Spring Trip Journal 2

There were a lot of mixed emotions flying around after our game with Florida. It is important to understand that a 12-6 win over Florida counts just as much as a 100-0 win. In the end the W is all that counts. However, for all of the players this win was bittersweet. The first 2 minutes of the game were perfectly representative of how the rest of the game played out - an endless ground ball. In a game that featured nearly 80 ground balls (no, that's not a typo), none of us felt particularly well about our performance. Unforced mistakes were made, both mentally and physically, on both sides of the ball. While I cannot speak for the Florida team, neither team looked very good.

Regardless, there was one shining moment that I think shows a lot of promise about where this team is headed. With 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter and a victory for Florida still in reach, we were penalized with a non-releasable stick penalty for 3 minutes. It was at this moment, when we were backed into a corner, that we turned it on and executed on all cylinders. Even if it was only for a few minutes, it proved the inherent character of this team and its players. Adversity doesn't build character, it reveals it.

Looking ahead to FSU, many of us are focused on better pre-game preparation. A large portion of the team was dehydrated before the Florida game since there was no water readily available on the 2 hour bus ride before the game. Moreover, we are trying to take it a little easier at practice so that we're not as sore and sluggish as we were at the start of the Florida game. A few viruses have been spreading around (an inconvenient cold and a nasty flu) and we are trying to quarantine those who are already sick.

Time to hydrate!

Spring Trip Journal 1

This spring break has started off just the way I think any should. With 39 players holed up in 13 rooms over 11 days, the inevitable is happening; we're bonding.

Not the cliche team bonding that you read about in books or see in the inspirational blockbusters, but the real stuff. The unique kind of bonding that comes only after knowing who on the team snores like a lawn-mower (Kaufman, Grambo) or after knowing who can't sit through a scary movie without completely bugging out (Lehman). It's really these details that make the stadium runs and the hard work worthwhile. These are the details that separate this team from any other and develops the team's identity. These are the details that build the kind of chemistry needed to drive a team to championship levels.

The first few days of this trip have been filled these idiosyncratic details. Whether it's Lawrence considering Canada as an overseas country or if it's Mierendorf receiving discounted movie fares from his AARP membership, all of us have found plenty to laugh about. Over the next week our same light-hearted demeanor will continue only to be supplemented by our competitiveness as we prepare for Florida, Florida State, and the rest of the season.

Journal Entries

Yesterday I was told by Joe H. (our PR guy for Michigan Lax) that during this spring trip I have to keep a quasi-journal that will be posted on mgoblue similar to what Eric Rimmke did for Nationals last year. I have 5 entries that I have to complete and my first one should be posted by the end of the night or by tomorrow morning.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Overall, things are going wonderfully down in Jacksonville. I have begun my recovery from the nasty bout of the flu that I dealt with for the last week before break. The weather is warm and I have been sleeping very well considering (this is the first time I've tried ear-plugs and I absolutely love them).

The Idle Nerd

The difference between my lifestyle last fall and this spring could not be more apparent than with what I have decided to do tonight. After a three day stretch of lacrosse, learning different scripting languages, and reading, tonight I decided that I desperately felt like playing the board game Risk. However, since most people I know have mid-terms this week or papers due before spring break, I was unable to find a few players that had several hours to kill.

That is until I decided to begin looking for comrades on the Internet. As of 9pm today I am a member of the Conquer Club (holy crap, I'm a nerd). This is a large community of avid risk players who have set up a website that allows members to play in up to four different risk games against other members from all over the world online.

Interestingly enough, the user interface that all of the players play over is built on the same technology and scripting languages that I have been learning over the past few months (i.e. SQL, PHP, AJAX). So you could consider it somewhat educational.

While everything is entirely private, there is a strong user-feedback system that prevents people with malicious intent from becoming part of the community. From a technology standpoint and a social dynamics standpoint, this is pretty neat stuff.

I'm off to waste more time.

Late Night Blizzard

I'm not sure what it is, but I seem to need less and less sleep. I used to suffer big time when I didn't get 9 hours of sleep (even 8.5 hours was noticeable), but now I'm getting about 7 hours of sleep and am doing just fine. Recently I've been filing my late nights with website development work and reading.

To make matters worse tonight, Ann Arbor is in blizzard-like weather. There is a very strong wind that keeps pulling our front screen door open (directly below my room) and each time it makes a loud crashing noise. I just got done rigging it with an elaborate system of rolled up duct-tape (acting like a rope) to prevent it from crashing open.

Grumpy

I am in an absolutely horrid mood right now - and I can no longer blame adolescence (too old, holy crap!).

Today, before practice, Abdul hung up his cleats - for the second time this year. After giving him the benefit of the doubt this past fall, he ultimately decided that his heart just was not with the sport anymore and has quit again. While this really has little bearing on the rest of the team (Abdul rarely was found bonding with the rest of the team outside of practice and games), this has unexpectedly had a dramatic effect on me.

There are only 3 members of my 15 member freshman class who are still on the team; each one of us is a captain. Abdul joins my former teammate and close friend, Thomas Groenke, as a guy who let the hard work and adversity get the best of him. After a little reflection, I think what upsets me the most about this situation is that in the end I feel somewhat responsible for his decision - not only as a captain but as a friend.

Some of us suffer the pain of discipline, others suffer the pain of regret.

Mock Rock Results

After much anticipation and preparation, Mock Rock was last night. Our overall performance went relatively smoothly, but, after watching all of the other acts, there are several smaller details I wish we would have worked on that would have made our act substantially better.

My scene, the infamous Risky Business - Bog Seger dance, went over without any major defaults. I almost fell on my ass when we came sliding out and our dance was not nearly as timed up as other groups, but overall I think it was okay. There was an article in the Ann Arbor News Today that mentioned us:

Held at Hill for the first time, the eight-year-old event has become a benefit for U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. Easily 200 U-M students - members of teams from crew to gymnastics, lacrosse to water polo - showed off or at least showed up. But it was a former Mott patient who stole the show.

Sure, football player Chris Graham's James Brown moves were smooth - like his coifed wig. And the mischievous field hockey team recast "Wizard of Oz'' characters so that Glenda the good witch was reborn as U-M President Mary Sue Coleman (and the wizard as football coach Lloyd Carr).

But Dominique Duey got applause after each of the 16 acts, plus her own encore.

A fourth-grader from Lake Orion, Dominique was a cancer patient at Mott for
two years. She returned to Ann Arbor with her parents and her twin sister,
Danielle, to help judge the student-athletes' performances and she did it with
panache - explaining the reasoning for her scoring, scolding lacrosse players
who appeared in their tighty-whiteys and in the end awarding perfects 10s all
around.

Panache, Dominique, is good.

So is remembering what "Mock Rock'' is all about.

To add to my glory, when we arrived at Hill Auditorium and started taking our seats I tripped over the rope that was reserving our section and managed to rip the skin off my hand and bruise up my knees in front of the women's crew, track, soccer teams.

Derf.

The SB and MR

So last night, with the exception of the first 16 seconds of the game, totally sucked. The Bear's offense was absolutely atrocious. I'm not going to jump all over Grossman like half of the world will (although I will say he played poorly - the whole time he looked nervous and jittery). Instead, where the hell was the running game?!? Not until the 4th quarter did I start to feel like we were establishing something on the ground. (It's possible that since our offense only had 19 plays in the first half, compared to the Colt's 45 [estimates], we might not have had the chance to)

Regardless, in addition to mourning about how badly the Bears sucked, I'll be spending my Monday preparing for Mock Rock (a lip-sync put on by student-athletes at U of M to help raise money for a children's hospital) which starts tonight at 7. I'll be one of five guys impersonating Tom Cruise's Risky Business scene. That means that I get to get up in front of a large crowd in some whitie-tighties and a pink collard shirt and shake my booty.

The Wednesday's

Growing up I always heard about how some people get a case of the Monday's. I even remember one Monday morning as Marsha drove Rachel and I to school from our house in Gurnee, the radio station was playing a Mickey Mouse parody as M-O-N-D-A-Y-S-U-C-K-S.

Frankly, I have no problem with Monday's. I love Monday's. It is the start of a fresh new week where you get to implement all of the ideas or tasks that you dreamed up over the weekend. Wednesday's, however, totally suck.

For the past two weeks I have found it increasingly difficult to get out of bed on Wednesday. I find myself ever more un-enthused for practice and nearly all of my habitual activities. My main motivation being "Don't worry, two more days - then the weekend."

Thursday's are not as bad as Wednesday's- it is the last hurrah for me before the weekend officially begins.