Friday, June 3, 2011

Struggles

I'm still having a pretty rough time with how our Nationals went.

We built a team identity that was incredibly volatile. When we played well, we were unbeatable. When we played poorly, like in the semis, we lost and lost badly.

I can't escape the feeling that this is a coaching mistake. Meaning my mistake. To build a team that you know contains a flaw seems foolish. It was a team built to be great, not good. If we'd played great the whole way through Nationals, I would be feeling vindicated right now.

I want another month with this team. Come back to Eugene. Back to practice. Iron out the kinks. Be great.

5 comments:

  1. Like Jazz. When it's great, it's the best. But when it's not....

    I had a tough end of the season coaching this year also. We fell short of our goals and under achieved. My speech at the end of the season started out with (somewhat paraphrased, I didn't write it down):

    "The wonderful thing about setting and achieving high goals is that you realize that those goals were not what was important. What was important was the work that you put in to it and the experiences you had in striving for those goals.

    "When you set high goals and don't achieve them, there are two huge risks. 1. That you begin to doubt the decisions you made and question the value of the experiences you had with your team and 2. That you become less likely to set high goals again."

    It took me a few weeks for what I said (mostly for myself) to really sink in. Being at Nationals and seeing a lot of my alums was helpful. We didn't reminisce about our past on-field successes but took joy in the relationships that we developed. I also took pride in seeing the people and players that they have grown in to through our experiences together and their experiences since.

    Sophie Donuts loves playing for you and Fugue.

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  3. a coach can't build a team without the team. we are whole and together we failed.

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  4. Its heartening to hear two great coaches such as yourselves dealing with the same things that I've dealt with after this past summers loss. I love your words Kyle...and Lou...thanks for opening your vein for us to share.

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