Ramping Up

I see that an All Star team from Mexico came up and played two games this weekend in the Seattle area. The first game came on Friday night against the Seattle Majestics, a very solid team, whose defense gave us fits for three quarters last year. They’re working in a bunch of new players and so I was very interested in how the game would turn out. The Majestics won 40-8, proving that they are still a solid team. Playing a game this early has to be tough. I’m not sure when Seattle started practicing, but I know that I wouldn’t be eager to play a game already. But really, if the Majestics were looking to be back in the Elite 8 range this year, then this was a result they probably should have expected. It looks like they are well on their way!

To Mexico’s credit, they then turned around and played the Tacoma Trauma on Sunday. After what had to be a very physical game against Seattle to turn around on less than 48 hours rest and play again was awesome. To come out and beat Tacoma 60-8 is even more awesome – for Mexico, anyway. To be honest, that can’t bode well for the Trauma this year. I don’t know the geography or the politics involved in the Seattle area, but I’m thinking three teams is at least one too many up there. It seems to be a similar market to Utah, and three teams was one too many there, while two seem to be shaking out nicely. Of course, it is also entirely possible that Tacoma only just started practicing – again, I don’t know.

Meanwhile, the Surge is marching along, getting ready for our season opener on April 11, just a month away (wow – already?). This weekend, we take off for El Centro, 120 miles east of San Diego, for our annual mini-camp. It’s gonna be hot, and we’re going to be out there with just ourselves. Not too much to distract us. Each year since our owner, Christina Carrillo, started this in 2011, it has been one of the best football experiences I’ve had. It is intense, it is a bonding experience for the team, we grind and we get about two weeks’ worth of work in in two days.

We will leave Saturday morning at 6:00 AM by bus, and go directly to the field in El Centro. We’ll arrive, finish dressing and get out for our first practice. We’ll have three on Saturday, and one on Sunday morning before heading home. Our QB, Melissa Gallegos, has family in the area and they band together to provide food and hydration to us. The dinner on Saturday night is by any standard, epic!

It is a full day and a half of team building, hard work and fun…..my kind of weekend! We’ll know an awful lot more about the players we have after this weekend. Whether we have what it takes to contend for another national title or not. It’ll be the best answer we get until April 11!

On the men’s side, team orientations are starting up as well. I just don’t get what it is with the guys….why they just can’t do, for once, what they’re asked to do. The orientation was billed as starting at 3:00. I raced over to that directly from the Surge coaches’ meeting and barely made it by 3:00, only to find one….yes, one…player there. More eventually showed up, of course, but it all seemed to take place on their own time schedule. Maybe that is part of the reason why no men’s team from this area is in line for national championship contention. No matter what level you play at, there are some constants….and in a team-centric sport such as football, one of those constants is self-discipline – doing things that maybe you don’t really want to do, but because you know it is important to the team, you do them anyway.

The ladies of the Surge demonstrate that regularly. Our Los Angeles area players drive down twice a week, Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings, to make it to practice. Yeah, on Sunday mornings they’re getting up at 4:30 or 5:00 AM to get down here on time. But guys? Not only “no”, but “hell no” would they ever do that. 

If I could ever find a group of guys who were that dedicated to being part of something bigger than themselves, I can guarantee that we’d have the best team in the area, and maybe the country. They wouldn’t even need to be the most talented…..just be willing to learn and execute. Oh well….I can dream, right? Isn’t that what preseason is for? Every team thinks right now they’re in the national title hunt. They’re not, of course, but it’s OK to think they are. It is the time of dreams.