Shanghai - Work to Do
7/31/11
Tomorrow we pack up and leave Shanghai. We all leave with a feeling of “we are so close” and yet we come home with a 6th place finish. We battled Spain in the 5th place game and ended up losing 12-11. After falling behind 4 - 0 in the first quarter we managed to win each of the last three quarters but could not make up the deficit of the first quarter. For whatever reason, our guys seemed to be sleeping in the first quarter. Our defense was not as strong and Merrill did not have his best game. Throughout the tournament the pieces looked very good at times but in the end when the team had to be the strongest to win a tight game we were not where we needed to be.
In my opinion, the biggest factor is time together. Many of these other teams are training together so much more during the year. Once again, we had a total of four weeks together to prepare for this tournament. Just not enough time as a team.
I am looking forward to this next year. All of our guys have agreed to stay home and train as a team. As I mentioned in an earlier email we have to raise some funds to make this happen and we will be having a major fundraiser for the team. We are working on a date in late September. All the funds raised in this event will go directly to the athletes for training expenses for next year. This is vital to our success. Stay tuned for details.
As for now, we come home and have a few weeks off before we resume training for the Pan Am Games. We will actually have about 6 weeks of good time together to prepare for the Pan Ams. This now becomes super important for us. We need to win the Pan Ams in order to qualify for the Olympic Games. Otherwise, we will have to qualify in the per Olympic tournament which is a dog fight. The guys know what is on the line and we have to get to business and prepare for the Pan Ams.
I believe that each of our guys knows that they have to be 100% committed now to the national team program. We improved a great deal here over the two weeks. We came together and grew up. We realized that perhaps we have been in cruise control a bit and if we are going to be serious about winning the Olympic Gold nobody can cruise in this next year. No great goal comes without a big sacrifice. We are prepared to lay it on the line and go for it.
Italy actually defeated Serbia last night in overtime to win the gold here. Croatia won the bronze with Hungary fourth. Those are the teams that are in front of us right now. We know what we have to do and now it is just a matter of taking this day by day and putting the work in together.
I was reading John Maxwell’s Laws of Teamwork and there is a great quote that applies to our team. It says that “as the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates”. That is where we are -as we move forward we need to learn to rely on each other to a greater degree. This is the only way that we have a chance to win the gold next year.
See you at the pool.
Coach
Tomorrow we pack up and leave Shanghai. We all leave with a feeling of “we are so close” and yet we come home with a 6th place finish. We battled Spain in the 5th place game and ended up losing 12-11. After falling behind 4 - 0 in the first quarter we managed to win each of the last three quarters but could not make up the deficit of the first quarter. For whatever reason, our guys seemed to be sleeping in the first quarter. Our defense was not as strong and Merrill did not have his best game. Throughout the tournament the pieces looked very good at times but in the end when the team had to be the strongest to win a tight game we were not where we needed to be.
In my opinion, the biggest factor is time together. Many of these other teams are training together so much more during the year. Once again, we had a total of four weeks together to prepare for this tournament. Just not enough time as a team.
I am looking forward to this next year. All of our guys have agreed to stay home and train as a team. As I mentioned in an earlier email we have to raise some funds to make this happen and we will be having a major fundraiser for the team. We are working on a date in late September. All the funds raised in this event will go directly to the athletes for training expenses for next year. This is vital to our success. Stay tuned for details.
As for now, we come home and have a few weeks off before we resume training for the Pan Am Games. We will actually have about 6 weeks of good time together to prepare for the Pan Ams. This now becomes super important for us. We need to win the Pan Ams in order to qualify for the Olympic Games. Otherwise, we will have to qualify in the per Olympic tournament which is a dog fight. The guys know what is on the line and we have to get to business and prepare for the Pan Ams.
I believe that each of our guys knows that they have to be 100% committed now to the national team program. We improved a great deal here over the two weeks. We came together and grew up. We realized that perhaps we have been in cruise control a bit and if we are going to be serious about winning the Olympic Gold nobody can cruise in this next year. No great goal comes without a big sacrifice. We are prepared to lay it on the line and go for it.
Italy actually defeated Serbia last night in overtime to win the gold here. Croatia won the bronze with Hungary fourth. Those are the teams that are in front of us right now. We know what we have to do and now it is just a matter of taking this day by day and putting the work in together.
I was reading John Maxwell’s Laws of Teamwork and there is a great quote that applies to our team. It says that “as the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates”. That is where we are -as we move forward we need to learn to rely on each other to a greater degree. This is the only way that we have a chance to win the gold next year.
See you at the pool.
Coach
posted by Dr. Terry Schroeder at
7:31 AM
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