We just keep working.

Wednesday's practice was alright. We met at the Curry Hicks Cage to run a track workout (I believe I referenced my plans to do this in my last post), and ran a brief warmup. My intention was to run a 200 repeat workout. That track, however, is only about 165 meters long. I thought that the slightly reduced track length wouldn't make too much of a difference in the workout, so I told Tim and Ryan to pace us at about 30 seconds per 165. We ran 3 sets of 4 of these laps, with 30 seconds of rest between each lap and 2 minutes of rest between each set. While this workout was a little tiring, it wasn't really the brutal pace that I had anticipated. Everybody was able to get through each of the sprints with very little problem.

Ah, disappointment. Next time will be harder.

We ran a pretty tough stair workout at Lederle yesterday. This workout consisted of:
2 floors of 2 up 1 down
2 floors of 3 up 2 down
2 floors of 2 up 1 down
2 floors of 3 up 2 down
3 floors of singles
4 floors of doubles
2 floors of 2 up 1 down
2 floors of 3 up 2 down
4 floors of singles
5 floors of doubles
2 floors of 2 up 1 down
3 floors of doubles
3 sets of 10 squat jumps.

We did this entire stair workout twice, and then we did 4 sets of 15 pushups, holding leg lifts for 20 seconds between each set, and then we did our usual ab workout. All in all, a good practice.

I said this last night and I'll say it again. And again. And again. We are Not working this year to make Nationals. We will make Nationals this year, based on our hard work and our attitude. We will make it because we have players on this team who desire the win more than anybody else. We will make it because we refuse Not to make it.

No, we are working this year to contend for the crown once we get there. Zoodisc is going to outwork every other team in the country this year. Hands down. We may not have the best skill players or the best athletes, but we will beat quality teams by outworking them all winter. We are going to get to Nationals. That much is certain. Once we get there, we are going to take down one of those teams whose hype and potential outpaces their work ethic. They are out there, and we are gunning for them.

We had been planning on going to indoor pickup in Greenfield to give Galen an impromptu tryout last night. Galen is a new transfer this spring who seems to be totally pumped to join us this semester. He has worked his ass off every practice so far and is a regular at the weight room. He's fairly tall and seems moderately fast, but is not very good at jumping. Oh, and his throws look alright, but we haven't seen them in a game situation. I don't know how much experience he has playing real ultimate, but I want to give him a shot to earn his way on to the A team.

Yesterday's practice took away a lot of our inclination to go to indoor. To Galen's credit, he enthusiastically assured us that he was ready for his tryout when we offered him the chance to bail due to fatigue. I respect that. However, when we got home, Babbitt saw that his car was blocked in by Robin's and called off the entire excursion. It was too bad, as I really want to get this tryout over with (Galen is stuck in the "new kid suckup" phase, where he seems to be working really hard to get in everybody's good graces - it's just awkward), but there wasn't any easy way to get to Greenfield and we were exhausted. Hopefully we will be able to get this whole thing over with next Thursday.

I don't mind giving kids tryouts. Everybody deserves due opportunity to be part of this team, especially if they are willing to put in the work that it requires. The time leading up to a tryout, however, is vaguely uncomfortable. Nobody knows where their place is, the hierarchy hasn't been established. This is how I feel about Galen right now. When we finally get him his tryout, he is either on the A team or he is not on the A team, and everybody can get used to their respective roles. We can start thinking of him as a member of our team. Or we can start thinking of him as another hard working B teamer who can hopefully work himself into a viable contributor on the A team next year. Either way, I'm okay with that. I just want to know what the situation is so that I can act accordingly.

I am afraid, however, that Galen might not be as talented as I hope he is. Babbitt put it pretty well last night when he said that he was afraid that Galen would turn out to be a moderately athletic kid with no field sense and halfway decent throws, and that we were going to have to break his heart. Moderate skills and a lack of sense is probably the worst combination to have in terms of feeling hopefully and being let down. A kid who can throw and catch is often a kid who believes that he can make the A team. He thinks that he knows how to play, he thinks that he deserves a spot on the team. What that kid doesn't understand, however, is that field awareness and defensive tenacity are much more important characteristics when it comes to making our team. We have throwers; if you are going to make the team, it is unlikely that you are going to make it as a handler. It is much much Much more likely that we take a kid who is willing and able to work his ass off on defense or who knows how to be a downfield cutter. We can teach an athlete how to throw. We can't necessarilly teach a thrower how to be an athlete.

Anyway, I hope that Galen turns out to be a baller. More than that, I hope that he can keep things in perspective if he turns out to be more of a thrower than a baller, and we can't take him.