Salt Lake Recap
Posted by blakeob on June 28, 2009
I just got back from coaching the BK team in Salt Lake City, where our guys had the opportunity to play a number of games against Utah competition. As I reflect on the experience one question continues to cross my mind: Why didn’t we do this before?
A whole new offense.
I couldn’t be more proud of the things the players accomplished. The players who moved up from last season’s JV squad are immediately contributing at the varsity level. We talked a lot about not spending any time being “star struck” by their participation on the top team, and it seemed like they all took it to heart. In our last game of the tournament (a victory), our first three goals were scored by players who played JV during the 2009 spring season. Another point of interest: of our five returning varsity players, only two found the net on a regular basis last year. One of those two was not able to join us on the trip, and the other had to leave after the first day. Rather than being a little demoralized by the absence of our obvious scoring threats, the other players looked at it as an opportunity to find their rhythm in the offense.
Our defense looked tremendous. Just like the offense, a few key members of our defense weren’t able to attend, and we only had three long poles throughout the entire tournament. Those three played lights out, and our goalie took control as a leader on that side of the field. I haven’t seen a defense as physical as the one I just saw since 2003. The Knights will have an embarrassment of riches in the defensive department in 2010.
Defense celebrating after a win.
I think the most impressive thing about the guys was their unwillingness to be intimidated by the other teams. Most of the programs we played were travel organizations comprised of top players from multiple high schools. We lost every time we ran in to one of them, but never by more than 3 goals, and we were able to put some of them back on their heels. I think as our guys start to get more experience and perfect the details of our system, they could start pulling those games out.
Overall, I honestly think that if we win a state title in the next two years, we will be able to look back at this weekend as one of the main reasons why. Go Knights!
