Spring Semester Thoughts


The spring ultimate season goes by surprisingly quickly. Once we get outside, sectionals is usually less than a month away. There is not as much time as in the fall to learn. The focus of the spring is execution on the field and honing your role on the team. A great deal more intensity is required for success. The goal for games and tournaments grows from learning and executing the Machine system, as it was in the Fall, to winning through good execution, as it is in the Spring.

I know that many of you have high expectations for this team, and that is very important. However, expectations are only the seeds of success. It will take hard work, dedication, and intensity. I can help guide you thought workouts and practices, but the fire must come from within. There is no other road to success other than consistent taxing workouts, care of your body through proper nutrition and sleep, and the help and motivation of your teammates.

You can do all the right things yourself, but if you do not make your teammates better, the team will not succeed. It gets cold, and as fired up as you may be now, come those cold, dark windy days in February, you will need help to get outside and run, get to the gym, and take care of your body. Organize small groups of people who live near to each other to find times to workout together. If you need help figuring out what workouts to do ask older guys on the team what they do to workout. Come to the power gym, and learn form our trainer.

This short time frame of the Spring means that we must be prepared for high intensity practices as soon as we get out side. This requires strenuous workout starting as soon as possible. Make time for the team. Working out is not something you should do when you have the time to do so. Schedule time for your workouts, and let others know when your going to do them, so that they may join you. School gets busy, but you have the time to get in shape. How much time to you spend watching TV or playing video games? Take some of that time and use it to make the team better by getting in shape.

Why subject yourself to this? There is no joy greater I have ever felt than late in the afternoon on April 30, 2000. Playing against Humboldt, and guarding their best player, I got a layout block on a high release to the break side. I ran to the front corner of the endzone, where a teammate found me for the winning goal in the game to go to Nationals. Going into that weekend, I knew that if we played well, we'd have a chance to go to the Show. That moment, when we had done it, was so very wonderful. That moment is there for you too, but it will take hard work and the help of your teammates. Hopefully you will not have to trust me for long when I say: A trip to Nationals is worth all the sacrifices, all the pain, and all the work.

Posted: Sun - December 5, 2004 at 10:06 AM          

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