, and yesterday was a difficult practice.

San Diego is being blanketed by a ridiculous rain storm, and yesterday, the Nike turf that we play on was literally like a water bed. At 4:10pm we started practice, it was an absolute downpour. I was not worried about the guys on the team, I was worried about the coaching staff. We try to do a good job at practice of always keeping the guys moving, so I knew they would be a little bit warm from constantly being in motion. However, our budget limits our coaching staff to pretty poor rain gear, and they were freezing their you know what off.

After practicing for about 20 minutes, there was a more important problem then the rain, the lights on the field wouldn't turn on. It was Martin Luther King day yesterday, and the school was shut down, so we couldn't call anybody to come fix the problem. I blew the whistle signaling the guys to gather around me. "What was the first act of God our Creator as we know it?" I said. Mikael Rosenberger, our smartest defensemen chimed in first, "Let there be light." "Right," I replied, "and we don't have any. So you can go home."

Last year this would have been more then enough for them to get out of there and not practice. But, as is a testament to the changes taking place with the young men on this lacrosse team, they were not having it. Several of them said, "Lets go 6's until the sun goes down!" They all started to yell and scream and run back onto the field. I remember thinking to myself, "AWESOME!" If they were going to stay, I was for sure going to stay to. We decided to go full field instead, and ended up scrimmaging for 45 minutes. The guys seemed to have fun, and got after it quite a bit.

As I quickly gathered my gear and retreated to my car at the conclusion of practice, I was pleased with the attitude change that seemed to be taking place. However, as excited as I was to see the enthusiasm and effort from the young men on my team, the bottom-line is that we basically lost a day of practice. That means we now only have 8 left before our first game. We are going to have to work that much harder, and be that much more focused these next few weeks, if we hope to take down one of the top ranked teams.

This year I told myself that I will try to stay focused on three objectives: 1) trust in God's plan for this team, 2) not stress about things the way that I did in the years past, and 3) try to be more positive (I have a ways to go). These three objectives may or may not result in a championship this season, but I have no doubt that they will lead to success. As my stress and excitement levels start to rise in anticipation of this first game, I must remember to stay focused on these objectives, and trust that we will be prepared come game day. The weather and time constraints these next two and a half weeks will be an interesting challenge. I look forward in seeing how our team and our coaching staff respond.

All thanks and glory to God, and to his Son