A big hello to everyone from a wonderfully dry and fully powered-on Freeman Center! To say last week was a little crazy is obviously an understatement. An earthquake and a hurricane are major events in and of themselves, having both of them occur a few days apart is something else altogether. Fortunately, the CNU campus and its inhabitants escaped any major damage during Natural Disaster Week, and for that we are very thankful.
Unique events such as what transpired last week take you completely out of your everyday routines. For example, this past weekend was the longest non-sleeping time I've ever spent in my apartment. It felt very weird. I don't know how all of you normal people do it everyday.
Mother Nature also forced us coaches to be a little resourceful. With campus closed due to a lack of power, Coach Krikorian, Coach Ross, and myself took our show on the road, spending most of Monday afternoon meeting at a restaurant down on J. Clyde Morris Blvd. Whether it be hurricanes, power outages, or menacing glances from our waitress after being at the table for three-plus hours, nothing keeps the CNU men's basketball staff from putting in the work!
One characteristic of being a successful coach is having the ability to adapt quickly to outside events. Late last week the men's basketball staff should have been getting ready for our team physicals and headshots, as well as prepping for the start of our strength and conditioning workouts. Instead, we were making sure all of our players had a safe haven to ride out the storm. The staff also tried to “hurricane-proof” our offices as best we could before the campus shutdown. This at least forced me to do a little cleaning and reorganizing; my office has not looked this clean since I took it over last summer. In case you're keeping score at home that would be:
Coach Post – 1 Hurricane Irene – 0
Irene might have pushed back our schedule for a few days, but we'll be able to handle it. The attitude and focus of the team so far has been very good. Come visit the Freeman Center anytime during the day and you're likely to see one of our guys working out on the court. We were fortunate to have a disruption like this occur during the preseason as opposed to during the regular season. Our football, field hockey, soccer, volleyball, and cross country teams aren't as lucky, but with the coaching leadership those squads have I am sure the missed practice time won't result in any less W's!
The rest of the week for the guys will consist of getting the aforementioned physicals and headshots done, and then getting started with their preseason strength and conditioning program under the direction of strength coach
Mike Query. Coach Query will test the guys in a variety of areas over these first few sessions in order to chart gains and improvements over the following weeks. Then it will be time to get to work!
Slowly but surely we are getting into the swing of things. As a coach it is very encouraging to see the enthusiasm and desire shown by our guys so far in terms of spending time in the gym on their own. The preseason is a critical time; although the work done now is performed quietly, without much fanfare, it will have a tremendous impact on what happens in February and March.
Stay tuned for all the latest as we delve into this new school year. Better yet, if you are going to be at the CNU football season opener this Saturday, come over to our team tailgate and say hi. We'll have the whole team out and about as we host some potential future Captains before we go in and support the football squad. Looking forward to seeing you out there!
