Stevenson: Confound It All, I Love It Though
Friday’s loss was horrible. It was unexpected. Until the game was over, I didn’t think that it would happen. Looking back, we just didn’t play the way we had practiced and we met up with a pretty good goalie that had a great night and kept us reeling all night. Losing isn’t always bad. There are things to be gained from losing. They are never easy lessons and they are never easy emotionally.
But when you do learn those lessons, great things can come of it. Until this run by Michigan, no team had won a championship without a loss (although Sonoma won without losing to an MCLA team in 2002). Losing often bolsters the troops and makes them work harder. I would say that Michigan had that happen to them in the ‘07 tournament. The loss to Northeastern in the first round and not by a small margin I think changed the way they prepared for a season. They learned and grew from it.
And I believe that is what happened to us Friday night—maybe not to the same effect of giving us a winning streak that is as long as…well, let’s just say it’s long. But it did make us realize that we weren’t the best team we could be; that we could get better. And I think that is what happened on Sunday night. We fought for every ground ball. We took one step closer to the goal on every shot and we played harder on every possession. It was a step in the right direction. We still have a long way to go, and I hope that we don’t have to learn by losing again. I don’t think we need to.
We know that we can play with anyone, and this upcoming weekend will be a chance to prove that we can play hard on every possession. Can we work hard no matter what the score is, whether down by one, up by one or down by 10? That will be the deciding factor for a successful weekend, even more than whatever the scores end up being.
Pete Stevenson hails from Orem (pronounced ARM), Utah and is now the head coach of the University of Colorado Buffaloes. He was an assistant at Brigham Young, where he learned the value of a good ride, and great hair. You can read more of his ponderings on his very non-lacrosse related blog.
