Thursday, November 13, 2003

KALE NELSON – PROFESSIONAL BALLER

Kale was one of only three players to make it past the first cut at the open tryout for the Colorado Mammoth of the professional indoor league a few weeks ago. This gives CSU two players in two years that have gone on to join the professional Mammoth family. I couldn’t be happier that he got over this first hurdle. He took great care to prepare for the tryout, and it obviously paid off. All his CSU brothers wish him luck in pre-season camp, and hope that he sticks a roster spot.

THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN’S SOULS

The athletic fields at CSU will be closed for the winter after this Friday. Any practicing on terra firma or tundra will have to be done on foreign soil. It likely will need to be part of some kind of a guerilla attack on an unsuspecting field somewhere (just kidding). Our other choice for a workout spot is inside our "little field house that could" on campus two nights a week. At any rate of lacrosse what we are doing now is tiny in comparison to pretty much any other time of the school year when all the students are on campus.

Doing things on the field with only 10 or 15 players or whatever a couple of days a week (yesterday) is still plenty worth the time. Little good things can germinate and sprout in this off-season tub of goo. There are always skills to be worked on. The young hungry ones never forget that better skills are the e-ticket to PT (Playing time) later. On occasion I have to remind many of the more experienced players of these FUNdamental things they might have temporarily forgotten, but the younguns know they have to work at the little things every day, and not just when there is someone blowing a whistle at them.

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

I spent last week lacrosseless in Southern California. It was George’s (son #3) first travel experience. I tried to not think about coaching, but that is always hard, and I ended up back inside my mind, thinking about some of the more abstract aspects of the coaching matrix.

Before The Naumburgs left for the coast I tried to sabotage the selection of our own Mark Plonkey (#17) as the pre-season choice (by one publication) to be the MDIA player of the year in 2004. I led the questioner down a road that would take him to one of the California schools for his "cover boy". Alas, it almost worked, but the writer did further research and found that everyone he asked around the MDIA, other than I, agreed that #17 should be the choice.

Why do they do this? This just gives me extra work to do (head shrinking, jealousy control, etc.).

What is the point of speculating who WILL be best? Let’s wait and see what happens, what do you say?........ No way, Jose. We must anoint someone now, and put pressure on him to fulfill some kind of lofty expectation for later.

We (CSU) had a pre-season player of the year once before. It took the kid a year to get over his bad self. Besides, I have never seen "The Player of the year" chosen after the season was finished. This is apparently a concept with no chance for future validation, the Heisman without the trophy.

So, as I felt the warm Zuma Beach sand under my feet the other day, and listened to the melodic pounding of the Pacific waves, was I calmed? Hell no, my brain was somewhere in Colorado working overtime on things like how to overcome the dreaded Pre-season player of the year jinx, which for me ranks up there with the much more famous "cover of Sports Illustrated jinx".

I am not interested in individual awards. I am selfish that way. I only care about team accomplishments.

JUST GIVE ME MONEY, THAT’S WHAT I WANT – The Beatles

I have always wondered why pro athletes are paid totally for speculative worth rather than actual performance value anyway. Why couldn’t money paid be based somewhat on something new and different, like the season just completed? They do have incentive-based contracts, but even that concept often turns into something it may not have really intended to be.

I will not be signing anything based on our fall ball performances. Too many things always happen between fall and spring, and I can't say they are always good. I can always hope, though.

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