Canby
Youth
Lacrosse
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Email sent on Sunday, April 6:It’s a busy week we have ahead. I am really proud of the progress we showed on Thursday evening against Tigard. Now, we need to step it up again. Here’s the quick version of the week: Monday: Home game vs. Wilsonville on the stadium field, Game time 6:00 PM, be there at 5:00 PM. Be respectful of the track folks who will still be finishing practice. Tuesday: Practice 6:00 - 7:30 at the HS, probably on the freshman football field Wednesday: Home game vs. Sunset (this is the make up of the postponed game from before spring break). Game time 7:00 PM, be there by 6:00 PM Thursday: Practice 6:00 - 7:30 at the HS, probably on the freshman football field Friday: Game at Newberg at Mtn View MS, Game time 6:00 PM, Bus will leave from Fine Arts Center at 4:20. Saturday: Practice 9:00 – 11:00 at the HS, probably on the freshman football field It’ll be hectic… But much fun!!!! Don’t forget to get your Sisters lodging arrangements taken care of.
See you tomorrow!
Email sent on Sunday, March 30:Hey everyone… For those of you who were gone over the break, welcome back! We had some really good practices during the break. Saturday morning’s practice was really interesting. The boys overcame the unbelievably cold, wet, and windy conditions to actually get better. Here’s the week ahead in short:
I would like to hold a parent and player meeting after Tuesday’s practice. It will be in Omni room at the high school. If the boys are really wet or if I can’t get the room, we’ll postpone the meeting. Assuming that we do go ahead though, at the meeting, we will discuss the season, the team, and the program. We’ll discuss the Sisters trip and other things too. I will also take a little bit of time to explain some of the rules and strategies of the game. Please try to make it if at all possible. The pace of the season is going to pick up really fast now. Next week (the week of April 7), we are scheduled for 3 games and for 3 practices. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask… See you Tuesday… Coach Nelson
Email sent on Friday, March 14:Hey everyone… I was really proud of the boys last night. They did a really fine job. We have some things we need to get better at, but that’s OK – getting better is great fun!! I thought it was a true team victory too, everyone contributed. I was also proud of the way that we represented ourselves and our community. We looked good. We behaved well. Even the officials said we carried ourselves well. All of that said, the boys need to understand that we won only one game. I’m glad that they feel good about themselves, but they need to keep their humility and know that we have another tough opponent tomorrow. We need to bring the same high energy and effort that we did last night, maybe even more. A big thanks to everyone for the support too. The crowd was great! I know that we could hear you quite well. It was so cool to hear the collective cheers, gasps, and oh’s. And now onto the next task at hand. Tomorrow’s game time is at 11:00. The boys need to be there by 10:00. I’ll probably be there by 9:30-ish. Get some good rest tonight and be ready to take it to Sprague. A note about the jerseys, it is best to hang dry them after washing, it keeps the numbers and printing looking best. Last year, we had a couple of guys who somehow stained their jerseys. We never did really figure for sure how it happened (well, spilling a Gatorade on it and then letting it dry is a no-no). If you do suspect a potential stain, you will want to keep the jersey damp until it can be washed. This will help to prevent the stain from setting. Also, I have reserved a block of rooms in Sisters for our jamboree on April 26. I encourage everyone to go over the night before (April 25). You are welcome to stay over Saturday night too if you want. The hotel is the Sisters Inn and the phone number is 541-549-7829. You should call the hotel, tell them that you are a part of Canby Lacrosse, and “take” one of the rooms that I have reserved. The room rate for us is $83.95 plus tax. See you tomorrow! Coach Nelson
Email sent on Sunday, March 9:Well, here we are… It’s game week… Geez, it has come fast! Here’s the week ahead in a nutshell: Tuesday: Practice on the HS stadium (football) field from 6:00 to 7:30. As always, please be early. I will pass out game jerseys and shorts to everyone at this practice. It is an extreme privilege to get to use this field. We need to make sure that we keep the place clean and that we behave appropriately. Thursday: Home Game vs. Beaverton. Game time has been changed to 6:30. The boys need to be at the field by 5:30. The game will be under the lights of the football stadium! How cool is that!?!?!? Saturday: Home Game vs. Sprague. Game time is 11:00 AM. The boys need to at the field by 10:00 AM. Which field? Not sure yet. A quick note about expectations: We expect the boys to play hard, play smart, and have fun. As a first year JV program, we know we will be playing against some older and bigger kids at least some of the time. We are not sure how we will match up with anybody and have NO expectations about wins and losses. However, we do expect a high degree of effort and energy, and fun. Our primary goal is to get better each step of the way. We will try to win each game we play, especially if – as the game progresses – we realize that it is a win-able game. Please don’t be too quick to judge us as a group or your son individually. Be positive. Parents, with the utmost respect, we ask that you please let us (not you) coach the boys. Don’t come into the bench area during the game or try to talk with your son during the game. We need you to support and encourage your sons to do their best. At the game, you can sit in the stands or stand on the track (not behind the benches though). Please do not stand on any part of the grass (inside the track) to watch the game. If you see someone doing that, please respectfully ask them to back up. The honest truth is that the ball is hard and getting hit with it does hurt. If you are too close, you are in danger and we don’t want that. This is new for us too: There are some things that are uncharted territory for us. For example, we are not sure if we will use the stadium clock for the game – probably not. This is because we have to keep penalty minutes somewhere and the stadium clock can’t do that. We’re not sure if we’ll use it at all. There are other things too that we just haven’t encountered yet. If it looks at times like we aren’t sure what is happening, well it is probably true. We’ll get it figured out though. Scorebook: Dan Toler is going to run the clock at most of our games, but I need someone to please step up to keep our scorebook. I doubt that there is anyone who has kept a lacrosse book before. I’m sure that we will need to learn as we go. I promise to help as much as I can. It is a lot like keeping a basketball book. We HAVE to provide someone to do this as it is a part of hosting the game. I’m sure there is so much more that I should be telling you, but at the moment, I can’t think of what it is. Just for your reference again: My phone numbers are:
(Home) 503-263-2059
See you Tuesday!
Email sent on Sunday, March 2:Hey everyone!! I am so pumped for this season. The boys have been working hard. I am really impressed by their commitment as the majority of them are at practice a good 20 minutes beforehand and they are spending that time actually working on stuff. Attitudes have been really positive and behavior has generally been really good. I hope the boys can feel their own progress and are enjoying this whole thing. Our first game is on March 13 – that’s only 11 days from today!! Sheesh, there is so much still to get done. But come March 13, we’ll be facing off against Beaverton to start another exciting era in Canby Sports! This week will have several modifications to our regular schedule of events: Tuesday/Thursday Practices: We will have our regular Tuesday and Thursday practices, from 5:00 to 6:30 at Ackerman. As always, try to be early to take full advantage of sunlight to work with a teammate on your stick skills, or other skills (face-offs, etc). (Next week – the week of March 10 – we may move the practice times to 6:00 and be at the HS. Still some details to grind through before we know for sure. Just be watching and listening.) School and Finals Week: I definitely understand that this is finals week and that school is a top priority. I know that some boys are in various stages of peril in some classes. I understand if a tough decision about missing practice must occur in lieu of prepping for finals. On March 10, the boys’ eligibility will be re-assessed based on the end of term grades. I don’t want to lose any players to grades. I would also like the boys to achieve to their highest level possible in their classes. That said though, I would hope that the boys can carve out the time for our practice on Tuesday evening. Our games start NEXT week and we need the prep time as much as possible!! Friday Practice: Since there is no school on Friday, March 7. We will take advantage of that to practice from 3:00 to 5:30 on Friday at Ackerman. Saturday Ref Clinic: Any boy who is going to referee our youth games needs to plan attend a clinic in Beaverton next Saturday. The clinic runs from 10:00 to 12:00. We will arrange carpooling as we get closer and details are solidified. Officiating the youth games is not a “requirement”, but I think it would be really good for the boys to receive this training. It will help them to understand the rules of the game and that will help them become better players. The boys who do officiate the youth games will receive pay for that work. Saturday Practice: Because the ref clinic is during our normal practice time on Saturday, we will practice on Saturday, March 8 from 2:00 to 4:00 instead. We really need the practice! Our Website (www.canbylacrosse.com): Please get in the habit of checking our website for anything. Our game schedule and tentative practice schedule is posted out there. So is my contact information. Gonna miss practice? What?!?!? Don’t do that!!! But if you are going to miss practice or even just be late, you MUST call me beforehand (H: 503-263-2059, W: 503-673-7016, C: 503-740-9703). When I plan practice, I plan things based on who will be there. Missing practice is a sometimes-unavoidable reality – I do understand that. However, a missed practice hurts the individual AND the team because understanding your teammates strengths, weaknesses, and savvy of the game helps the team reach its full potential. Shorts: I have the shorts and am having our logo printed on them this week. If you are interested in a 2nd pair of shorts, let me know. They are $25 each. All of you (OK, I think there may be one or two exceptions) have already paid for your first pair. Logo: By the way, the logo that Team Spirit has available is NOT our official logo. I won’t get into the details of how this happened, but they designed their own logo even after I told them that we had one of our own. I am not saying to not get theirs, but I will tell you that there will be much opportunity to “gear up” with our team stuff. Donations: Some of you were holding off on your Donation item (fees-wise). The deal is that we would like each boy to find a $100 donor. However, in lieu of that, you can pay a $40 Donation Release fee. One way or the other, we need this to be taken care of before our first game (March 13). Sisters: We are “in” the Sisters tournament on the weekend of April 25/26. Details will be coming, but everyone will need to pay for their accommodations for the weekend. All four of the games will be on Saturday. I think it would be in everybody’s best interests to plan on going over on Friday afternoon. Whether you want to stay overnight on Saturday or not, is up to you. Going over on Friday afternoon will allow everyone to go have a pizza night together which is a lot of fun for everyone! I will block out a set of rooms at a hotel in town and then provide that information to you. You will contact the hotel yourself and “take” one of the rooms. There may be some boys who need to “buddy” up with someone to share a room. I would hope that we can all work together to make it all work – I know we will. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me… Coach Nelson
Email sent on Sunday, February 17:Well… Here we are so close to the first practice… I hope you are ready for lift-off… Strap yourself in and hang on tight; the ride is bumpy at times, smooth at others. There are moments of herky-jerky-ness and periods of wondering what may be coming next. At the end though, you won’t want to get off. It’s a GREAT ride!! There are so many things that I need to tell you and will continue to need to tell you. Please invest the few minutes that it takes to go over this email. There is a lot of important information. Pre-Season Clearance: I have to say that, at least of Thursday, I was pretty disappointed at the number of players who had completed all necessary paperwork and fees in order to start practicing. I am attaching the checklist again for your convenience. Most of these things are not particularly hard, but they do need to be completed. I know that several guys only became aware that there was some stuff to be completed on Thursday. Hopefully, they took care of the HS part of stuff on Friday because there will be no one at CHS on Monday. Only the following players have been completely cleared to start on Monday:
Elliott Davis If your name is NOT listed above, you have not yet been completely cleared to start on Monday. There are several kids who are/were really close – missing only one item. The HS clearance sheet (#7 on the checklist) and the US Lacrosse membership are the ultimate dealbreakers. If those are not complete, then you can’t participate in practice. Any of the other items, I will reluctantly wait for Tuesday’s practice before excluding guys. If you are not sure what is missing, you can give me a call (503-263-2059) before 1:00 today (Sunday) or after 7:00 this evening or after 9:00 AM tomorrow (Monday) to find out what appears to be missing. (I will be going to the LumberJax game that starts at 3:00 today. BTW: You can get pretty cheap tickets at the game and it is great fun to go.) Missing items can be given to me before practice on Monday and then allow you to participate. Guys who are not yet cleared should be at Monday’s practice anyway to begin getting up to speed for the season. On the Donation item: Several families have indicated that they are going to pursue a donation but need some time. That is fine. As such, you can choose to hold off on that part for now. However, either the donation or the $40 release fee will need to be taken care of before our first game on March 13. General Notes:
Student Assistant Coach: Josh Weller is a senior who desperately wants to play. He actually works for the LumberJax and has a good deal of lacrosse background. Unfortunately, seniors are not generally allowed to play at the JV level. If a situation arises where an opposing coach is OK with him playing, he may play in a few games. The few coaches that have answered my requests about this so far have all indicated that they are not OK with him playing though. So, since we really want Josh to be involved with us, Josh will be helping us coach the guys and participating in practices some too. Our Expectations: As far as what Frank and I expect from the kids, we have high expectations for the guys. We expect them to be early to arrive to things. We expect the players to let us know when they may need to miss something, or may be late. We expect lacrosse to be a priority to the guys. We expect the boys to be good students and good citizens. We expect them to exert effort and to be coach-able. We expect them to work really hard even on the most simple and trivial tasks as the “slight edge” on those skills can make a huge difference. We expect the boys to be tough, of body and of mind. We expect the guys to work with each other. We expect the boys to be positive and supportive. We expect the boys to come to understand sacrifice and commitment. We expect experienced/skilled players to be excited to help the less experienced/skilled players. We expect all players to be accepting of coaching decisions. We expect the guys to put the team before themselves. We expect the boys to never give up. We expect the boys to “take our word for it” and gain much understanding through experience. We expect the boys to HAVE FUN. Generally, we will strive – as a team and as individuals – to be better today than we were yesterday and better tomorrow than today. No matter where we are, we will always spin things to getting better, moving forward. We have four goals for every game. The top 3 are essentially all tied for #1. 1) Play hard. 1) Play smart. 1) Have fun. 4) Win some too. Note what #4 is and where it stands in the list. It is a goal, but not at the expense of the others. As we evolve up to the Varsity level, #4 will move up the list and join the others. Frank and I are SO pumped for the season. It will be an experience that none of us will ever forget. You are the first EVER Canby High School Lacrosse Team. The pride that you should have in that should be something that you value highly. You are an elite group! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to give me a call (503-263-2059). See you tomorrow… Coach Nelson PS: There are two guys who have expressed interest that I don’t have email addresses for – Marco Zamora and Weston Foner. If you have their email address, please forward their address to me and also forward this email to them. Thanks! |
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