A Tough Loss

Spain 7 USA 6

We battled Spain for four quarters last night but fell a little short. We just seemed slightly out of sorts. Perhaps it was Spain’s defense that kept us off balance or perhaps we were just a bit timid and not attacking with confidence. We never seemed to get into a good flow. We especially had trouble with our 6 on 5. In the end we only scored 2 out of 6 of our man advantage situations. There were also some shaky calls (2 critical no calls at the end of the game) made by the officials – but that is water polo. We certainly had our chances to win but fell short. Although we will not realize our ultimate goal of winning the World Championships we are still very much alive in our hunt for the USA Men’s first medal in the Worlds.

This was a frustrating game with the officials letting the teams play (wrestle, hold and grab) with very few calls. We earned 6 exclusions and Spain earned 6. The big difference in the game was that they scored 4 out of their 6 man advantage situations and we scored 2. The game went back and forth with the score being tied for the majority of the time. We were either tied or up by one for most of the first half and then the score was tied or Spain was up by one most of the second half. We had some really good opportunities at the end of the game to send it to overtime but either did not get the calls or could not get the ball in the net.

Now the goal is to get everyone over the loss and begin to focus on our next opponent. In the other semi-final Serbia defeated Croatia 12 – 11 in a game that had 33 exclusions (remember ours had 12). Amazingly that is almost 3 times the number of exclusions as our game. This one should be a very physical game. The Croatians like to press hard and grab and hold even more than the Spaniards so we will have our work cut out for us.

We tend to match up pretty well with the Croatians. In fact, in the last few major championships that we have met up with Croatia - we have a perfect 4- 0 record. This includes world championships and Olympic Games. So we should have confidence on our side. It is always interesting as a coach to see how your team bounces back from difficult losses too. We will come out and be flat or will we come out and be excited and ready to win a bronze medal. I guess that is our job as coaches to get them fired up and realize what a great opportunity we still have in front of us.

Tonight we will study game film from Croatia. The coaching staff just spent 4 hours reviewing film and we feel like we our formulating a good game plan. Once again, I believe that this game will come down to 6 on 5 and 5 on 6. In fact, as we were watching game film it seemed to us that the Croatians did not mind taking the exclusion. They will press hard and then take the exclusion when the ball goes to center and then rely on their 5 man defense. In order to beat them, we need to break the press and get the ball into our centers and then score on our 6 on 5. It is a simple plan but in truth this is what we need to do tomorrow. We will need all of our energy against these guys. They are big and physical.

Game time tomorrow is scheduled for 4 pm here in Rome. So we are back in the heat of the day. The game will be on back on at 7 am on www.universalsports.com Tune in and cheer us on as we try to make history and become the first USA men’s team to win a medal at the worlds. We are ready.

See you at the pool.

Coach

The Final Four

The team continues to do well here in Italy. We struggled early against the Germans but our team defense really played well for four quarters. After trailing early, we fought back to tie the score at 2 and that is where the first half ended. I told the team at half that we were playing tight. I think that the German goalie (one of the best in the world) was in their heads. I also told them that I thought the way the officials were calling the game that we were going to have to score some naturals goals.

We came out in the second half and played very well. Jesse Smith started the scoring off and then Ryan Bailey, Jeff Powers and JW Krumpholtz all scored natural goals in the third quarter to open the game up. It was a great quarter as our defense continued to dominate the Germans. We started the third quarter up 7 – 3 and ended up winning 8 – 5. One bad stat for the game was our 6 on 5 which was 3 for 10 for the game. Not too good and definitely an area that we will have to improve on in order to win the next two games.

Merrill played a very solid game in the cage. You can see his confidence growing as the tournament goes on. As he gets better the defense in front of him seems to get better. Yesterday it was as if they were all working together. Coach K defined defense in his book Gold Standards as “five guys attacking as one”. Yesterday we were seven guys attacking as one. It was awesome to watch.

Today is an off day – so we had a light training at noon and then we will watch video for tomorrow’s game and go to training again tonight. We will match up with Spain in the semi final game on Thursday night. Everyone said that the game time will not be changed so we are set to play at 9:00 pm here in Italy (noon back home). The other quarter final winners were Serbia and Croatia. Serbia beat Hungary in overtime and Croatia beat Romania 7 – 5. So Serbia and Croatia will face off in the first semi final tomorrow night.

I have received so many emails from back home - wishing us luck and congratulating us after each win. These are much appreciated - keep them coming. We need all of your positive thoughts and energy coming our way. What is exciting is that I believe we have not played our best yet. I feel like we are peaking at the right time. We really have not had too much production from our centers. Bailey has been sick and JW is just beginning to find his timing and power again. Our 6 on 5 can definitely be more efficient also. 3 for 10 will not get the job done. What is great is that we are finding ways to win. If one area of our game is not working right then we have been able to adapt and find other ways to be successful. Overall our defense has been strong and we seem to be getting more confident as the tournament goes on. So here we go into the final four. We learned some valuable lessons last year as a team and I believe that this will be another factor that is on our side. WE CAN WIN THIS TOURNAMENT.

See you at the pool.
Coach

An Interesting Weekend

I was totally premature with my picks from last Friday’s games. First of all, Canada surprised everyone and beat Germany 5 – 4 to finish second in their bracket. This pushed Germany into third place in that bracket and set up an elimination game between Germany and Montenegro. Montenegro was the heavy favorite – especially after seeing Germany lose to Canada. Well – anyone can beat anyone and Germany played a great game and beat Montenegro 9 – 8 in overtime. Both teams had to lay it out on the line and both were physically spent after the game. That was good to see as we were resting up and preparing for our next game.

As it was last year in Beijing, I believe this extra day off in this type of tournament is huge. We resting physically and mentally and at this point everyone is healthy. Although, Ryan Bailey is still recovering from the virus that knocked him down last week. We should be at full power for our game tomorrow night against Germany.

The game is scheduled for 9 pm here in Rome so it should be on back home at 12 noon. Many have emailed and asked if I like the match up with Germany better than Montenegro. I think that we are going to be ready no matter whom we played next. We have had trouble with Montenegro lately. They have beaten us 2 times in the last month and seemed to have been really playing well during the World League finals earlier this month. Germany would appear to be a better match up for us but they present some problems too. The biggest potential problem is they have one of the best and most experienced goalies in the world. Their goalie is 42 years old. He retired after the Olympics last year and is making a comeback here at this tournament. He has been around a long time. In fact, I played against him in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He was playing for Russia at the time. He is good but in my opinion, Merrill is even better. Either way a great performance by a goalie can make the difference in this type of game.

The Germans are big and physical and they do a lot of grabbing and holding which will slow us down if we play into that style. We need to be mobile, swim and keep them off balance. They don’t have a real strong center game so we should be able to press them out. They do have some of the best outside shooters in the world so we will need to be on top of our game on defense. It should be a very good game and I know that we are all very excited about playing again. I do believe that we are the better team. We need to bring our best game and continue to play with good fundamentals. 6 on 5 and 5 on 6 will be a big key. We need to be aggressive and confident against this goalie.

We had a very good meeting with Peter Haberl our sports psychologist. We talked about Germany and the potential danger of taking them lightly or getting intimidated by the German goalie. It is rewarding to see these guys share their thoughts and concerns with each other. That is the beauty of team. Everyone is there for each other and as we go through these tournaments we lean on each other more and more. It is coming together and we are ready for the next challenge.

Training has been going well. We have a video meeting tonight to go over game film and then one easy pre game loosen out in the middle of the day before we battle. I hope you all can watch the game and cheer loud as we attempt to get back to the final four with a win tomorrow. I am excited and I know the guys are too. Our dream is to become World Champions. William Shakespeare once said “Dreams are but thoughts until their effects be tried.” We will be tested and tried and we will find out this week if we have what it takes to make that dream come true.

See you at the pool.

Coach

Hard Fought Battle

Today was another good test for us as a team. Last night Ryan Bailey came down with a fever. We immediately went into isolation mode and separated Jeff Powers from Ryan. Hopefully, this bug does not run through the team. Ryan did not feel much better this morning and the team doctor recommended that we hold him out. She believes that he might have strep throat. Yikes…

During our pre game meeting today, I reminded the guys that in order for us to become champions we will have to overcome the obstacles that are placed in our way. I told them that many of the greatest moments in sports have been teams or individuals that have overcome great obstacles to win big games. I told them about one of my favorite examples of this. During the 80’s the Lakers were facing a game 7in the playoffs without their big center Kareem Abdul Jabar. He had sprained his ankle and was out. It did not look good for the Lakers who seemed to be overmatched without a big man. However, behind Magic Johnson the team rallied and overcame what seemed to be great odds to win the NBA Championship. It was pretty amazing.

At game time, Ryan came to me and said he wanted to give it a go and see what he could do to help the team. He started and actually scored the first goal of the game. Overall, we were definitely off a little today. We did not have the same intensity or energy. Perhaps it was Romania’s scrappy defense or maybe we were just off today but it was a battle. The Romanian’s took a 2 – 1 lead after the first quarter. We came back and scored the next two goals to go ahead 3 – 2 at the half. On the break, I reminded the team that even when the offense is struggling, we need to stay focused on our defense. Win every series on defense was our goal.

We came out with some good energy in the second half and scored the first goal to go ahead 4 – 2. Romania was not done as they fought back and scored two in a row to tie the score at 4. We battled back and forth and ultimately took control of the game down the stretch. Layne Beaubien had three goals for us today to lead the team and Tony Azevedo scored a big goal near the end to seal the win. Jesse Smith, Justin Johnson and Ryan Bailey also scored. We won 7 – 5 to advance first in our bracket and earn an extra day off. We will not play again until Tuesday, when we will match up with the winner of the Montenegro/Canada game. It will be nice having some down time both physically and mentally it will be a nice break. We will have a light training tomorrow and then get back to work focusing in on our game plan for Montenegro (the likely winner against Canada) on Tuesday.

I received a great compliment from Jesse Smith after the game today. He told me that in the past we have surely lost this type of game. We were off and struggling but we stayed together and battled for the win. He then said “Thanks for helping us to find that confidence in ourselves and win”. These are the rewards that make coaching so special. To be a part of these guys lives and to help them grow as a team and hopefully as individuals as we go through our journey together. As I have said before, I have grown from this experience too. It is incredible.

Tomorrow is exciting in that my family arrives. Sheridan has been very cute on the phone – screaming in excitement with the news of each victory. They are excited to come and support the team and of course take in the sites of Rome while they are here. Sheridan has also been asking about Merrill all the time. She is his biggest fan.

Rick's wife, Brenda and Ryan’s wife, Rebecca also arrive tomorrow. Merrill’s parents come in and perhaps a few others. Our family grows over here and hopefully we are ready to give them some excitement as we make a run to become World Champions. It certainly will not be easy but it can be done. Here is my quote for the day “Whether you think you can or you can’t you are probably right”. We believe that we can do this. Send all your positive thoughts our way. We are half way there. Three wins away from gold.

See you at the pool.

Coach

Staying Focused

Today we faced a Macedonia team that we knew we should beat. These games can be difficult because many times when you take your opponent lightly – it turns out to be a battle. So the key today was to come out with some fire in our eyes and stay focused for four quarters. The team did well. They came out on fire again (similar to Monday night) and before we knew it we were in control with a 5 – 0 lead. It has been a long time since we have had a lead like that on anyone. We continued to dominate play and led 8 – 2 at the half and 11 – 4 after three quarters. The final score was USA 13 – Macedonia 6.

Two games – two wins. Winning is definitely fun. Everyone is happy and the momentum is building. Tomorrow we train in the afternoon and then on Friday at 12:10we will face Romania. Romania defeated Italy tonight 6 – 5 so we know we are in for a battle. They have a very good left handed center and a very good left handed outside shooter. The winner of the game on Friday will win our bracket and will have the extra day off again. This means that with a win on Friday against Romania we would not play again until Tuesday. This is huge in a tournament like this where endurance becomes a factor. Last summer, we took advantage of the extra day off by resting up and then coming out in the semi-final game against Serbia and blasting them out of the pool.

Obviously, the team is playing well and the guys seem to be coming together more everyday. They are family and as a coach that is what you want. Today after the game the entire team took the time to hang out with a group of high school players that have been traveling around Europe. The kids and their families were overjoyed. It was nice the see the guys willing to give back and connect with some up and coming young players.

It was very hot and humid over here today. I went over this morning with Ryan Brown and we watched Croatia beat Montenegro 11 – 4. It was surprisingly lopsided. Even though the game was at 10:50 am it was very hot and not much fun to be in the stands. Our game was at 5:00 pm and the sun was still blistering hot. There is no shade on the deck so 12:10 on Friday should be an oven.

There have been a few other surprises too. Spain beat Serbia 11 – 9 and Germany tied Hungary 7 – 7. There are four teams that are 2 – 0 (two of them in our bracket). USA, Romania, Croatia and Spain. Obviously, this is where we wanted to be. We are in control of our own destiny. A win on Friday means we are top 8 and two wins away from a medal. Three wins away from the gold.

It is time to call it a night and get some sleep. We have some game film to break down tomorrow and then an afternoon training session. All that matters now is Romania. One game at a time – one possession at a time. Keep the focus – keep the edge. So far we are playing like champions and living our standards.

See you at the pool.
Coach

Passing the First Test

The guys came through with flying colors last night. We came out with great energy and took at 3 – 1 lead. We built that lead to 5 - 3 at the half. The Italians made a run and actually tied the came at 6 all in the fourth. We immediately scored two quick goals and took control of the game. It was nice to see the guys be able to stay together and work hard to regain the momentum. The bottom line – we came into a tough environment and did a great job. I was very proud of the team. It was a nice team win. Although our scoring was not as balanced as it has been in some big games in the past, it was definitely a team win. Our defense held the Italians to 8 goals and we gave up a cheap one with 7 seconds left in the game. Merrill played great in the goal and Tony led the team with 4 goals, Layne had 3, Jesse 1 and Peter V. had 1.


This was a very emotional game with lots of energy from a sold out stadium. Now our job as coaches is to bring them back to earth and make sure we stay focused on the task at hand. Tomorrow we play Macedonia. We really don’t know much about them as we have only seen them play one game here in this tournament. They are made up of a bunch of old Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin players. This is a team that actually beat Greece last year to knock them out of the World Championships. They can be dangerous. Yesterday they lost 6 – 4 to Romania and they did not look so good. However, I am sure they will be fired up to play us. We need to stay focused as we are now totally in control of our bracket. We play Macedonia tomorrow and then Romania on Friday. Two wins means that we automatically advance to the top 8 and get two extra days off which as we saw last year in Beijing is a huge advantage.

We had a light training today and went over some game film for tomorrow. Game time tomorrow is at 5:00 pm. The real key for us is to stay focused and to be consistent – if we can play with the same energy and team work we played with last night then we can beat anyone. I have attached a few pictures from last night’s game. Keep on cheering for us. Go USA.

See you at the pool.

Coach

I received an email from a friend today with a great quote from Lou Holtz (one of the best football coaches ever). The quote read “I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary”. Have an extraordinary day!

Ready or Not

I guess no matter what as a coach you always have a little doubt as to whether or not you have done everything that you could have done to get your team ready. In Beijing, I had a good meltdown prior to our first game with China. I was very nervous and felt like I was going to faint. It was not until I went down on my knees in the locker room and handed it all over to God that I finally felt a comfort of knowing that their was nothing else I could do. I felt a comfort that stayed with me the rest of the tournament.

So here I am on day one finding myself a bit nervous again. In reality, we have had just three weeks together as a team to prepare for this tournament. We have had to balance conditioning and tactics and use our time as wisely as possible. We did our best not to waste any workouts. It feels like we had to rush through a great deal in a short amount of time. So I am a bit more nervous feeling like we have not prepared as well as we could have if we would have had more time. I guess that is the would of, should of, could of - that no one can really afford to get into. Like my Dad taught me years ago – you go out and you give it your best shot and then you should be satisfied. I am confident that our staff has done that. We have done our best to prepare these guys in the amount of time that we had.

In our meetings I have reminded the guys of what we went through last year. I have encouraged them to use that as an anchor – to help them to feel a comfort in knowing that we can do this. We can perform at our best in the biggest stage. We did that last summer and now I am asking them to do that again. That is what tonight is about and that is what this entire tournament is about. Testing yourself and your team to see how far you can go. I know very well and the guys know that if we play our game we will do well. It seems simple. There are many factors that we can not control – like the officials and the crowd and the late busses or the changes in schedules but we can control our play. We must stay together and play as a team - especially on defense. This must be the heart of our team. Our team goal is to give up 6 goals or less per game in this tournament. We all know that we can do that. It is a realistic goal – we must play to win every possession. We must shot block in the field and give Merrill some help. I am excited.

Over the past few weeks we have developed our own set of standards. These are not team rules but they are standards on how we want to live and how we want to play. Game time is the biggest test of these standards. We must hold each other accountable for what we (the players) have come up with as their championship standards. Right now it is on paper - but our actions will be the biggest litmus test to how well we play by these standards. If we stick together and stick to these we will do very well here. There is no question in my mind. Here are a few of the standards that we have set for ourselves.
• No excuses – we have what it takes to win.
• Great Defense – no one wants to play against us because the way we play defense.
• Sacrifice – the team wins not the individual
• Care – we have each other’s back
• Family – no one is closer


This is a sampling of what the guys put on paper as their “championship standards”. Like I said, if we play this way everything will be fine. In a few short hours we will find out how ready we are. For me – I think that this blog as helped to alleviate some of the stress of being a coach. It allows me to tell our story and let it go. I am confident that we will do well but don’t think for one second that I won’t say my prayers again today and ask God to guide us through another fun adventure. It is time to create a new chapter in this book of life. Do we have it in us to become world champions or even win a medal? We will all find out over the next couple of weeks. I am looking forward to the tournament getting started. Buckle your seatbelt and hang on because I believe it will be a great adventure.

See you at the pool.

Coach

P.S. Todays game is being televised on universalsports.com @ 11:35

Italian Home Cooking

It was an interesting day here in Rome. Tony Azevedo (our team captain) was awakened by a knocking on his hotel door at 5 am. It turned out to be four police officers who said that there were some problems with immigration and Tony would have to go down to the police station with them. As it turned out, he talked them out of going with them at 5 am and agreed to go down to the police station after our morning training. Obviously, when I found out about this I was a bit concerned and upset.


Our training was set for 9 – 11 am at the competition pool. The first hour was with Germany and then we were to be on our own for the second hour. Our bus arrived at 8:45 and when we arrived at the pool we were informed that they had had changed our training time and we were now suppose to be in from 8:30 – 10:30 with only one hour in the competition pool and the other hour in the warm up pool. Apparently our host had been called last night at 10 pm but had never informed us of any changes.

After practice, Tony went down to the police station with Ryan Brown and the head of the USA delegation here. As it turned out - they had Tony sign a piece of paper that appeared to be some bogus document and he was done. It appears that they are doing whatever they can do throw us off balance. I think the guys rolled with it pretty good and if anything they all are saying that they would expect no less from the Italians. I believe that we are maturing. We are becoming mentally tougher. In the past this is the stuff that would have really got under our skin. It nice to see the guys just brush it off.

Training went well today. We also had training on our own tonight at a pool just outside the city and we spent the time walking through our 5 man defense. Once again, the 6 on 5 and the 5 man defense (man down) will be big keys as we get into this tournament.

Today was our first look at the competition venue. It was very impressive. They put a temporary pool inside a tennis stadium. The water polo venue seats 5,000 spectators and it is very nicely done. I have attached a couple of pictures so that you can get an idea of what it looks like. Regardless of all the home cooking (changes in schedule, etc.) going on it was exciting to be at the pool and visualize what it will be like on Monday night when we play Italy. When I close my eyes I can see a lot of Italian fans going home disappointed that evening. Anyway, we will see what they have up their sleeve for tomorrow.


To close out a good day we watched the USA vs. Italy game from the Olympics last summer. It was fun to watch and it definitely reminded us all of what a special experience we went through together last year. Here we are one year later – working together to create another great team experience. Look out world - here we come.

See you at the pool.

Coach

P.S. The food has been pretty darn good here – so not all the home cooking is bad.

The Heat Is On

Wow – it has been hot! We have been melting the training facility in Montenegro. Yesterday it was 107 degrees when humidity was factored in. I had to soak myself in the water every 15 minutes or so just to be able to coach from the pool deck. We had two good trainings yesterday. The heat has definitely been a factor with the team. You can’t help but feel somewhat drained. I know that all of us coaches feel it and we have been mostly just standing around so I can’t imagine how the players are feeling. Regardless, we have been doing better in training. We had good scrimmages against both Montenegro and Spain and gave them a little more to think about before leaving town.

This morning we got up early (4:30 am) and headed for the airport. Our flight was at 6:30. Even though Rome is not too far away, there is no easy way to get there. We had to fly Podorica to Belgrade and then Belgrade to Rome. By the time we arrived at the hotel it was almost noon. We were able to get right in for lunch but unfortunately our rooms were not ready. The hotel was jammed with people from a Princess cruise that were in no hurry to get out of their rooms. Finally, after waiting around for a few hours everyone was able to get in their rooms and relax. We gave the team the day off – to recover and do some team bonding. They are going to go out for a nice dinner in town tonight.

Rick and I took the opportunity to drive around town and take a look at some of our training venues and try to figure out where we are going to do weights and what the pools are like so that we won’t have any surprises in the next few days. Three days to go before our first game with Italy. Even though it is a bit cooler here in Rome I think that many of the guys are beginning to feel the heat. There seems to be a little more pressure – perhaps it is self imposed now that they have a silver medal in their pocket. I feel like one of my biggest jobs is to keep the pressure off them as much as possible. There is no doubt that the team is one of the favorites. Everyone wants to train or scrimmage with us. Tomorrow we have been asked to train with the German team. They have a time slot right before ours in the competition pool so we will actually get two hours straight of training. This is so much better in my opinion, instead of running all over town – our two main venues are 20 – 45 minutes away depending on traffic. Many of our scheduled training times are for one hour which seems silly. You spend more time driving around then actually in the pool. So combining times and saving a drive to and from a training session sounds pretty good to me.

We were very fortunate in Beijing to have a dedicated training facility. If you remember - the USOC had rented out Beijing Normal University for the USA team so we only had to schedule our training times around the women’s team and we were able to do two hour blocks which significantly cut down on the tiresome drives around town in a bus. Here we will have to rely a little on combining workouts with other teams and seeing if we can get one good workout in rather than two shorter ones with much more driving time.

I think that the team dinner will be really good for the guys tonight. Then need just some fun time together. Time to relax and talk among themselves and find that inner confidence or peace that being on a united team brings to you. I told the guys last night in our meeting that our success in this tournament will come down to how we handle the stressful situations. Can we be calm in a storm? When we are down a goal or two can we stick together and rely on each other to fight on and win as a team or do we break apart and begin to play like individuals. The true measure of our team will be not how we perform in the times when we are winning but how we perform in the times when we are down. All great teams are tested and I truly believe that we are a great team and that we will find a way to become stronger in these situations.

It is exciting. The “team” has two weeks left in our lifetime together. The reason I say this is that every team is different. Last year’s team was made up of a few different players and next year will be different too. This “team” has these two weeks together and then we are done. Can we create some wonderful memories over the next two weeks that will surely last a lifetime? I believe that we can and we will!

See you at the pool!

Coach

Training

Today was a typical training day for us. We began the day with weights and cardio work in the gym at 9:00 am. Next, we had about an hour on our own before we scrimmaged four quarters with Spain. It was good training and it gave us a chance to play against a team that will play a similar style of game to Italy. The scrimmage went well. It was close and it was obvious that we did not quite have our legs yet. The first 2 – 3 days are always difficult and I believe each day now we will get stronger and stronger.

After lunch the guys settled in for an afternoon nap. Typically this is a 2 – 3 hour rest period. Then came a light snack and back to the pool. In the evening we had about an hour and a half on our own and then we scrimmaged against Montenegro. After jumping on them 6 – 0 we cruised to a 12 - 6 win in 2 plus quarters. The guys looked like they were starting to feel better this evening. It was a good confidence builder and hopefully, we will build on this as we go forward. The final part of the day consisted of dinner and then relaxing before getting a good night’s sleep.

All in all it is a pretty normal day in our water polo life. Eat, sleep and play water polo. Tomorrow will be much the same. We will scrimmage with Spain in the morning and Montenegro in the afternoon. It is great training for us and it is preparing us well for Rome. We now are 6 days away from our first match at the Championships. It is getting more and more exciting as the anticipation builds.

The best news of the day was that our luggage arrived. Most everyone received their bags this morning before training and Tony finally received his this afternoon. It was a bit interesting that not only did we smell better but we also played better this afternoon.

Things are looking up. See you at the pool.

Coach

Another Adventure

We are off on our final trip off the summer – the World Championships. We left LAX on Saturday and finally arrived in Montenegro on Sunday night around 8 pm. It was a long day of travel with stops in Frankfurt and Belgrade. Unfortunately, most of our bags are still in one of those cities. My chiropractic table made it but none of my clothes. So as I write this I am going on three days with the same clothes. I guess it just adds to the adventure. Half the team is wearing the same outfit everyday. We were told our bags would probably get here today but no such luck. It just so happen that today was Montenegro’s Independence Day. Apparently, not too many people were working today - maybe tomorrow.

It is a bit interesting that we have witnessed a small part of that Montenegrin history. Three years ago we were here training with Serbia-Montenegro when we learned that the countries were going to split while we were in town. It was strange – we practiced in the evening with the Serbia-Montenegro team and then the next morning we showed up for practice and it was just Montenegro. The worst part about it was that they did not skip a beat. They had brought in about 7 new players and were just as good as the night before. What an incredible wealth of water polo players this region produces. Anyway, we were here on there first Independence Day and now helped them celebrate their third birthday.

So you ask – what did we do today to celebrate? Well the Montenegrin’s had that one figured out. They scheduled an official game with us for tonight – to help them celebrate! Here is how the day played out. After training in the morning we immediately boarded a bus and were driven to lunch. We arrived at a beautiful winery for an extended lunch and wine tasting. We had a short tour of the winery which is called July 13th and is the largest winery in Europe. After the tour, we sat down for lunch (with the entire Montenegrin team and delegation) and after a few speeches from the mayor and a few other dignitaries we had a very nice lunch. I knew we were in a bit of trouble right when we sat down and saw that each setting had 5 wine glasses in front of it. Actually, the winery is one of the team’s sponsor’s and it was pretty good wine. Probably would have made more sense to have the event after the game though. Anyways, we came back to the hotel and had about a four hour nap before the game. Not exactly ideal but the game was a bit of a set up anyway.

We were told prior to the game that one of their old players was retiring and that one minute into the game they would stop the game and have a little ceremony for him. I had seen this before in my playing days so I warned the guys that we would probably get an exclusion on their first possession and then after that player scored they would stop the game and have a ceremony. As if that was not enough, one of the officials was also retiring after the match so each player and coach was kissing the referee prior to the game. Obviously, we knew it was going to be a tough game to win but never the less, we were prepared to battle. Sure enough, on our first defensive possession, we were excluded and they worked the ball around to the big lefty who was set to retire. Merrill made a great save and we kept on playing. On the very next possession Jesse scored a nice outside shot and we were in their heads a little. A few possessions later Montenegro earned a second exclusion. Once again, they worked the ball to their lefty who shot and scored on a ball that was deflected. The game was immediately stopped and after a five minute ceremony in which the player received a great standing ovation - he left the pool and retired. They really know how to honor a player over here! Play resumed and although we played pretty well we just did not have the gas to keep up with them tonight. We were obviously a bit fatigued after our long day of travel and the officials were not going to give up too much help tonight. Montenegro ended up winning the game 12 – 9. It was good training and the reality is that we are getting ready for one week from now. That is when we will square off with Italy in the first game of the World Championships.

That is all for tonight. I will be checking in frequently over the next three weeks. What will tomorrow bring? Bring on the adventure – we are ready. I can once again sense a great swell building and we are coming together as we share these great experiences together. We are learning to be champions.

See you at the pool!

Coach

Excellence

I am happy to report that I normally don’t get to watch a great deal of television. However, this weekend Leanna was home sick with the flu and in between catching up on paperwork I watched some of the sports. It was a good weekend to watch a couple of the best athletes in the world competing on the world stage. Roger Federer broke Pete Sampras’ record and won an epic battle with Andy Roddick at Wimbledon. Tiger Woods won the AT&T National and Lance Armstrong stayed in the hunt at the Tour de France.

As I sat and watched these “greats” perform, I could not help but think about the hours of hard work that they have put in to reach the top. As I watched each of these athletes you could almost see and feel excellence ooze from their persona. It was inspiring to say the least.

This week we begin our final week of training at home in preparation for the World Championships in Rome. Our first game is now less than 2 weeks away. At practice tonight, I will remind our team about the habits of a champion that together help each of us to become more “Excellence Oriented”. This is when your usual way of doing things is to wake up and focus on being your best - everyday. I truly believe that there is a champion within each of us. In order to become that champion, we need to develop strong habits that become a way a life and help us to become the very best that we can become.

Our goal now is to become a World Champion. We will need each of our guys to be 100% in this mode of being the best – excellence oriented. Each and every day, Robert, Ryan and I try to get the best out of our team. We try to challenge them to become better. We ask them to push themselves day after day. Over the past two weeks at home we have focused on a balancing conditioning and tactics. Many of our guys have felt kind of beat up and broken down as we have pushed them to the edge. This is what we want – to help them find the best within themselves. We will need each and every one of our guys to be at their best when we get to Rome. We have never medaled at the World Championships so this is a great opportunity for us rewrite the history books of USA Water Polo.

We can all learn from the best and this weekend was a great inspiration for me. I want this for our guys. I want them to be champions and I know that this is what they want too. Some of our veterans have stayed around for another crack at being the best. We came close last year in Beijing and now that they have tasted success they want more. I am excited for them and look forward to seeing them perform on their world stage.

Excellence is all around us!

See you at the pool.

Coach