Marquette Lacrosse

Well, it is a 10:30pm.  I got my work PC up and my home PC up.  I have to choose between lacrosse and work, or do I?  Well obviously I don’t because I am doing both right now kind of together.  We had our last night of practice before our conference tournament.  Seriously this time of year is about teams that can stay focused.  If you can remain focused on the task at hand you have a shot.  If you “coast” on through the tourney, it may be a pretty short tournament.  It is a whole new season, how will it end for your team?

Well, I knew this day would come when the seniors would head into their final weekend.  I have decided to write them a letter now, while they are still “on the team” so they can take it with them this weekend (if they even read this – doubtful ).  Here goes

Dear Seniors,

Well here we are.  It is the conference tournament.  It could end up being our final weekend, it could just be the next step towards Nationals, but either way we are nearing the end of our season and four years together.  First,  I want to go back in the hot tub time machine to your freshman year.  You guys came into a program that had just come back from being suspended from hazing, a brand new coach, and a lot of question marks.  Your freshman year Pirate was a midfielder, Ernie had never played before, Matt was still an LSM, and Peter was not even on the team.  Wow, let’s take a look at what has happened since then

• Ernie is now a starting D-mid and has been for two years
• Matt is a captain and still the most dominant LSM I have seen in MU’s history (sorry Billy)
• Brian has switched positions, been captain, and president two years
• Peter has been our VP this year and a contributing pole for three years
• You guys have endured a lot of losses to get to your first wins, but the team is better for it
• You helped bring stability and guidance to a program in dyer need of it
• All four of you have made friendships with each other far exceeding the class of “friend” and definitely in the world of “brother” almost too far sometimes, but I think it works
• If you four were not on the team this year, we would be missing 2/3 of our captains and 3/5 of our eb.  Pretty impressive impact you are having

One would look back and hope that in that list I included # of wins, championships, etc.  It’s true, I wish I could write those things, but that isn’t what happened and it wasn’t your path.  That’s ok.  I mean let’s face it, somebody has to come in and lay the foundation for success.  Your impact was about laying that foundation, priming the pump for championships, setting the path for success.  We could definitely walk away with one this weekend, we all know and believe that, but it isn’t for certain.

However, I also want to point out think about the impact you made.  All of your contributions have been the intangibles.  As Andy Hunt would put it, it is hard to feel like you were successful when you can’t point to championships, but you were.  You four were as important as Andy, Butters, and Adam were to getting us back going.  Life isn’t always about wins and losses.  There is so much more to it.  Teams that are jerks can win, and teams full of “good guys” can lose.  Either way, it is about how you do things more than it is what you do.

I will leave you with one last lesson because I think it is important.   As you get older, you are going to be faced with a lot of things that change in life.  Things that were once non-existent problems will all of the sudden be there.  You will get married, have kids, have a career, probably volunteer, do some other things.  The thing to remember is to always “Do things the right way.”  I can’t tell you what the right way is, you have to figure that out for yourself, but keep that in mind.

Too many adults get bogged down in winning or money or something else and they forget about how they got there.  They did things the right way and got great results.  At the end of the day, do you really need 5 million instead of 2 million?  Maybe, but probably not.  Life is about giving back to the world and being a part of the greater good.  Marquette teaches the notion of Curas Personalis or “Care for the whole person.”  Well people who do things the right way, do just that.

You are going to come across challenging situations including situations in which the very moral fiber of your body will be challenged.  How will you respond?  I hope if there is one thing you have taken away from the four years with me, it is that you do things the right way, on the field and off it.  Honor the game, honor yourself, and honor those around you.  It is more important than winning or collecting an extra few dollars.

With that said seniors, I will miss you.  I will look back on your four years here very fondly.  I have been so lucky to coach a great bunch of young men.  I am proud of each and every one of you.  I know you will accomplish great things and I hope you tell me about them.  I am looking forward to one more weekend standing alongside you in battle as we try to win a conference championship.  When our season does end though, you can thoroughly expect a big hug from me because I will be sorry to see you go, but happy you are getting to move on to a new chapter.  I know that while we may not physically be together we will always be in communication and run into each other every once in a while.  After all, we are family and we play hard, play smart, play together, and have fun.  Congratulations Seniors on a great 4 years.  You earned it!

-Coach

It is Monday morning and I am stoked.  We are in the playoffs for sure (not that it was in doubt) but we are in and we know we will be playing in the #4 v. #5 game.  Depending on if Saint Cloud State is able to get an out of conference game this week or not will determine if we play them or we play Iowa State.   Either way, I will leave that to the administrators.  We know our path to UMLL Championship will have to go through ISU/SCSU on Friday, UMD on Saturday, and then Sunday will be dependent on a lot of things, so I won’t say b/c any team can win on any given day.

So, our new season is now 0-0 and so is everyone else in our league.  On the line is a trip to the National Tournament and the UMLL Conference crown.  The road will be tough for us to get there, but it is possible.  Minnesota-Duluth is the reigning champion and I have seen nothing to indicate they plan on relinquishing that title anytime soon.  However, opportunity is knocking for all 6 teams in conference playoffs.  It is so exciting, when opportunity comes right out and slaps you upside the head.  It just reminds you that hard work is rewarded with opportunity to succeed.

We have to stay focused on one moment at a time.  A game is a series of moments and if you worry too much about winning, you are focused on the moment at the end instead of the moment you are living in.  This focus will be something we will work on each day this week in chalk talk and practice.  A good example of this might be University of Florida who went into the SELC tournament as the #8 seed and had to play FSU who had beaten them 25-9 only two weeks earlier.  Well, FSU won the game 11-9 and went on to win the SELC crown.  What a great story of a team focused on getting to where they wanted to go and earning their spot in Denver.  We will need to do the same.

Our team will meet three times this week.  Our intent is for all of us to stay focused on lacrosse.  We have spent a lot of time investing in a fairly successful regular season.  We have been plagued by injury culminating in having only 14 healthy players against UW-Madison.  However, we are resting up, we are healing, and we are preparing.  We could talk about all the what-ifs in the season, or we can take this opportunity and prove that the what-ifs are not just some pipe dream, but something that we could have done.  It has been a fun ride so far, but the best is yet to come.

I will write more once I have it, but overall, it is going to be a great weekend.   I am looking forward to it.

You know, I kept saying I was going to blog, but then I kept putting it off because I was emailing alums & parents often enough.  So, in the bottom corner we have seen “New Hope” for most of the season.  Well, the “New Hope” is gone, and we are smack in the middle of a season, okay probably end.  However, in many ways it is just the beginning.  First, let’s look back over some of my thoughts on the season.

Difference Between Winning & Losing

In the movie Friday Night Lights, the coach says “There ain’t much difference between winning and losing except the way the world treats ya.”  I don’t know that I totally buy that, but there is something to that.  I am not playing the what if game, more the reality of this team.  We lost to Kentucky by 1 and Illinois by 1.  We lost to GT by 3.  In our first three games we were 0-3 with a goal differential of -5.  A few breaks the other way and we could have easily been 3-0 with a goal differential of 5.   It just speaks volumes to the type of team we have.  While the world may look at us in one light because of our 4-7 record, I look at us differently.  We are learning and getting better.  We are 4-4 after our 0-3 start and have the opportunity to finish our last 11 games with a winning record (7-4 or 6-5).

There is another team that looks like this.  They happen to be Johns Hopkins.  Do you know that Hopkins started their 2007 championship season 4-4.  It isn’t how you start, but how you finish.  This team is setting up to finish strong and at just the right time.  We head into our last 3 games on a 3 game winning streak and have all but cemented a spot in the conference playoffs.  Don’t get me wrong, we have tons of work to do and we need to put together 3 more 1 game winning streaks, but is a  good thing to be where we are.

Winning & Hard Work

For many of the seniors this is the most continued success they have experienced at Marquette and the first winning record in conference in sometime.  How we as a group, seniors, younger players, and coaches handle that will dictate a lot of what happens over the next couple of weeks.  Learning to win and how to handle it is one of the hardest things to do.  Coach John Paul at Michigan referenced trying to find ways to keep the guys as motivated as they were after losing to the #13 seed Northeastern in 2007.  They went on a 49 game tear before losing, but it is hard to do.  Not accepting where you are, is not something everyone is good at.

As we head into practice tonight and games this weekend, we must remain hungry.  We have to want every groundball, every clear, every ride.  If we play like that, we are going to find we can do better than we might have expected.  We cannot become complacent with where we are.  I don’t think this team will, but it is definitely something we ALL must stay aware of.

Team Notes

We have been a bit unfortunate this year in that we have been hit hard by injury and the illness.  What I think is most impressive is that our injured guys get it.  They are still attending practice and team events.  This is good, because that is what families do.  It isn’t so easy for guys to always get that, and not everyone does, but for the most part these guys seem to.  This is a great time for them to contribute to our team and help us accomplish something special as a result.

Parting Shots

-  The Beatles are one of the best bands of all time.  Seriously, I love that I can throw on their disc and listen to it all the way through without hitting skip (or fast forward for those still using tapes).

-  Guitar and/or playing an instrument is soothing.  I used to play piano and guitar but hadn’t played in years.  I picked it back up a few weeks ago and forgot how soothing it is for your soul.  You can say so much with just a couple of chords.  Say things that words cannot capture.

- This is the last  regular season conference weekend for our seniors Matt Morell, Brian Cassidy, Ernest Echols, and Peter Hoffman.  If you can get out there to support them, that would be great, they certainly have earned it!

- We are trying to get our facebook fans up to 100 before the weekend.  Become a fan here. You can also follow us on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marquettelax.  Thanks to Jordan Schrader, Charlie Klabunde, and Paden Reed for keeping our twitter up to date in games.  They will be at it against this weekend.

As we begin a new season I think back to the Star Wars comments where they look to Luke Skywalker as their new hope, some think their last.   Well, obviously, we are not fighting Darth Vader here, but the analogy is true for the start of any season.  Everyone on the team, including the coaches, have high hopes for the upcoming season.  We all believe the ceiling is limitless if we execute our game plan.  Well, I have hope, but not blind faith.  This team has earned the hope I have.

Practice

This is such a crucial part of a team’s development.  Going from the hodgepodge of practicing to being focused and working your butt off is a tough development for a team.  It seems you are putting in so much but yet seeing no results.  These guys have definitely put in some hard practices with limited resources.  As a coach I worry a lot about being in a gym and how it affects spacing, ability to teach the full field game, and if the team is getting sufficient conditioning in such a small space.  We get to find out this weekend, but the team toughed out two practices in cold conditions outside this week, just to work spacing and we did alright.

Georgia Tech & Kentucky

We travel to Kentucky this weekend.  We are looking at some lovely Wisconsin weather of mid 30′s and snow/rain/sleet.  Great, just what I was hoping for when I scheduled these games.  I guess it is like a home game away from home?  Weather aside, I am very excited to play both of these games.  I met Coach Lovic at the 2007 National Championships and he is an outstanding man.  This is his final season at GT and I don’t think that team could be losing a better coach, but he still has another season to go and GT has started strong.  They have talented players, excellent coaches, and definitely handed us a whooping a few years back.  I am glad Marquette could be a part of Coach Lovic’s final run.

Marquette has never faced Kentucky in it’s history (to my knowledge).  From what I understand Kentucky is a program on the rise and is trying to elevate to the level of being a contendor in the SELC which is a difficult task considering there are 3 to 4 teams in the CollegeLAX.us Top 25 poll every year.  I am excited to do battle with them and have to say thank you for the hard work they have put in to find fields and allow us to get our games in.

Announcements

Our game time on Saturday has been changed to 3:00pm start time due to weather.  We now play

Sat  – GT @ University of Kentucky 3:00pm

Sun – Kentuckty @ University of Kentucky 12:00pm

Parting Shots

- We do positively positives to start practice.  Our positively positive to start yesterday’s practice was “What did the triangle say to the circle?” A: “Your life is so pointless.”   I know, I laughed as well.  Thank you captain Morell .

- How awesome would it be to see Team USA beat Team Canada for the gold medal?  How good is Ryan Miller?

- Follow-us live on Twitter this weekend (marquettelax).  If we can get a live blog going, I will be sure to announce.

This past weekend we participated in the LakeFront Classic hosted by Carthage College.  First, I want to thank Coach Neff from Carthage for getting this together.  I know he and I did a lot of the work together, but ultimately it was his work that got this thing off the ground and done.  I had a blast the whole weekend and thought it was a great weekend for everyone involved.

This was the final weekend of fall ball.  The team has a couple of weeks off and then we begin to do some off season work, but we are finished with games until Feb. 25-26.  That seems so far away, but then again so did this weekend, and then it just came up on us.

Our weekend was up and down.  We really struggled to find the consistency we were hoping to have, but I think at the same time we did a lot of growing.  From the first game on Saturday to the last game on Sunday this team changed.  Every year we are challenged with a new group of young men, and getting them to mesh along with building talent.  This year we have seen the team develop ethe chemistry and skills to get better.  However, we had not had a full weekend of being fully tested yet.  Sure we played UWM and Wisconsin and both teams were challenges, but this weekend was a physical and mental challenge, as we play 6 games in just about 26 hours.  his weekend was going to tell us what this team was and where we would be.

Well, the guys showed resilience and heart.  It took time, but we began to form the bond and the work ethic on the field that will lead us to the promise land and put us in contention for every game.  It didn’t come easy, we suffered through some tough games, but in the end when it was the last game and we were tired and could have mailed it in, we played well.  I am proud of these young men and the progress they made over the course of the weekend and the work they put in to get here.  I think it speaks volumes for our team, that we handled adversity so well and continued to work hard for each other.

Overall, I had a fun weekend.  Thanks to the teams, Illinois, MSOE, Lindenwood, MSU, Carthage, & UMD for all the competition.  It was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed it and it gave us a good measure of the areas we need to work on (me included) over the winter and into the Spring.

Thank you to the parents that came down.  Sorry I did not get a chance to talk with many of you.  It was a busy weekend.  I will write again in a couple of weeks.

Parting Shots

- It was really cold this weekend.  Why it couldn’t have been 60 and sunny, I don’t know, but at least we did not have any rain.

- It is supposed to snow today.  Man, Wisconsin weather often leaves something to be desired.

- Gran Torino is an awesome movie and I highly recommend it.

-Coach

Is Marquette Lacrosse in the middle of a Jock Jams CD?  Yeah, I know kind of a weird question, but as we get ready for the upcoming season, I can’t help but feel like Jock Jams is playing in the background trying to get everyone pumped up.  I mean, honestly who doesn’t get pumped with Jock Jams?  (Alright most people, but whatever).

Our season is right around the corner.  We are exactly 2 weeks away from our first team meeting and 3 weeks away from our first practice.  It is extremely exciting the prospect of starting fresh and a new.

It is important as we start this new season, we move on from last year and some of the tough times we experienced.  However, more important we must not forget them.  Each one of us, as individuals and a team, need to look in the mirror and find out what we can do better as we approach this fall season.  We have new talent coming in, old talent returning and all the pieces in place for a good run in the Spring.  However, if we take it for granted that because we are talented we will do well, then we will not reach our potential.

The next few weeks (starting on 9/1) we will have a lot of hard work ahead of us.  We are going to spend the fall season “getting back to basics.”  Have you ever noticed, some of the best teams in NFL, NBA, etc. all describe how they “got back to basics & simplified things” in order to achieve greatness.  We are going to do the same.  We will be focused on all the little details, so when you come watch us, you will get the great opportunity to not only watch and athletic, fun bunch of players, but also a team absolutely dedicated to be fundamentally sound.  I believe it will prove to enhance our capabilities greatly over the next six weeks.   As the famous quote “Anything worth having is worth working hard for” states, we will be working hard this fall.

I want to take this time to credit the Executive Board and the work they have done this summer.  For the most part we have been able to work pretty darn effectively via email, and  all board members have been staying on top of their stuff.  We aren’t perfect and have had our hiccups, but overall, we are in pretty darn good shape, and I would argue in position to have one of the better administrative years.  I believe the team, parents, and alums will get to see this in the coming weeks as we begin to see the fruits of their labor.

Answers to everyone’s burning questions (I know, you all are dying for these)

1. Spring Break – We are going to Greensboro to play Wake Forest, East Carolina, and Virginia Tech.  Should be a fun trip including a rematch of a game we lost a few years ago (Wake 11, MU 7).
2. LakeFront Classic – We are going to be playing at Carthage in the LakeFront Classic.  It will be October 10-11.  Should be a fun weekend of ball.
3. We are working on a home weekend March 3-5.  Trying to firm up details.
4. We will be traveling to Lexington, KY Feb. 25-26.  If we are lucky maybe the Wildcats Basketball will be in town and we can catch a game at legendary Rupp Arena.
5. We have a strong recruiting class this year, and will be getting an announcement on the website at the beginning of our fall season.

Well, I probably won’t post again until after the start of the season.  I will keep everyone up to date with our progress.  Until next time…..

One month until our first team meeting.  Ok, well actually one month and one day, but dang that’s it.  I am STOKED!  I love lacrosse and I am uber excited for our upcoming season.  We have a lot of reasons to be excited including an excellent class of freshman, a strong returning group of players, and some other news which will be put up shortly.

First and foremost, we have solidified some of both our fall and spring schedules.  We don’t have every detail worked out but we know this fall we will be taking on our alums on September 19, 2009 which should be a lot of fun.  We have gotten good feedback from the alums and it looks like we may be having a legitimate alumni team this year.  Additionally, we have committed to play in a fall “play day” with Carthage College, MSOE, Duluth, Lindenwood, and a few others at Carthage College.  We are honored to be a part of this experience and it should be a good test of our team.  We are working on parents weekend and the MU Invitational, we will get that information out soon.

Our Spring schedule is nearly down, but I will wait until everything is official to announce it.  We have planned a Spring Break trip and all I can say is, “It is somewhere warm.”  I know, that narrows it down….Seriously, we will announce it as soon as we have things solidified, but we are close.

Switching gears, the coaches have had time to get together and we have what we think will be an excellent plan in place to get us ready.  It is going to be rigorous, but it will allow us to be ready to compete right away against the teams we want to beat.  One of the things we are really excited about is our “Weekend of Lax” on Sept 11-13.  We are going to be doing lax all weekend long and getting our systems in place to get us ready for competition.  I am so glad I only have to wait a month longer until our seasons begin again.  I hope all you young men out there are as excited and ready to roll as I am.  See you guys in a month!

Parting Shots…

• On a political note, can President Obama invite me to a “Beer Summit?”  I would certainly love to sit down with the President and talk about whatever over a beer, though I would choose Miller Lite
• Apparently I have an “emoticon” problem.  I just got GChatted “darnit Panch, friends don’t let friends type, text, or drive under the influence of emoticons”  Who knew?

Until next time…

Good Afternoon.  It has been a while since I last blogged, so I feel compelled to update everyone with the going ons of Marquette Lacrosse.   The summer is definitey a time to kick back and relax from the crazy schedule that lacrosse season brings.  However, it is not a time to be sitting back doing nothing.  In fact, I would argue more gets done in the summer and winter months than any other time.

Mitch alluded to our spring schedule and yes spring break looks to be heading to Greensboro, NC.  However, I don’t want to write too much since the schedule is not yet final.  However, we are working hard on the spring schedule and it has a nice balance of opponents from various parts of the country.  Ought to be another great Spring season for us.  Our fall schedule though is looking more finalized and will include a play day with Carthage College where we will take on opponents Minnesota-Duluth, Michigan State, MSOE, Lindenwood, Davenport, and Carthage.  We are extremely excited about this play weekend as it will be a super fun weekend against some top tier opponents.

In addition, we are continuing the search for an assistant coach.   We have had some interviews with some excellent candidates and are trying to finalize getting the assistant coach position filled.  I don’t have much else to write on that right now, because we have not finalized anything.  As soon as we do we will get an announcement up here on the website for you to read all about them.

With all of that we are also preparing for the fall season.  We are now a mere 6 weeks away from the fall season starting so there is lots to be done.  We are preparing our practice plans, the men are doing their summer program, and we are getting ready to tackle the full season ahead of us.  We also have an excellent recruiting class coming in this fall which will be announced on the website soon.

We want to make sure all of our parents and alum are in the loop on what is happening with Marquette Lacrosse.  We will be sending out some emails with alumni weekend and parents weekend soon.  If you are not on the mailing list please send me an email fmojeda@gmail.com and we will get you on there so you can be in the know of what is going on.

Some parting shots

• Did anyone catch the MLL All-Star game?  Wow, those guys move up the down the field so quickly
• I am not sure if Pirate is ready, but we might have to tap him to be the next Jesse Schwartzman so he can also score a goal in one of our games.
• Is summer ever coming to Milwaukee?  It is 60 degrees in July.  I actually had to wear a sweatshirt last night because it was so cool.
• Perot State Park in Wisconsin is a beautiful place to go camping if you are in the area and intersted.

Until next time, be safe and enjoy the summer.

Happy Birthday America, a few days early.  This week we celebrate our independence from the British just a mere 233 years ago.  What a great week to hang an American Flag, go to some fireworks, bbq with family or friends, or take a trip.  I love these holiday weekends as they allow for fun get togethers and maybe if you are lucky, some yard work.  Ok, so most of us don’t necessarily want to do the yard work, but hey, it has to be done.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRGUqd_M6Mg[/youtube]

Enjoy your celebration of the 4th of July!

With that said, our lacrosse season is a mere 2 months away.  I know it seems like just yesterday we were finishing up the 2009 spring season, but our fall ball is right around the corner.

The Executive Board and I are furiously working on all the administrative things we are doing including budget, scheduling, assistant coach interviews, etc.  Obviously, all of us have full time jobs to pay the bills, but we are trying to stay on top of all this as much as possible.  We are close to getting much of this done, and know we will have any news announced as soon as we have it.

From a lacrosse standpoint, we just gave the team their summer program.  Hopefully, they enjoyed their month and a half off of lacrosse and are now ready to get back into shape.   Summer is a great time to really get some good base exercise in along with some wall-ball, and then see some great dividends come fall.  It is amazing how much of a difference it can make when you choose to really follow something like a summer program.

In addition, the coaches are diligently working at preparing the plan of attack for the fall and how that rolls into the spring.  It is so important for us to prepare a road map that will give us guidance and allow us to be knowing where we want to go and how we are going to get there.  I think we have the right pieces to make this road map successful.

Well, I will write more later, but not too much to say, so I won’t waste time writing about nothing.  Until next time…

-Coach

The offseason is a time for all us to be lazy and relax isn’t it?  Hardly.  My offseason has been anything but lazy, but a lot of fun.

At the end of May, I went with my family and wife and her parents to Ireland for 10 days.  Wow, amazing country.  Absolutely, gorgeous and full of wonderful people and lots and lots of Guiness.  I would recommend the trip, but don’t be upset if the Cliffs of Moher are foggy, apparently that happens to the majority of people who go there.  Was kind of bummed to not be able to see the full majesty of them.

Recruiting

Well, our 2009 recruiting class is mostly complete.  We have a couple of other logistical things to get wrapped up, but for the most part we are done and have a strong class coming in.  After getting so many kids last year another strong class is excellent, especially given the number of seniors who will graduate after this season.  We can also boast a High School All American from Minnesota will be coming here.  The details will be announced on our website soon.

So what is the team doing?

Well the team is doing a lot of administrative stuff over the summer.  We are currently in search of a new assistant coach.  We have been interviewing candidates like crazy and are getting down to the last ones.  We hope to have our coaching staff figured out in the next couple of weeks and you will see another announcement on our site at that time.

In addition, the Executive Board and I are working through the budget, scheduling, alumni weekend, parents weekend.  I don’t have a tentative date for parents weekend, but alums the tentative date for our alumni game is September 19, 2009.    As soon as I have our fall schedule finalized I will post it here on the site.

Preparation is Key

For any of the players who read this, make sure you get prepared.  We are going to be distributing our summer program, but we all know what we need to do coming back this fall to setup ourselves up to be succesful.  We must prepare and not be lazy.  No need to live and breath lax, there are is much more to life than this game, but definitely need to spend time working on conditioning and shooting/passing/catching, you know the fundamentals.

Our team is going to be very well prepared this year and it has started with us analyzing what we learned from last year, what we want to do this year, and what it is going to take to get there.  I think this is an exciting year for Marquette Lacrosse and something we want to keep our eyes focused on day one.

Parting Shots

• If you have a sump pump, I highly recommend a battery backup.  Otherwise your two options are stay up all night waiting to see if the power goes out or when the power goes out; bail water until it stops raining .  I need to get one of these today before the second round of massive thunderstorms come through.
• Summers in Milwaukee make it worth it to live here
• Chicago Machine play in Miltown on June 27.  I will post something on our website in a few days.
• Family Guy is still one of the funniest shows I hav ever watched.  My wife would prefer Scrubs, but I think Family Guy is better.