Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Saturday, June 3, 2006

FOEGETABOUTIT

I think I have purposely not written very much the last two weeks to offer further hindsight views of the season just completed.  I got a lot out of my head and 'on paper' right after Dallas, but since then I have had less compulsion to compile my thoughts into written form (lazy).  Part of the reason is surely because I have already been busy pondering possibilities for 2007……….

I have watched our Championship game from this past May 13 in Dallas at the big stadium vs. C.U. on television three times now.  The first time I waited eagerly all day for it to come on.  The other two times I just stumbled upon the CSTV cable production almost serendipitously, and, as if it were as compelling as "The Godfather" or something, I was immediately sucked in, so I sat down and watched.  I still don't have the game on tape.  They are replaying it often these first days I guess.

BYU HOO

Much of me wishes they could televise our semi-final against BYU.  It was prettier than the one the next night.  We played hard enough and well enough in the C.U. final.  We did not suck, and I am not complaining, but let's face it, the playing of a fourth VERY SERIOUS game in a span of five days is not an easy thing to do and to also look good doing it makes it even harder.   I wouldn't have it any other way, however.  Unless, of course, they change the format, and then I would want to be able to DO IT that other way, whatever that way might be if they alter the road to attempt to make it somehow harder for us to win it. 

Anyway, I have enjoyed watching this one for the most part, and that is certainly more than I can say about some of the other MDIA telecasts we (CSU) have been a part of.  I can barely watch the 2003 MDIA Championship (we won 6-4 over UCSB), and in fact have only seen it once or maybe twice.  It was at least mostly ugly. We were tired.  It might have been 4 games in 4 days. That was a killer when the format was that.

In 2004's final we lost as the classic underachievers (my opinion), 8-7 to UCSB in a rematch of the previous year's finale.  To this day I have been unable to watch that one on tape.  I doubt if I ever will.  I know what it looks like, and there is nothing there for me to learn.  I would just become angry all over again with that very talented group, and there is no reason to do that.  That year is so far gone that it seems like a million years ago.

IF IMAGE IS EVERYTHING, then I MUST BE A FIFTY-FOUR YEAR OLD INFANT

I think I started carrying my stick (stick as pacifier) in the recently televised game sometime while we trailed and chased the Buffs in the second half.  Boy, when I do that (carry stick while coaching in box), and I do it a lot, I not only look mostly fat, but also stupid and lame.  I can't help myself.  I wish I could project a more dignified image, but it just ain't me I guess.  I think I really would rather look more mainstream.  I am not trying to advertise Rock-it Pocket either, I swear.  I am not reliving my playing days or wishing I were in there mixing it up again.  The thing is that when the stress level is rockin' I have to do something, and for some reason I am able to 'let off steam' by banging my lacrosse stick on ground, or even hugging it, and that allows my mental faculties to stay somewhere near calm, or at least functional.  Meanwhile, in theory, the lunatic fringe within remains mostly invisible to the material world around me.

IMPOSE THEIR WILL ON THEM

Something occurred to me after the season was over, and I thought about it even more as the television game commentators talked about our game on the air.  The fact for me was that we often played "the other team's game" this year.

According to the game announcers, we were playing at a tempo or style that worked for C.U. and that the Buffs were dictating the pace of things (slow it down).  In most minds that would somehow favor C.U. because theirs is a style that plays out best with that slower choreography. It is a safety fashion feature that many teams (not me) wish to wear for games nowadays.  Things did in fact seem 'Cinderella at the ball' for The University of Colorado on that evening, and they were looking pretty dapper there…..for a while. 

FASHIONS CHANGE

We played C.U. pretty much three times in three weeks. In the first two games we got up, and then we led for the most part. They chased but never really caught us in either game. The final clash was indeed different. The teams looked evenly matched from the first whistle to the last.

DRESSED FOR THE BALL

In 1999 we won our first championship, beating Simon Fraser 15-11 after trailing with three quarters in the book (sound familiar?). We were juvenile then. We hadn't developed a lot of character yet. We were Cinderella and we were good enough and lucky enough to keep the dress on for the whole tournament. We only had to win three games to be champion that year. I will always feel grateful that "we did it" in our first trip to the final. I think it gave us a 'leg up' on our future.

My strongest recollection of '99's final is Ryan Ferrin (new father by the way) running along the sidelines as time wound down showing the crowd that he had the ball and that we had the game. Our upstart underdog thing was out the door before the century even turned. I have and watch this one on tape from time to time.

We took the bus to travel back in those days. Not a chance of that ever happening again if it's up to me.

STYLE CAN BE IMPOSING

Back in 2001 we imposed our will on others.  That was our team character.  On the field our front man and captain was Mike Roth.  He was fearless and we as a team played the game at our own fast and furious yet physical pace, and we did it relentlessly.  Teams in fact feared us.  We won that year almost with ease, as if it were our destiny all along.  We did have a 'bump' or two along the way, but I never doubted that team would win it all, and even if BYU did have Steve Austin, the "six million dollar man".

STYLE CAN BE ELUSIVE

In 2003, we survived.  We were the last team standing.  We endured with great defense as the star (The Plonkey years), and great goal tending as our hallmark.  We had no distinguishable playing 'style' to be perfectly honest.  We couldn't and wouldn't hold onto the ball well enough to develop any.  What we did have was heart and maybe one of our first true, almost functioning 'family' groups.  Heart and leadership can go a long way.

STYLING AS A VERB

This year, in 2006, I feel like we were different again, but this time by being good at playing the other team's game and in a way that almost became who we were and what we were all about.   That is that we were beating teams at their own game. We happily ran up and down with BYU, we toughed it out with Sonoma in the Northern California mud, and we went to UCSB, to their place again, and in front of THEIR hostile crowd we were patient enough to eventually allow the Gauchos to sort of beat themselves with their own mistakes. 

Meanwhile, C.U. has its own deliberate game style and all three of our final game scores with them were practically the same. In the end of the final one, however, we beat them with a goal scored that had US (CSU) passing the ball calmly around the perimiter and in rhythm for well over a minute before the perfectly assisted team dagger plunged smoothly into the Buffalo's heart. Within minutes the beast was dead and 2006 was ours.

Even with some of the teams we beat more easily this year we often came out and played the way they, the other team, wanted to.  We just love to play the game I guess, any kind of game.

This was a versatile team.  We had the Helter Skelter attack capability, both on offense and defense, but we also had, at times, the team patience of Job (Jobe?).  The result was that by the end of our time together this team was making great on the field choices and doing it consistently. 

One thing that was part of us and has been for a while (years) is that we have a tendency to go on these little runs, goal scoring barrages if you will, and none have been any more powerful than that last stream of three, because we did score the absolute last 3 MDIA goals this year, and we scored them in very rapid succession.

We had won games this season in almost every conceivable way, and the final one was also different. This time the new was that we trailed by two goals with less than half of the fourth quarter remaining and we were fighting momentum that was not ours, but rather theirs. Fortunately our furious and focused rally stole the final result just in the Nick Harper of time. 

WHAT YOU GUNNA DO WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU?

We were referred to as the "Bad Boys" of the MDIA several times early in the game by the TV commentators, but I did not think that our visible style of play reflected that in any way, which is naturally how I want it to look.  Just the same I have no problem with the adjective 'bad'. I liked the whole on camera 'angle' they took on us just fine.

Then it was said out loud by one of them, and on coast to coast TV that we also aspire to be like the Oakland Raiders.  YUUUUHHK.  Excuse me?  Let's not get too carried away with the metaphor here. No one of us ever said that, unless it was our Oakland's own Pat Bird.  Is that why we went all the way over there in the morning to talk to you guys for an hour on the day of the game.... so that you could go ahead and make some stuff up later on anyway?  The Raiders?  PUHLEASE.  There is absolutely no part of them that I have ever or will ever want to mirror.  Oh well, we are the team many love to hate, so I guess a black rose by any other name would still be just as black, now wouldn't it?

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