Perfect Teammate

[ShaneFalco]

Journey.... did you see what I said happened when we all took it seriously? Bummer. That boosted morale

[It's the Journey...]

I didn't see anything since I was not there, but I will take your word for it. Now let me ask you a question. Have you raised your concerns with the Athletic Director? He is the one who makes coaching changes, not myself or anyone else on the board. If you feel as strongly as you do, and I admire your conviction, then take your case to those who can help you. But I don't see a change at the helm mid-season. Even when Gary Blackney was in the middle of his 6th loosing season in a row and he resigned, it was effective at the seasons end. We need to focus on the present, not what we want in the future.

[Freddie]

I, too have been expected to participate in some 'team building' excercises that seemed silly and/or childish. When something like this comes along, in the workplace, classroom or locker room; you've got three possible courses of action:

1. Accecpt the fact that your manager/teacher/coach might actually know something, and do it. Embrace it, give it your best effort...just as if you really believed in the magic. If it helps, GREAT; if not, nothing's lost.

2. Have the stones to stand up and say "This is a load of crap, and I'm not gonna to have anything to do with it." P.S. be sure you're prepared to deal with any consequences.

3. Roll your eyes, snicker, giggle and make silly faces behind the leader's back, while you go through the motions without passion, and with no more than a bare minimum of effort. This shows everyone that you're WAY too smart and infinantly too mature to be expected to play these childish games.

Bigdog, I've got you pegged as a number 3 type of guy.

[bigdog]

Just so you know I would have wanted to be a #2 guy but can you guess if I would have played the next game. Also just so you know there was a whole team of #3 guys there. That was until we tries to make it fun, then when we tried to be creative we as a team got yelled at by the coach.

[Bison]

every college program has team building activities, but if it is everyday and all the time it gets tough. Not giving the players any input on anything they are doing is crazy. I think they need to be able to be their age in the room and let the team take on a characteristic of its own don't force one on them.

[Bison]

most guys are #1 guys, believe me.
Any #2 guy would be kicked out of the program I can guarentee that.
#3 guys are easy to spot and there are a few of them.
After a long time of great effort with no honest returns, I think a few #1 guys slowley drift into halfway #3 guys.

[Freddie]

Just so you know I would have wanted to be a #2 guy but can you guess if I would have played the next game.

In other words, you lacked the courage to stand up for your convictions....no stones. If half of what you say is true (the coach is an idiot, he treats the players like children, EVERYBODY felt this way) you ALL should have stood up together in open rebellion and demanded that your greivences be heard.

[Flipper]

I've been that #2 guy when I was an 18 year old kid and I'm still a #2 guy at 45.

Maturity has taught me to be more open to at least trying to be the #1 guy instead of setting #2 as my default mode.

bigdog...you are full of sh*t...you talk about the "team" and the importance of building a team, but you forget that the coach IS PART OF THE TEAM. Joining with other malcontents to make fun of the guy behind his back or to turn what he feels is a legitimate exercise into a joke is a sign of selfishness and immaturity.

Perhaps if you spoke your mind, the guy might have shown you some respect. Maybe he might have been more positive towards you if you sucked it up and took his request seriously. Instead you took the easy way out. You didn't bother to show your teammates (particularly the coach) the simple respect of taking their time seriously. Instead you turned it into a joke. Is that what your "team" meant to you? was it a big f**king joke?

Here's another simple observation to chew on...in my experience the guys that have to run around asking people to treat them "like a man" are the guys who usually act like boys.

[Goldwing]

The coaches mentioned are leaders. They demanded respect and earned it. This coach has done neither. He is not a leader of young men. Big Dog may not always be right, but it is evident the coach is not a leader. Even the team building game that went wrong provided the coach with an opportunity to laugh with the team and bring them together. He yelled at them. Opportunity lost!

[hockey fan]

If this scenario went as described, that's pretty embarrassing. Perfect teammate videos? Are you kidding me? That assignment in the hands of a 18-23 year-old college hockey player is just asking for trouble.

It doesn't really matter how maturely the players may or may not have handled it. Either way it lowers their esteem for the coach. Then if Pooch blew up when some guys had fun with it, that makes it even more rediculous.

Really, it's a pretty small thing in the overall scheme, but it does offer a glimpse into the player-coach relationship. Either way you cut it, there looks like there is a disconnect.

Hey Pooch, next time take the guys bowling.

[Flipper]

That's not really the point...if you think it's stupid, say so directly. Just turning it into a joke accomplishes nothing.

I once sat through a two hour meeting at our corporate office designed to teach us how to juggle....I thought it was stupid...I said it was stupid...but I still juggled the little balls for two hours.

[bigdog]

"flipper & Freddie," please read the whole message instead of just the points that you want to hear. I have already told you that although I thought it was the dumbest thing in the world, we did a very good job at the task. We had movie quotes, clips, readings, music. There was effort put in. We did take it seriously even though it was an exercise that was made for grade 1 students. Please don't come around here with convictions of my actions are a joke, when you clearly don't know what you are talking about. The other posters found the message that I was trying to show and that was that these are the types of things that constantly made us feel like children. This was not a once in a lifetime thing, we did stupid stuff like this all along.
You know you are right we would have become a lot closer if we just went bowling.