The CHS open & girls squad has finished their last full practice of the week. Instead of focusing on conditioning, offensive & defensive strategy, or other things essential for highly competive play, we did something else.
We called our boys and girls together (usually we practice side by side), and shared about how much we want to go into Westerns as one team, one body, one group, united with one purpose. We then choose three freshman and had them pick teams. With less than 3 days before some the most serious competition these boys and girls will ever face, we played some incredibly spirited and fun mixed ultimate. The winning team was declared by a cone race.
Tonight our open and girls team is getting together for dinner. We are excited for this opportunity to play some sweet disc, but we will not forget that we play this sport because it offers an amazing community of players and friends. We look forward to this weekend!
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Westerns Preview - Churchill HS Open & Girls
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5 comments:
yeah Luke, im excited to see it
team unity seems to be a factor holding a lot of talented teams back.
because of a lack of a coach or some other unifying factor, after the teams founders leave i think some semblance of disunity tends to arise, in the form of frustration of a lack of older guiding presence.
does anyone else feel like this occurs?
as a remedy i completely agree and like with luke is/was doing, the team building things like that, dinners, fun practices, stuff like that are sometimes more important than the sprints and drills.
just an opinion though.
Yeah I agree, good luck at Westerns Luke! Bring it back home to Eugene!
I think in order for a team to bond under their coach like Churchill has, the players have to feel confortable with their coach. I commend Luke for gaining the respect of all of his players so they can look to him. I play on South Eugene High School, and we have no coach. I feel that the unity we share on the team is greater than most teams. Most of the team can count the other players on the team as some of their best friends. I don't think a coach is a very important unifying factor. If my team had a coach, we would not be as comfortable at practice to just talk. Also when the leadership is up to the players, team discussions on tactics and ideas create a closer bond and team dynamic. I am only writing this because I get fed up with everyone telling us that not having a coach is holding us back and that we are unorganized. We have worked hard and learned a lot without a coach, and look at our success throughout the years. Sorry that this has nothing to do with churchill, but I just wanted the voice of the coachless to be heard.
South Eugene High School is a unique team that has been able to transfer control and leadership well for the last 4 years. I would tend to agree with Johny that having no coach has created and I would agrue, forced them, to be a better team. There is no one to blame and no one to congradulate other than themselves. This can be highly constructive, but always carries with it the opportunity for collapse. South has typically remained solid mentality, but the few lapses they have had, created a struggle and situation where an outside force (non-player such as a coach) could have helped.
What will be interesting is what will take place in the programs of both South Eugene and Churchill as changes are inevitible in both players and coaching...
As far as South is concerned, I believe they will continue to be a dominate team, even though last year was somewhat a darker year in the history of South Eugene Ultimate. If you look at the legacy that Dusty, Breeze, Max, and Danny created at South two years ago (2003/2004 school year), very few people would have felt the team would have continued to be dominate in our region when they all graduated. This showed to be somewhat true when last year's season (2004-2005) was a struggle for the team. They still won games, because they had some talent, but the leadership was where things were weakest. Eli Freidman (currently at Colorado and Junior Worlds player) and Marcel Schaffer became the captains. The two did not have the same leadership and dynamic that Breeze and Dusty had. There were internal conflicts that raged all year creating multiple occations where players would simply leave the field and stop playing (happened at Slopfest in the semi-finals against CHS). When these two left things, most people on the outside figured south would be in a huge rebuilding year and should be counted out.
But, South somehow managed to raise two very solid captains on the open side that kept under the radar in past two years. These two players are Jacob Janin (sophmore) and John Bloch (junior). Taking over this year, they have led a new set of south boys into the level of play that teams should fear.
What will be interesting is when both of these boys leave. As much as people counted South out when Dusty, Breeze, and the other left two years ago and were proved wrong, I can only venture a guess that when Jacob and Johny leave there will be another couple amazing young players that will take up the leadership of the team. I think the next John Bloch will be Dylan Freechild (8th grade @ RMS) and the next Jacob Janin will be Aaron Honn (7th grade @ RMS). Remember this post in 2 years!
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