WARNING: This is an uncharacteristically positive and potentially constructive post. There is no slandering of names and very little derogatory innuendo and shallow accusation. Read at ye own peril.
It’s that time of year and as the Fall draws near I am always shocked at how quickly the summer rolls bye yet at how distant last season appears to be. It seems like yesterday young James was a slack jawed rookie in a dirty South Kacka-lacky strip joint shoving dollar bills into Wally’s stripper celebrity look-alike and still it seems like a life time ago that we were muscling our way through Casey’s Leap-Frog Death March and holding back vomit while sprinting stairs for 20 minutes after an already punishing fitness work-out (well… most of us were sprinting at least).
As you grow older and 7’s is either not a possibility or holds little interest, the summer is a bit of a reminder of what life is like without rugby. I am always shocked by how easily the vacuum fills with rugby’s absence. Maybe for a 24 year-old (or 35 year old- hey Colby!) single guy squatting in his room-mates town house and considers dinner at the taco truck with the chick from Doninico’s as “Date Night” this has never crossed his mind but for a married dude with a child and another life away from the pitch I wonder how I possibly spent all of that time training and practicing and drinking and training and practicing and drinking and drinking. Where and how does it fit in; what am I going to do this year? Personal goals and ambitions are often closely tied to the team’s goals and ambitions. So setting the team goal is going to be a large part in dictating how my life will unfold in the next 7 or 8 months. Well next weekend is the Great Fall General Meeting and Pub Crawl of 2007 and that signals one thing; its decision time for me, for you and for the Club.
First it should be stated that it takes more than players coming to practice and training on their own to become a successful club. Players must also put in time off the pitch recruiting, fund raising, setting up fields, dealing with local city administrators, etc. Successful clubs have more than hand full of people doing these things, it is a club effort. A clubs success is equally related to the ability and willingness of its members to provide the necessary resource in order to meet its goals. If guys are unwilling to help seek sponsorship then they should be prepared to run out of beer and practice in the dark because the Club cannot meet its financial obligations. Plane and simple, it is a Club and everyone is responsible for the successes and failures.
When I was coaching or administering I always felt it was important to set some goals so that everyone was moving with the common purpose. Some were attainable so members could feel a sense of accomplishment regardless of successes in other areas. Some were just outside of those we knew to be guaranteed and these gave us our closest focus. Lastly there were those that were far reaching so that we always had some depth perception. Although these 3 tiers remained the same, season in and season out and at times within the same year, the goals themselves changed. One year our outside goal may have been to maintain numbers and shoot for a winning record where other years may have been focused on winning championships.
When we were a struggling D2 team I recall a clear division between player’s thoughts: some were happy playing social ball while others wanted to play a higher level of competition. There are many factors that contributed to the place we were both within and outside of our control but there we were. A split like this can be very damaging for the Club. Those not looking to make the necessary sacrifices on and off the pitch will never appease those looking to play a more competitive brand of rugby; those making the sacrifice come to despise those who do not. In turn because the competitive players focus was different than their own, those looking for more of a social club grew increasingly frustrated and apathetic to those whose goals were different than their own. And so began the cycle of contempt that saw many good players, both competitive and social, leave or retire. There were many other factors but I believer a primary cause was that at the end of the day the members did not share the same goals and convictions and because of this there was a disparity in the amount of sacrifice and effort each member was willing to make.
In those years with low numbers and talent depth weaning it became easier if not necessary to move away from a competitive side and more towards a social re-building club which we did. At the time we felt it was a 2 year effort to move down and re-build and so down we went. In the first years we found a good amount of success but as time passed we also found stagnation. It was not that we did not have a good side or possess talent. In fact some of the best rugby players who have worn the Maroon and White played a large part to the clubs success then; Tim Riesen, Mike Bagwell, Rob Ingles, Danny Boyle, Will Osborne and many others. We were capable and we did put together some impressive rugby however the club had come to an evolutionary stand still- happy with winning, happy with drinking beer but unwilling to make the sacrifices across the board to do the things that would put us into a more competitive arena. There are many things that are detrimental to a clubs growth- financial strength, depth in administration participation and of course numbers. We experienced a lull in all of these. Although reasonably competitive, our personal and team goals remained the same because we were unable to garner the necessary resource to propel ourselves forward. We fell prey to a vicious cycle of apathy. There are many reasons for this and many are to fault but the point isn’t who or the why but what happened because of it. Once players cease to drive themselves, they cease to drive each other; personal sacrifice becomes a distant sense. It takes more resource to gain positive momentum which is a further drain on the limited resource available; the muscle begins to feed on itself. In time goals that were once within reach become unattainable. You can smell the stench of stagnant water as the maggots turn to flies.
If you are on a club long enough you will get to know many different generations and transformations of the club. Given the complexities of a rugby club, oddly enough it only takes a small amount of change to alter the tempo- the right players at the right time in the right conditions. It can change in a season; it can change in a pre season. I have been fortunate to have been here long enough to have experienced many transformations and come to be close friends with those who have known many more dating back to the very beginning. In speaking with them and in looking at my own time here, one thing is abundantly clear to all of us. This club, right now, is something very special and more importantly this has never happened before… ever. Have we moved up in divisions? Sure; over the history of the club we have spent time and from 3rd division to 2nd division to 1st division a few times over however the make up of that team and the make up of rugby itself was very different then. To be clear though it isn’t just a change in division I am referring to. It is a change in ideal; the level of dedication of players and the amount of personal sacrifice that is being made not by a hand full of players, but by a majority of the members both on and off the pitch in aspects that directly apply not only to the game itself but also in ways that apply to the ideals of the sport.
So here we are at the beginning of another preseason and typically I’d say its dejavoux all over again. Clean out the kit bag, clear some dates on the calendar and figure out where this baby’s going. Clearly though this year is very different from years past. We have resource, we have depth, and we have momentum. We have opportunity unlike anything we’ve had in a very long time if ever which brings me to my original point. Its goal setting time.
Looking at it I think we can take 2 approaches. The first is to take the conservative approach and concentrate on shoring up a solid core and look to a winning record or a birth in the playoffs as our goal and measurement of success. Plain and simple- concentrate on playing good rugby and see where it takes us. I think we can accomplish a lot with these goals in mind and that it would appease most on the club without alienating many. Given some of the obstacles in front of us, I think this provides opportunity for success while still providing a path for an elevated level of competition and will meet the needs to nurture growth in our newer players without over straining available resource. I think if we replicate our efforts last season, which is a large commitment, we will be able to fall within this goal set.
The second is a more aggressive approach which is to earn a birth in the National tournament (D2 gets 2 seeds- 1st and 2dn place finishers in SCRFU). This would require extraordinary efforts by everyone and may require many to step outside their realm of comfort both in the amount of time they put in to train but also help build. Just paying your dues and showing up twice a week to train is not going to cut it and that goes for those who consider themselves as Warlords. We need 30 guys who are dedicated, hammer down, and balls out. Fuck it all and do whatever it takes to win. The risk here is to alienate those who are unwilling or unable to make the sacrifice and perhaps burn some resource along the way. We would need to not only replicate last season’s efforts but increase our intensity, discipline and dedication to the cause by at least 50% which is a lot given that I am sure many of us felt they were at 100% at the conclusion of last season.
If the Mission game taught us anything I hope it is the importance in playing as we practice. Discipline is critical and it only takes a few errors in judgment or skill to get the tide turned against us. All teams are beatable and every team has a weakness; the teams in 2nd division are no different. Our success will be dependant on our ability to put together 80 minutes of fit, aggressive disciplined style of play where simple error in judgment on the 5 meter line, a poorly placed pass or missed tackle is simply unacceptable period. We know we have the ability to build our fitness and if the summer time efforts are any indication of the commitment level, we have every reason to believe that as a whole we have the ability to step up and meet whatever obstacle is in our path.
The point to this seemingly endless ramble is 2 things. First that it is important to set team goals that most if not all agree to in order that there is common purpose and so that each player may set their own personal goals based on that common purpose. Without this common ground, players are ostracized, divisions begin to deepen and the whole process can slow to a stand still if not eventual implosion. The second is the importance of progressiveness in the setting of goals and personal accountability for their achievement. If our past has taught us anything it is the importance for players to take active accountability and responsibility for the Club; be it helping set up for a match, seeking sponsorship, training in the off days, working at maximum work rates during practice, etc. In order for the club to progress it is imperative that each player push themselves and each other and that often this must be done through sacrifice beyond each player’s zone of comfort. Without this constant drive, apathy will set in and the club will cease to grow and all of the efforts by countless people on and off the pitch will have been lost.
Saturday we’ll hear the case as it is laid out by our leaders. Listen carefully and make an honest choice. What are you willing to give to the Club? Choose our path.
OK. This week’s celebrity look-alike
Dean
It’s that time of year and as the Fall draws near I am always shocked at how quickly the summer rolls bye yet at how distant last season appears to be. It seems like yesterday young James was a slack jawed rookie in a dirty South Kacka-lacky strip joint shoving dollar bills into Wally’s stripper celebrity look-alike and still it seems like a life time ago that we were muscling our way through Casey’s Leap-Frog Death March and holding back vomit while sprinting stairs for 20 minutes after an already punishing fitness work-out (well… most of us were sprinting at least).
As you grow older and 7’s is either not a possibility or holds little interest, the summer is a bit of a reminder of what life is like without rugby. I am always shocked by how easily the vacuum fills with rugby’s absence. Maybe for a 24 year-old (or 35 year old- hey Colby!) single guy squatting in his room-mates town house and considers dinner at the taco truck with the chick from Doninico’s as “Date Night” this has never crossed his mind but for a married dude with a child and another life away from the pitch I wonder how I possibly spent all of that time training and practicing and drinking and training and practicing and drinking and drinking. Where and how does it fit in; what am I going to do this year? Personal goals and ambitions are often closely tied to the team’s goals and ambitions. So setting the team goal is going to be a large part in dictating how my life will unfold in the next 7 or 8 months. Well next weekend is the Great Fall General Meeting and Pub Crawl of 2007 and that signals one thing; its decision time for me, for you and for the Club.
First it should be stated that it takes more than players coming to practice and training on their own to become a successful club. Players must also put in time off the pitch recruiting, fund raising, setting up fields, dealing with local city administrators, etc. Successful clubs have more than hand full of people doing these things, it is a club effort. A clubs success is equally related to the ability and willingness of its members to provide the necessary resource in order to meet its goals. If guys are unwilling to help seek sponsorship then they should be prepared to run out of beer and practice in the dark because the Club cannot meet its financial obligations. Plane and simple, it is a Club and everyone is responsible for the successes and failures.
When I was coaching or administering I always felt it was important to set some goals so that everyone was moving with the common purpose. Some were attainable so members could feel a sense of accomplishment regardless of successes in other areas. Some were just outside of those we knew to be guaranteed and these gave us our closest focus. Lastly there were those that were far reaching so that we always had some depth perception. Although these 3 tiers remained the same, season in and season out and at times within the same year, the goals themselves changed. One year our outside goal may have been to maintain numbers and shoot for a winning record where other years may have been focused on winning championships.
When we were a struggling D2 team I recall a clear division between player’s thoughts: some were happy playing social ball while others wanted to play a higher level of competition. There are many factors that contributed to the place we were both within and outside of our control but there we were. A split like this can be very damaging for the Club. Those not looking to make the necessary sacrifices on and off the pitch will never appease those looking to play a more competitive brand of rugby; those making the sacrifice come to despise those who do not. In turn because the competitive players focus was different than their own, those looking for more of a social club grew increasingly frustrated and apathetic to those whose goals were different than their own. And so began the cycle of contempt that saw many good players, both competitive and social, leave or retire. There were many other factors but I believer a primary cause was that at the end of the day the members did not share the same goals and convictions and because of this there was a disparity in the amount of sacrifice and effort each member was willing to make.
In those years with low numbers and talent depth weaning it became easier if not necessary to move away from a competitive side and more towards a social re-building club which we did. At the time we felt it was a 2 year effort to move down and re-build and so down we went. In the first years we found a good amount of success but as time passed we also found stagnation. It was not that we did not have a good side or possess talent. In fact some of the best rugby players who have worn the Maroon and White played a large part to the clubs success then; Tim Riesen, Mike Bagwell, Rob Ingles, Danny Boyle, Will Osborne and many others. We were capable and we did put together some impressive rugby however the club had come to an evolutionary stand still- happy with winning, happy with drinking beer but unwilling to make the sacrifices across the board to do the things that would put us into a more competitive arena. There are many things that are detrimental to a clubs growth- financial strength, depth in administration participation and of course numbers. We experienced a lull in all of these. Although reasonably competitive, our personal and team goals remained the same because we were unable to garner the necessary resource to propel ourselves forward. We fell prey to a vicious cycle of apathy. There are many reasons for this and many are to fault but the point isn’t who or the why but what happened because of it. Once players cease to drive themselves, they cease to drive each other; personal sacrifice becomes a distant sense. It takes more resource to gain positive momentum which is a further drain on the limited resource available; the muscle begins to feed on itself. In time goals that were once within reach become unattainable. You can smell the stench of stagnant water as the maggots turn to flies.
If you are on a club long enough you will get to know many different generations and transformations of the club. Given the complexities of a rugby club, oddly enough it only takes a small amount of change to alter the tempo- the right players at the right time in the right conditions. It can change in a season; it can change in a pre season. I have been fortunate to have been here long enough to have experienced many transformations and come to be close friends with those who have known many more dating back to the very beginning. In speaking with them and in looking at my own time here, one thing is abundantly clear to all of us. This club, right now, is something very special and more importantly this has never happened before… ever. Have we moved up in divisions? Sure; over the history of the club we have spent time and from 3rd division to 2nd division to 1st division a few times over however the make up of that team and the make up of rugby itself was very different then. To be clear though it isn’t just a change in division I am referring to. It is a change in ideal; the level of dedication of players and the amount of personal sacrifice that is being made not by a hand full of players, but by a majority of the members both on and off the pitch in aspects that directly apply not only to the game itself but also in ways that apply to the ideals of the sport.
So here we are at the beginning of another preseason and typically I’d say its dejavoux all over again. Clean out the kit bag, clear some dates on the calendar and figure out where this baby’s going. Clearly though this year is very different from years past. We have resource, we have depth, and we have momentum. We have opportunity unlike anything we’ve had in a very long time if ever which brings me to my original point. Its goal setting time.
Looking at it I think we can take 2 approaches. The first is to take the conservative approach and concentrate on shoring up a solid core and look to a winning record or a birth in the playoffs as our goal and measurement of success. Plain and simple- concentrate on playing good rugby and see where it takes us. I think we can accomplish a lot with these goals in mind and that it would appease most on the club without alienating many. Given some of the obstacles in front of us, I think this provides opportunity for success while still providing a path for an elevated level of competition and will meet the needs to nurture growth in our newer players without over straining available resource. I think if we replicate our efforts last season, which is a large commitment, we will be able to fall within this goal set.
The second is a more aggressive approach which is to earn a birth in the National tournament (D2 gets 2 seeds- 1st and 2dn place finishers in SCRFU). This would require extraordinary efforts by everyone and may require many to step outside their realm of comfort both in the amount of time they put in to train but also help build. Just paying your dues and showing up twice a week to train is not going to cut it and that goes for those who consider themselves as Warlords. We need 30 guys who are dedicated, hammer down, and balls out. Fuck it all and do whatever it takes to win. The risk here is to alienate those who are unwilling or unable to make the sacrifice and perhaps burn some resource along the way. We would need to not only replicate last season’s efforts but increase our intensity, discipline and dedication to the cause by at least 50% which is a lot given that I am sure many of us felt they were at 100% at the conclusion of last season.
If the Mission game taught us anything I hope it is the importance in playing as we practice. Discipline is critical and it only takes a few errors in judgment or skill to get the tide turned against us. All teams are beatable and every team has a weakness; the teams in 2nd division are no different. Our success will be dependant on our ability to put together 80 minutes of fit, aggressive disciplined style of play where simple error in judgment on the 5 meter line, a poorly placed pass or missed tackle is simply unacceptable period. We know we have the ability to build our fitness and if the summer time efforts are any indication of the commitment level, we have every reason to believe that as a whole we have the ability to step up and meet whatever obstacle is in our path.
The point to this seemingly endless ramble is 2 things. First that it is important to set team goals that most if not all agree to in order that there is common purpose and so that each player may set their own personal goals based on that common purpose. Without this common ground, players are ostracized, divisions begin to deepen and the whole process can slow to a stand still if not eventual implosion. The second is the importance of progressiveness in the setting of goals and personal accountability for their achievement. If our past has taught us anything it is the importance for players to take active accountability and responsibility for the Club; be it helping set up for a match, seeking sponsorship, training in the off days, working at maximum work rates during practice, etc. In order for the club to progress it is imperative that each player push themselves and each other and that often this must be done through sacrifice beyond each player’s zone of comfort. Without this constant drive, apathy will set in and the club will cease to grow and all of the efforts by countless people on and off the pitch will have been lost.
Saturday we’ll hear the case as it is laid out by our leaders. Listen carefully and make an honest choice. What are you willing to give to the Club? Choose our path.
OK. This week’s celebrity look-alike
Dean
Dean's dad
or.......
Beaker
.
Beaker
.
1 comment:
who are you and what have you done with Angelica?
Just kidding - those are some good ruminations.
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