Honeymoon

For most of us, the honeymoon is over! Any guesses to what I am talking about?? Remember a few months ago in January when team practice started, in January how jacked and energetic your guys were? How they were getting there for early work and begging you to stay after? Remember the week leading up to your first game, how locked in each and every player was? What about when your team hopped on the bus to head out for the first game, jerseys on for the first time, everyone on the top step cheering? Hey, I am straining my brain myself. The honeymoon is over, boys. We are settling in and starting to find out what we are really all about. I told my players the first week of practice and the week leading up to our first game, those were my two least favorite weeks of the year. My players laughed and thought I was joking but they really are. I am a “Process Guy.” I don’t get too high or too low. It’s a long year. This is when I really start to get excited because this is when you start to see who your real players are.

I don’t know about you guys but when I call a recruit, or take a recruit around campus, or when practice starts, kids love to tell me how much they love the game or how hard they work! Does anyone reading this have a player who tells them how hard they work??? Ha-ha. There’s a really good quote that I have really tried to implement in my life: “I can’t hear you because I am too busy watching you.” I love it and it is sooo true, especially in a long season, just watch! Little by little our team is forming and guys are starting to settle into their roles. Some guys are pleasantly surprised on how much time they are getting on the field while others are shocked at how little they have played. It is always really interesting to see how people respond to both these situations. Does the guy who is playing a lot get comfortable or does he stay hungry and work every day? Does the kid sitting on the bench start to feel sorry for himself? Start to chirp to his buddies how he should be playing or how he is getting screwed? I’ll be honest, I was player number two. I hated sitting on the bench, but I was an important experience and I am glad I went through it.

So far the Warriors are 14-7 on the year. Like many other teams this time of year, we are still trying to put it all together. Most of our games we have pitched it. Some games we defend, some games we don’t. Offensively we are progressing little by little. We are not going to bang this year but if we learn how to use our team speed the right way, we could be dangerous. I feel this is a really important time of year for me as a coach. Am I going to be the guy who turns into downer Dan and look at everything we are doing wrong? Or am I going to stay positive, trust the system, and focus on what we need to do to improve? I had an argument with one of our players, who to this point has underachieved, this past week. In practice we have been really focusing on our guys staying short so hopefully our swings will be shorter in the game. Long story short, the player thought we were making things worse for him. It was the end of a long day and it really made me mad. I went home, ate, thought about it, and after I settled down I knew he was right. This kid was an All-American last year. He’s a good kid, and came to me the right way and I got defensive because I know everything there is to know about hitting. Or so I think! The next two days I let him and a lot of the other guys do their thing, just hit at practice. Turns out swings were much better this weekend. Moral of the story: the players we have right now are all we have. There are no free agents coming in. Stop pointing fingers, stop playing the blame game, shut up listen, and work WITH them!

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DC

(photos courtesy of Dustin Coffman)