Thursday September 2nd, 2010
115?? RedHotBuffs What??
This past Monday and Wednesday we had Freshman/Transfer tryouts. We had 85 players tryout. Add that to the returners and we pretty much have 115 players that want to be Buffs this year. Depth was a problem last year for us. This year it looks like we may be the deepest team in the country. We added talented players at every position from all over the country and many that will battle for considerable time this year. I am excited to get the new guys and the returners playing together and really see what this year can bring us. We are down to about 65 players for the fall team with a few guys out with injury, which should give us a lot to work with and push the guys that just haven't been working as hard. The fall is for "US". We are developing our style and mindset as a team to carry over to the spring. I am confident with the new guys and full year of teaching our style of lacrosse (on and off the field) that we can be a force to be reckoned with. It remains to be seen, but the tools are there. The RedHOTBuffs are blowing up, and then next step is to bring it to the field.
Thursday August 5, 2010
Summertime Lax is coming to a close and fall ball is only a few weeks away. This summer was a neverending string of camps, recruiting events and even some playing. It started with a youth camp here at CU with the Boulder Valley Lacrosse players. We had around a hundred players come to learn from the coaches, which included the CU coaching staff but more importantly graduates and current players in AJ Blackburn, Marty Taffet, Ben "The Jet" Johns, Steve Keyes, Witt Harlin, Colin "Books" Rosinblum and Tyler Snyder. It was a really great week of lacrosse in Boulder for kids from 1st to 8th grade. The players did a great job teaching these young players and promoting the Buffaloes as a great opportunity to see top lacrosse here in Boulder. Soon after our camp, myself, Coach Short and Ben Johns then took at trip to Vail to coach U-13 and U-15 travel teams in the Warrior Shootout. A week later came back to Vail to play in the 2010 Elite shootout. The Med Restaurant in Boulder sponsored our team for the week. We consisted of CU Players/Grads in Ben Johns, AJ Blackburn, Witt Harlin, Mike Geocaris, Joel Packer, Josh Albrecht, Aaron Grey, Tyler Padzik, Tyler Snyder, Ryan Burt, and Marty Taffet. The the rest of the team was filled with a handful of players from Salisbury (Myself and Coach Short included), UPenn, Denver, Chico St, Vermont, Wooster, San Diego and the infamous Connor Martin from Chapman. It was a great get back on the playing field and have a good time with the recent grads as well as the returning seniors. It was a week of amazing lacrosse. We upset Brine Elite on day one, putting us in the winners bracket and finished 8th out of 18. Pretty good considering the competition. We played against former pros, current and former D-1 All-Americans and held our own. We are looking forward to making the Vail Elite shootout a new Buffs tradition. After celebrating the 4th of July in Vail we returned to get about 3 hours off before working at the Denver University Instructional Camp. A good week with some great coaches and players, Coach T and Marty of course winning the 7th grade Championship with team "Boomtown". After the DU camp the next trip was for the Coaching Staff. We headed out to Sonoma State University in Northern California for the Adrenaline Shootout. Weather was gorgeous and we got a good group of California laxers interested in coming to CU in the near future. After the tourney, we hung out in San Fran, met up with new captain Andy Carstenson and got a personal "Butters" tour of San Fransisco. We even got to see the Mets take down the Giants at AT&T Park. Upon returning to Boulder, we began working with Trevor Tierney of DU to help run Top 205-West from right here at the CU-Boulder Campus. Over 300 kids attended the camp, getting a first hand look at the beautiful campus we have here as well as the fields that we play and pratice on. It was a one big recruiting trip for all the players who came. It was another week of great lacrosse, surrounded by top level college coaches and we were glad to be the hosts of the event. Now the the summer recuiting and camp scene is over with, its time to focus on fall ball. We are looking forward to getting a full year to coach the Buffs and have an even more successful year in 2011. 3 weeks till fall tryouts...see you then.
Thursday May 20, 2010
It has been a week since our final game of the season. A quarterfinal loss to the Arizona State Sun Devils. It has been a long and busy season, so the past week was the first time to really reflect on what the Buffaloes were really all about this season. All I can think of is Pride. With everything this team has gone through after starting 2-5, followed by going 5-3 to finish the season, with the 3 losses coming to #5 Minnesota-Duluth by 1, the previously beatin #6 BYU Cougars by 2 in the RMLCs and by 2 to the eventual national-championship runner-up ASU. While nobody likes losses, to be so close in those losses and to beat BYU, Michigan State, Oregon in an overtime playoff game, and the best of all being the only team to beat the 3-Peat MCLA National Champion Michigan Wolverines in the past 3 years. We told the players that we needed to take it a game at a time to bring back the pride and have a chance to be successful the rest of the season. Now that it is over, we can dwell on the accomplishments of the season and I think our game against ASU really describes how our season went. We started off OK, but not good enough to win, we then played lazy in which we lost our dynamic as a team. Then in the second half we started slow but then surged back to be at the top. However, a couple bounces and we fell short. While winning a National Championship was our goal, we accomplished so much more for this program going into the future. These seniors will forever be apart of the success of this program, but now the next step is building a new class of Buffs, and coach the ones that are coming back to be successful all-game-long, all-season-long. So now the work beings again. Thank you parents, alumni and fans, for believing in what we could do this year, and keep it up, because 2011, the Buffs will be back and ready to win.
Monday May 4, 2010
The last time I wrote we had just beaten #1 Michigan. The Buffs have been through a lot since then. At that point we were 3-5 and had to come up with more big wins to even have a chance at making the playoffs. We followed that game with a close 11-10 loss to Minnesota-Duluth, it was tough to play two games after such an emotional win two nights earlier. We then had a good week to practice, re-assess what we had accomplished and what the next step would be for us. we were 3-6 and far from a playoff team. Our next game was against #6 Michigan State. This was a "Must-Win" game. We did more than win, we probably played our best full game as a team and took it to a top ranked team with the final of 10-4. It was a great atmosphere in Boulder that night and gave us another big win to get us closer to our goal. Next we played Wyoming. More of a stressful trip than anything. We played about 17 mins and were up 11-0 then the lighting/rain/hail started coming and we hopped back on the bus. It brought us to 5-6 but not the most optimal situation for us. Later that week rain again stopped the Buffs from playing when we had to cancel the Utah State game at home. On a positive note it gave us more time to prepare for the game we were really waiting for...
BYU- Senior Night
The atmosphere of this night was unlike any other this year. It was the last time we would play a game on that field the entire season, it was another "Must-Win" game against a heated rival. But more importantly the last game our seniors would play at "Kitt". These seniors have gone through a lot this year. Deciding on a new coach to follow the footsteps of Coach Galvin who had built the program to national prominence. Learning a new system during the pre-season, then, after a "sub-par" start to the 2010 season, deciding 6 games into the season that in order to make something out of this season they needed to go in a different direction, losing to rival CSU and from then on beginning to fight there way back into the playoff hunt. BYU was the culmination of this "tornado" of a season. Losing was not an option and they responded by holding the lead all night long. The Buffs started off fast and kept it rolling for the rest of the half. They outplayed the Cougers on every aspect of the game and head into the half with a 10-3 lead, easily the best half of our entire season. At the half we honored the seniors in front of their parents and at that point in the game and season it was truly a positive and happy scene for the Buffs. The second half didn't go exactly as planned as we let BYU sneak back into the game but for them it was too little too late and the Buffs ended the regular season with a 14-11 win and one step closer to a chance at the playoffs.
RMLC Championships
We were "lucky" enough to play BYU two games in a row, but this time it was in Provo where the atomosphere was way different then at home in boulder. We expected a tougher battle and thats exactly what it was. A 5-5 first half battle and after an emotional halftime we were ready to come out and play a stellar half. However, BYU did a great job at keeping their offense on and our defense tired. Our defense played great but at the end of the 3rd we cracked and gave up 3 goals. The 4th started and it would be our last chance to storm back into the game and maybe our last quarter of the season. It took awhile but a well timed 3 goal run with an outside rip by Nick Kupcewicz, capped off by a fast break goal by Tyler Padzik and all of a sudden we were down 9-8 with only a few minutes to go. We had the opportunities to tie the game up, but a couple drops and poor decisions gave BYU another goal and it was too much to overcome. Now the Buffs were at the fate of the Selection Committee. After a couple days of wondering what the verdict would be, the decision was made and the Buffs were given another shot with a first round game against the Oregon Ducks. The Buffs have been in the playoffs since we lost to CSU, needing everything we could to make the tournament, now we made it and have to continue our playoff attitude that we have come accustomed to for a majority of the season.
Friday, April 9, 2010
MICHIGAN LACROSSE. 49-0, 2 MCLA National Championships.
Tonight we entered as the biggest underdogs CU has ever seen. Facing a team who has been untouchable for 2 ½ seasons. A team who was going to walk through CU on their way to unbeaten CSU. That path ended tonight on Kittredge field.
The past two weeks were two of the toughest weeks in the history of Colorado Lacrosse. Facing judgment for the decision to fire a head coach mid-season, followed by a bitter defeat to rival CSU at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, there was a negative feeling for the future of the program that had been so respected for so long in the MCLA. However, tonight in Boulder that feeling changed. A new team stepped on to Kittredge Field ready to prove that this season was not over.
For the past two weeks, practice changed. There was a new organization, a new focus and a new mentality that was not prevalent for the beginning of the 2010 season. I am a huge believer that the way people respond to adversity says a lot about their character. This week players ran from drill to drill, payed attention to the details provided by the coaching staff and more importantly, had fun. Fun had been a missing aspect from CU Lacrosse during the losing skid that plagued the team. With a new coaching change, followed by new drills, strategies and schedule, FUN took a back seat to turning the program around. On Wednesday, the team learned, payed attention to detail and then, we scrimmaged. EVERYONE scrimmaged. The entire team, including the coaching staff. By the end of this scrimmage FUN had re-entered the CU Lacrosse program. Everyone was reminded why we play this game in the first place.
That mentality echoed through the rest of the week. On Thursday we prepared for the best team in the country. We prepared for the ever-famous 10-man ride and more importantly the little things we needed to do to defend our home turf.
No matter what we did in practice, it was what happened when the the first whistle blew at 7pm Friday Night, until the final seconds of the 4th Quarter that would prove how we would respond to adversity. Adversity is an understatement to what this team has gone through in the past two weeks. However, tonight against Michigan, this team did what I told them them would do as some point this season. They Clicked. Offensively, Defensively, in transition, in the clearing game and in Goal. This team was feeling it. On a beautiful night in Boulder, a team who had been written off by most fans of the MCLA, proved that not only are they still capable of being a contender, they are capable of being a winner.
Michigan is the classiest of teams. They played hard from start to finish and shook our hands like men when the game was over. They have deserved all the accolades and Championships they have won and will continue to be a successful program not only for this season for for seasons to come.
Now the Buffs, learn, work and adapt in order to return to the top of the MCLA. All beating Michigan did was prove to us that we CAN do it. Now we know how we have go out and practice and play with that same passion everyday to get the wins we need to turn the ship around.
Until next time...
Coach Ryder
