Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Saturday, December 3, 2005

I'M A SENSATION?

I try to NOT sensationalize everything that happens in la Vida lacrosse just so I can write about it in here and try to make it all sound somehow more and better than it really is or was, really I don't, but I must say that for early December the last two days have been extraordinary days in the life of our lacrosse program.

UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE 

First, on Thursday night we had an opportunity to work as a team with a professional trainer at the Edge, the place where we normally practice and play. This trainer, Brian, runs his training business out of that facility, and this was a bit of a trial run for he and we. 

We have always been looking for ways to get players working out together outside of practice.  Now it seems more important than ever.

In the past we have only found limited amounts of success on this extra working out side of the athletic preparation endeavor.  Guys have been spotted at isolated historical times in small groups doing ladder work after practice, and we have had plyometric classes going on for short periods or whatever as well. 

There have always been a few who have worked out regularly and with great dedication to their personal goals.  We've also always had some who go sometimes to work in the gym, but then they stop or they don't have a program schedule that keeps them disciplined and steady and they stop. 

So there has been a lot of this and that over the years, the dabbling with getting really fit on a program-wide scope to play at the highest level, but we have never had all of them in there (weight room, etc.) together regularly acting like they are on some kind of mission.  That scenario would be a dream/vision come true for me.  

So, I was hopeful about the new trainer news, but I was also without expectation.  

THE MORE THE MERRIER

I don't have to control every little (and big) thing anymore.  I gave up that ghost ages ago.  I like and seek the having of capable assistant coaches. A few random "believers" on the team and just around us is good, too, and I also embrace the possibility of any sort of trainers.  When I say trainers, I will take professionals or just one of the kind that can only tape an ankle and hand out a Band-Aid.

PERSONAL TRAINER FOR 36?

It may not sound like that big of a deal, but, and thanks to assistant Coach Kale Nelson who got this all set up, we had 36 lacrosse players show up on time and ready to work at and for something larger than themselves and how they might eventually look in the mirror.  These were actual student athletes who voluntarily came out early to work together at getting better at getting ready to play together.  Wow, this certainly got my immediate attention, and if 36 are still coming after 4 or 5 more sessions then we really might be on to something here.

At the end of the night what I took away from the single session was what a great "workingman's vibe" it had been.  I got the feeling of a team really enjoying working hard together in a new and different environment that everyone knows can bring us a lot of benefits.  That seems okay to Coach Me. 

DIAMONDBACK IN THE ROUGH

The first thing I had heard about the Trainer, Brian, was that he had worked for three years with the Arizona Diamondbacks of the Major Baseball Leagues, and he was now back in Fort Collins where he used to live and is looking to work with individuals as well as teams as a Personal Trainer.  My first thought was that if the Diamondbacks even let this guy inside the building then he probably had something that we could use. I later learned that Brian had more recently worked with the baseball team here at CSU.  That team not only won a National Championship last May, but they are also a Club, so he already understands part of what that particular status in life all says and means.

WHERE DO I SIGN UP?

This training and stretching the body for and during a season is an area that I am totally looking to shore up in the most efficient way possible, especially in terms of time ($, too), which we and I never have enough of.  So the possibilities of a Personal Trainer working with us intrigued me from the first time it blew by me as banter in the breeze a few weeks back.  I admit I that am always a little bit reticent about anything like this partly due to fact that I know we are surely not going to be the framework for a financial windfall for any company or a young entrepreneur looking to get a leg up.  We might, however, be the start of something that can get much bigger.  We have always shown that potential.

PHILOSOPHICALLY HE WAS CHILL

Just the same, and whatever we may or may not have as a program, after ten minutes of being around this guy I knew I wanted him to somehow become a part of our family, and truthfully I am often not that easy to impress. 

Brian didn't talk about things like building a bigger, better athlete (although I'm sure it trickles down/up to that). No, he talked about building a better lacrosse player by doing specific things that relate to what lacrosse players do.  I loved it. If I had my way practice drills would be so intense every day that there would be little or no time or need for any extra sprints or 440's.

WHEN THE STUDENT (body) IS READY THE TEACHER WILL COME

He also sounded excited about learning how to build a better lacrosse player because he had not done that yet.  He is enthusiastic to learn.  What a great quality for a teacher to have if you ask me.  Brian already knows the ingredients to make "better" baseball players for example, but he is juiced by the whole different make up of a game like lacrosse, and the dynamic that more violent commonplace action gives a game and obviously an individual. 

I am always fascinated and refreshed by analytical thought in athletics that isn't used to either pick a fantasy football team or winners in Vegas.

POLITICALLY INCORRECT UNTIL I DIE

Trainer Guy didn't have so much aerobic energy that I wanted to smack him, either, like that longhaired, infomercial, muscle freak dude on steroids and his little treadmill doohickey he sells.  I do wish to smack that guy.  With the remote in my hand he is only ever there for a second.  I can handle it. 

Brian's demeanor just seems to suit our team personality, kind of like our own most wonderful team chiropractor guy a team could ever have, the one and only Dr. Ron Krugman, only different. 

By the way, I might describe it (our workout approach) as the "We have never, nor will we ever do a jumping jack, at least in public, and only p_____s do" attitude.  Not everyone can "fit in" with us.  Or should I say not everyone would want to fit in with us?

HE DON'T HATE ME

Brian seemed like the kind of guy who could perhaps put up with me, too.  Wow, the daily double.  If I sound excited about the possibilities of something unknown, again, it's only because I am. 

He was clear about ways to work with us as a team.  His focus during the stretch that he took us through was fresh and it focused on the leg muscles and whole body movement, which almost got my tai chi juices going a little, so that was cool and reinforcing for me.

So my greatest hope is that we can maybe get a couple of our players on a personal program with Brian and do enough with him as a team so that not only can we learn from him and use and learn his techniques, but also maybe we can get him in the "trenches" a little bit with us.  You can never have too many powerful positive forces working among you, or at least that sounds good to me.

SANTA IS NOT JUST ANOTHER HO

Then Friday night, last night, we had this most amazing family gathering, our first "annual" Christmas dinner.  There were more than 150 people present, including players, girlfriends, and family.  That many people made for an almost electric type of atmosphere.  It seemed like the entire room was engaged in conversation all evening.  The dinner part lingered on for almost three hours.

VERY FAMILY-AR

The very comfortable and open atmosphere of the restaurant itself was reflected in the massive mingling that was going on.  Niece Tahlia did a great job of putting the whole dinner concept for the evening together.  It also was great because we were not trying to raise money or anything, and it was not only a banquet just for the players.  It was truly the larger family getting together only to be together and celebrate the things we all now have in common, the game of lacrosse, the team, and to a degree the university. 

Some of the relationships that parents of players have developed with other parents and relatives of other players over the years have lasted beyond the time all were hanging out at CSU.  For the most part I hope I am proud of that. 

When we are on the road we like to have parents and family along.  We do not find it to be a distraction, but rather a blessing.

We are a strange brood through and through, however.  As with our player base, we have wide range of parents in our demography.  We have players who have really nice S.U.V.'s and a credit card in the wallet, and we have had players who had their bike ripped off, and it was the only transportation they may have had for getting to work and three years of college, and at CSU walking from class to class is no joke.

We have had parents who could afford to send their kids to college anywhere, and we have had parents working multiple jobs to put their one kid though a state university, which is of course much less expensive when you are "in-state".

IF I HAD A SCHOLARSHIP……..

I always worry if the "Lees" of my world (older guys who tend to be putting themselves through school on their own) will be able to afford to continue to stay in school as well.

MERRY LAXMAS

The sense of closeness when we get family together with more family is often pretty cool.  Last night was no exception, maybe even special, and it left me with a feeling that I certainly want for our Christmas dinner to become an annual event.  I would also like very much to do something similar with the alumni someday.

We managed to bring a little irony to it, however, a given I suppose.  Somehow we arranged the schedule so the Christmas dinner took place on a day when our marvelous and multiple time parental benefactors, the Fitzgeralds, were unable to attend due to a prior commitment.  Somehow, even with son Garrett (G - #8 – 2008) reading an email from his Dad, John, it didn't seem quite right without the Fitzgeralds there.  I hope John has some idea of how valuable of a family experience this was, and that we could not have done something so great without him writing the check.  There is no softer way to speak that truth.  Our program will try to somehow show the Fitzgeralds how much we do appreciate what they brought to our "table".  It will not be easy.

PLEASE SIR, I WANT SOME MORE

Otherwise, and other than the grizzly fact that we more or less ate this big old sports bar C.B. Potts out of house and home as it were, everything was great.  I guess no one ever can quite grasp how much lacrosse players can eat (meat).

GOOD EVENING LADIES AND GERMS

I made a semi-lame little speech after everyone was done eating.  I was going to go into a whole rant about team philosophy and "Believers" and wherever that might have taken me, but it didn't feel like the right time to go there, so I checked my ego at the door and just tried to thank all the right people and stuff like that without falling all over myself or saying "er" or "um" too many times.  Son George (2.45 years old) came to get me right in the middle of my talk, and come to think of it he didn't seem to like my speech much at all, as in he was screaming in the background and stuff.  Maybe it's my delivery, I'll ask him later

THE PTA we ain't

It is wonderful to see the degree that many of these parents care and want to be involved with lacrosse and the program, and for the very basic and important reason that it means so much to their son.

At the dinner I had a chance myself to spend "quality" time with many of the current parental units.  I was in conversations that covered almost any subject you could think of.  I do think I asked every single one how "John Boy" was doing in school because I now manically (actually I always did) worry about academic stability and eligibility.

At one point in the evening I was talking about religion of all things with a couple of people, and I guess ultimately about the fact that my religious "denomination" is the lacrosse team and the "church" where we assemble and I "preach" moves from place to place and time to time, indoors and out.  Sometimes the house of worship has live sports on multiple TV's and alcohol is served up by cute college girls in short skirts or whatever. That's just the way it is and I guess I do not apologize for this separate kind of heathen reality either.

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