Darcman’s
discussions
What A Difference
Since My Last Post!
Wow, I haven’t updated the site for quite
sometime, but I obviously haven’t updated this particular page for quite awhile
either! Who would’ve guessed that after my last posting, “The Streak” would
start! We lost the next 25 games, not something to be proud of for sure! Hopefully
this year’s edition of the Snipers proves to be a bit more successful than past
versions. I’m not going to compare talent between the past versions of this
team, but I am very confident in the talent that will be taking the field this
Tuesday night to kick off the ’06 season against my old team, Mayhem.
People ask me if I’m tired of people
talking about the streak all the time and quite honestly I don’t even think
about it at all anymore. It used to really bug me, but now it’s just something
that people talk about before and after games. There are 3 quality players that
are now a solid part of this team that had nothing to do with the streak. Clay (previously my center with the
Bandits and formerly the center for Mayhem,), Steve
(formerly an all star HB with the Bandits), and Heath (just a tall guy who can
catch and cover). Hopefully, the addition of these three potential (and
proven) stars, will help make people forget about the
streak.
We don’t talk much about the streak as a team, we don’t feel that it’s worth talking about. All we
want to do is win some games, streak or no streak. Really, no one on this team cares
more about the streak, but it makes for good reading on the Regina Touch
Football forums.
The thing that bugs me the most is that in
my mind this team is far better than the previous records indicate. The thing
is that I say that every year and we don’t improve enough, so I have to ask
myself if I’m just kidding myself into thinking that our team is better than it
really is, or that maybe I should just hang up the cleats and let the young
guys play this game and move onto Masters. The thoughts of if I’m the problem
or not has crossed my mind more than I can count, but to see this team without
me (last year when I hurt my finger and couldn’t take the snaps), makes me
realize that I’m still the best person on the roster to lead this team right
now. But just how much more losing can a guy (or a team) take? With all the
losing, this is still a tight knit team, we just have
to prove that on the field. If the pre-season was any indication, we should do
just fine in the newly developed ‘D’ division, but if we don’t, maybe it’s time
to consider retirement…again!
Yes, this upcoming season will answer a
lot of questions. My future, and the future of this
team. I just can’t imagine being 0 – 40 at end of this season! I’ll do whatever
it takes to not have that happen!
The New Session Arrives
So, the first session is over and tonight the Snipers
try and improve on last year’s season. I would think that with all the
improvements that our team has made since last season, that improving upon a 0
– 7 2nd session last year would be no
sweat. However, the C division has shown one thing this year, nothing can be
taken for granted. Who would’ve thought that the Ravens, Snipers and a team
made up mostly of ex Rams would all be fighting it out for the bottom spot?
The Snipers have improved greatly over
last season and even since the beginning of the last session. Some nights
nothing clicks and other nights some things click, but we have yet to have a
game where everything clicks. Our defence kept us in the last game and they
were the ones who got us the tie. Our offence filled with dropped balls, bad
penalties and badly timed executions avoided the win at all costs. Well, that
and a little help from the Blue Devils offence!
Tonight is the re-match and the beginning
of a brand new session for the Snipers. Hopefully, we can make this one become
the set of games that we’ve been waiting for. Our offence is working well, and
our defence is equally as solid and has improved more from last year than any
other team’s by far. Hopefully tonight will be the
time we see the real Snipers show up on the field. We’ve got a good chance
against a good team to do start it off right tonight.
The Status Of Our
‘Improvement’ Season
My last posting pointed to the fact that
many players were looking at this season as the ‘Improvement’ season, for lack
of a better word. My concerns were the lack of practice and the few players
playing different positions. We were either going to start out the season as a
bust or an improvement.
We are 5 games into the season and are
sitting with a 1 – 4 record. Not exactly what we had hoped for at this point of
an ‘Improvement’ season, but let’s look at things a little closer. Last year at
this time we were 2 – 3 and our points for and against were 46 - 143. This year
we are at 1 – 4 with a f/a of 62 – 83. We’ve already
shaved 60 points off of our points given up and added 16 more points on
offence. Let’s also don’t forget that last year, out of those 46 points, 24 of
them were in the 5th game victory against the Burger Barons. This
isn’t really a fair analogy as last year we had to play the 89’ers and the
Shock however, it is the only season that we can compare to.
Clearly, we are moving solidly in the
right direction, just as we had anticipated. We have lots of room for
improvement and we have to start making these improvements count in our win
loss record. Instead of losing games by 20+ points now we are losing games by 1
and 3 points. Anyone who doesn’t agree that’s an improvement is beyond the
grasp of reality.
The important part of this ‘Improvement’
season is coming up. We never won a game after game 5 last year for the rest of
the regular season. If we really are improved as much as we think we are, then
we will get a few more wins under our belt. Already people are starting to drop
the thought process that a game against our team is an automatic win. That
thought process will surely manifest itself greatly should we continue to
improve the rest of the way, especially where it counts, on the win/loss
record!
Stats mean nothing, losing a game by only
a few points instead of being blown out all the time means nothing and being
improved on the field doesn’t mean much when you’re still losing games. Our
team is really starting to click on both sides of the ball, now is the time to
start making those final adjustments so that our ‘Improvement’ season becomes a
reality, not just a ‘We Improved, But We Still Lost Almost Every Game’ season!
Let’s Not Trip Over The
Starting Line
As I look at my last entry over 9 months ago, I
remember the playoff game against the Bandits well and with fond memories. As
one of our players said, “…everyone knows that the Bandits should beat us 99
times out of 100, we just skipped the first 99 games!”.
No truer words were ever spoken and no other team had as much heart as the
Snipers did on that day. We won that first playoff game in Snipers history and
got thumped the rest of the way through the playoffs, but it didn’t really
matter, we won the game that counted the most, it was a big day for the
underdogs.
However, this IS 9 months later, and we are less than 54 hours away from the
start of the Snipers’ 2nd season. A lot was planned for this year,
including a full training camp and lots and lots of practices. However, due to
people’s schedules and the rains that kept falling (apparently, Mother Nature
is still not a Snipers’ fan!) the Snipers were kept from the field for
practically the entire month of May. Not a great start to a season that is
supposed to be a “…much better season than last year…”. So much for getting a jump on things and
working things out early!
Heading into our first game (against the
defending C Division Champions ‘Offenders’ no less) we have had very little
defensive practice as well as little offensive practice. Once we are done with
our first game, there is no time between games to work on anything, as we play
the very next night against Lung Capacity (formerly Burger Barons, which was a
very cool name).
Even if we win the first two games the
team has not been properly prepared for the upcoming season as it was hoped
that they’d be. We have too many players playing totally different positions to
get things working well right off the start. I have heard some people voice
their dislike for the way things turned out in this pre-season, and all I can
say is that I agree with what you’re saying, however, what were we supposed to
do when our practices and pre-season games kept getting rained out or
something?
The good news is, virtually every Sniper
player is back this year with an improvement with some new talent in a couple
of areas. If you look at all the top A teams, the reason why they are where
they are today is simply because they stayed together and learned how to play
well with each other, once that happened, the wins came. I fully expect that
sort of scenario for the Snipers as well for the future. With the right amount
of practice and with the same players coming out each year, the Snipers will be
a very good team. It will take time, but it will happen. If you look beyond the
3 or 4 all-stars that we have on the team already, we have loads of talent all
over the roster, enough to get us into the B division and enough to get us to
the finish line of this season in a strong way.
However, the question remains, is our lack
of pre-season preparation going to make us trip over the starting line of the
season? I’ll be able to tell you in just over 53 hours!
Great “UN” expectations
The 2003 regular season is over and the
playoffs stand before us. Our regular season record is not a fair assessment of
how good our team is, or in the case, how bad our team isn’t. I’ve been in this
league for quite awhile and I’ve seen teams go 0-12, 1-14 etc, and our team is
nothing like theirs. We beat ourselves too often and had breakdowns in basic things
like catching, throwing and covering, and we had breakdowns in luck as well,
usually we had nothing but bad luck. However, that is in the past and hopefully
we’ll be able to look back on this year and laugh about it when our record is
closer to being reversed in the future.
As I’ve stated, the regular season is the
past, and the future is the 2003 playoffs. As of right now, it looks like our
first game will be against my old team, the Bandits. Some people have said that
this game will be too much for me and that I’ll try too hard or something and
just play shitty because of who the opponent is. All I can say is that won’t be
the case. I won’t be trying any harder or less to beat the opponent. I don’t
care who we play, I’m always trying to win no matter what. There will not be
any added pressure to win this first game simply because of who we’re playing.
The only extra incentive for me to help my team win this game is simply that
it’s a playoff game, nothing more.
I do admit that I’m looking forward to
playing against the gang that were my team mates for so long, however, just
like the Snipers’ 2003 regular season is in the past, so are the Bandits for
me. I’ve moved on to bigger and better things with the Snipers. Very few teams
are an instant success unless they are very carefully constructed (ie: The Shock). Yes, we took some bad losses this year, but
that’s all part of the learning curve. I believe in Coach John’s program and I
believe in the players that are on the team. There is enough talent on this
team to have a much better season next year. The whole key is getting a core
unit to play together for a few years. I proved that with the Bandits. The
first year that I had the same 12 guys come back, we had a successful year, and
the year after that with the same people returning again, we went to the city
final. It’s guaranteed to work!
All I want to see for the 2003 playoffs is
to see the Snipers to play like they can. If we do, then the predictions of
Bandits 30 & Snipers 0 will be just that, a prediction that was horribly
wrong!!
The Low Days
The Snipers are halfway through the busy
part of their schedule and have just come off of a humiliating 49 – 6 loss to
the Ravens. The Snipers allowed the Ravens to set a franchise record for points
scored in a game (history shows that it usually takes the Ravens a whole
session to score 49 points) and largest margin of victory in franchise history.
These are the low days. However I feel compelled to point out that the Ravens
didn’t do this all on their own, the Snipers helped them out at every
opportunity that they could. 3 different quarterbacks totalled 6 interceptions.
If nothing else, we’re the friendliest team in the RTFI!
The remaining games do not get any easier,
next up is the Burger Barons, who we did defeat in our first meeting, however,
they have improved immensely and just remember, we beat the Offenders the first
time we played them and look what they did to us the 2nd time! After that we have the ‘One Man Show’ Frenzy
to play, and in all likelihood the troubles covering #15 & #13 could very
well play out again. Finally, to close out the inaugural season of the Snipers,
we play the Predators, who like most teams, beat us the first time around, but
our problems were that we didn’t play at all in the first half, woke up during
halftime and dominated the second half, however dropped touchdown passes were
the killers of the day. So, the schedule doesn’t get any easier as the road to
the playoffs commences…did someone say playoffs?
Speaking of playoffs, do you realize that
if the playoffs had been this past Saturday, guess who we would’ve played?
That’s right, the Bandits! How ironic that at the beginning of the season when Bakke wanted us to play against their team (which as most
of you know is actually my old team that I started 10 years ago), I had said
that it would be a pleasure to knock them out of the playoffs. Ever since then
a Bandits vs. Snipers 2003 has been talked about, but as the cards fall and the
smoke clears, that game played under league regulations is quite a possibility.
However, since the playoffs are a ‘double knockout’ format, the chances of
actually knocking the Bandits out is not as much of a reality as I’d like it to
be, but anything is possible. Nothing would give either team as much pleasure
as getting a playoff victory. I’ve quarterbacked the Bandits to playoff
victories, but it would be a bittersweet feeling to quarterback against the
Bandits for a playoff victory, however, I’ll get over it real quick when that
happens! I know that it may sound that I’m still bitter about the history
between myself and the Bandits, and maybe there might be some truth to that. I
and the people who were at the root of the problems have discussed matters and
still remain friends today. The Bandits that I played with were a great bunch
of guys with a lot of potential. Most of that team is still intact and those
are the guys that I am going to enjoy playing against, win or lose. But because
the Bandits are faced with so many rough changes during the off season, I’d
like to play them this year, before they change completely.
The Snipers are a far better team than our
record indicates; it’s just taking a bit longer than we had all hoped. You
can’t mix talented players, average/older players, and players who have never
played organized ball before and just expect them to start playing well just
within a few games regardless of how much practice you have. If your team is
not instantly loaded with football studs (Example: 89’ers, Shock), then it
takes awhile for those 3 ingredients to mix into a well oiled machine. This is
why I hope that the present Sniper players will continue with the team for a
couple more years. Each one of you have paid your dues in some way this first
season, I feel that with the amount of wins that we should get next year,
combined with the tournaments that we’ll play in etc., you all should get a
feel of what our team was intended to be, a very competitive team on the field
and a bunch of friends off the field.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss my
days and my friendships with the Bandits, however, they say that as one door
closes a new one opens. The new door that opened for me was a new team that has
a lot brighter future than the one that closed ever did.
A Well Deserved Break
It’s been a strange ride this past little
while for the Snipers. We had to swallow the revenge pill that the Offenders
presented us with, we’ve had Mother Nature move one of our games around for us,
and we’re on a bit of a losing streak.
However, I am pleased to say that the team
morale is not deflated, and if anything, it is actually getting better with
each game. I know that some people don’t like them, but I think that the ‘Round
Table’ after the games is very productive to the team’s
on field performance, tweaking certain coaching issues and the overall team
morale. Now if only we could get this topic of who plays when sorted out, we’d
be rolling!
Another loss last night to the Blue Devils
all but mathematically eliminates us from moving up into the B division for the
playoffs, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Another good thing is the well
deserved break that we now have in our football schedule. Everybody please
enjoy it, because when it’s over, we have 4 games in 10 days to play!
No matter what happens the rest of the
season, I have enjoyed playing with each and every one of you, and I look
forward to having you all return next season. Enjoy your break.
Act 1 Almost Over
The first act in the Snipers’ saga is
almost at a conclusion. 1 game left against a very improved team of late
(Predators) concludes the first dramatic act in the young Snipers team. Whether
it is another win where the team pulled together to overcome the obstacle of
lost souls and MIA players, or if it is another loss used as a learning tool to
become better, is not known yet.
What is known is that after the game,
previous records will mean nothing as they will all be erased. No more 50+
point spreads, no guaranteed losses, and no more sure things! With a few key
player moves late in the first session, things are looking very bright for the
Snipers’ future.
What was not known as public knowledge is
there is a personal touch on this next game. Just as there will be when we face
the Blue Devils, there is a bit of ‘payback’ that a certain Sniper player would
love to administer to the Predators for an off season incident. Only time will
tell if justice prevails. Good luck to both teams.
Speed Kills
As with any new team, the learning just
never stops. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on things, you’re thrown a
curve ball. Last night’s version of Frenzy was simply ‘speed’. Well, one guy’s
speed anyway. It took us awhile to make the right adjustments on defence to
cover the ‘Regina Ram Super Stud’, but once we made those adjustments things
went a lot better. Next time something like that happens, we will know what
kind of adjustments to make and make them sooner. Again, it’s all part of the
learning curve.
As far as our rematch with Frenzy on a
chilly Sunday morning in August, I can’t predict how they will play as good as
I predicted it last night. You see, Frenzy has a habit of keying/using their
best player(s) and using them and using them and using them to get the
victories, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, usually Frenzy is
made up of players from the Rams and/or Thunder and their team is probably a
competitive ‘B’ team with them. All these players do eventually leave for their
respective teams and leave Frenzy to try and regroup as a team who just lost
their best players. At that point Frenzy becomes just another average ‘C’ team
and the fact that the guys who do play with them the whole year don’t see the
ball much until those ‘star’ players leave, means that the plays aren’t
executed as good as if they had been running them all year. It’s like playing
on a ‘B’ team and then taking all your best players who all see about 80% of
all the action and going to play a ‘C’ division game without any practicing.
That’s obviously an exaggeration, but you get the picture.
You might think that I’m talking out of my
ass but history speaks for itself. Every year that Bud has been in charge of a
team he has done this over and over again with the same result, a great start
to the season followed by a mediocre at best last half of the season once all
his studs go back to their own teams. The Strains were the same way when Bud
ran them, and now that has filtered into Frenzy’s philosophy. I’m not
necessarily saying that it’s wrong, but I don’t personally agree with it
either. You’ve got to keep everyone involved in the plays all the time, not
just start throwing to guys after game 9. In last night’s game I only remember
them throwing to 3 guys all night. Obviously they threw to more, but that’s
what it seemed like anyway. Once 2 of those guys are gone, you really think
that the other players who suddenly start seeing a lot of the ball after game 9
will be as sharp as say Pat, Darryl or Mark, who’ve been playing all season? I
don’t think so either.
Unless some of these ‘studs’ sign with the
Frenzy and stay the whole year, you’re always going to have two versions of
Frenzy, the very good team in the first half of the season, and the average
team in the second half. We’ve already played against, stayed with and lost to
the good team, now let’s see what happens when we improve through the remainder
of the season and play the average team Frenzy on that chilly early morning in
August!
A Triumphant Return
Unlike our last game, there were a lot of
positives by the time the last plays were downed by the Snipers. Game 5 marked
the triumphant return of a few players’ skills that seemed to be inconsistent
or just simply not there in some of the previous games. Patrick had an
extraordinary game catching 3 touchdown passes (setting a few Sniper records
along the way). Scooter was welcomed back onto the offence with his game
leading performance, catching 5 passes and scoring two 2pt converts along the
way. Mark had an amazing game playing a bit of ‘Iron Man’ football, not only
did he have a decent game playing as a wide out but he did phenomenal at
rusher/defence recording 3 sacks which included a safety. Darcman also showed a
return of some of his skills as he picked apart the Barons defence both with
his arm and with his legs. Even after taking a colossal hit from the rusher, he
even managed to run on the next play.
Although we were missing a few key
players, the rest of the team pulled together, played well and got the win. It
was a total team effort and it worked well for everyone involved. This just
shows once again, the potential of our team in the future. Stick with it, keep
practicing and learning and the rest will fall into place.
Our next game will be a tough one, even
though it is definitely possible for us to get the win. We need to play like we
know that we can, and stay focused. We will have a few more of our starters
there, so that should help a bit as well.
Good game on Tuesday, let’s keep up the
momentum and give Frenzy a game! See you all on Sunday.
Bad Mojo Jo Jo
Well, there’s nothing much good to say
about our last game except perhaps the fact that we had a very solid 2nd
half. Between players not doing what they normally do or can, and some terrible
luck, we lost an important game that we had no business losing at all. However,
we did try and overcome the ‘Bad Mojo’ that someone
cast upon us and we put together a VERY good outing in the second half. If we
could’ve finished off that one long drive and had not handed them 2 TD’s in the first half, we would’ve won, and most of our
offence came while going into the wind! If nothing else, that is something to
build upon.
It may not have seemed like it that night,
but going out and only playing half the game like we did is something that is
an excellent learning tool and is something that we couldn’t have timed any
better. It is far better to do something like that in game 4 than to do it in
game 14. Because of our own mistakes in game 4, we will be that much better in
game 5 and beyond.
Speaking of game 5, I sort of feel a bit
sorry for our opponents (The Burger Barons). Not because they haven’t won a
game yet this year, but because I know that we have a lot of guys on the
Snipers’ squad that want to make up for this past game, I shudder to think what
the end result could possibly be. Despite the fact that we’re going to be
missing a few key players again! Possibly the minimum number of players from
our 19 man roster that we’ll be missing is 6! That means that a few of us may
have to play a bit of ‘Iron Man’ football. However, I will update the Snipers
Injured List and the OI list closer to game time.
Let’s think about what we did or didn’t do
at our last game, learn from it, work it out at practice and then focus on some
serious payback! Poor Barons!
A Bump In The
Road
Sorry for the delay in writing anything, but as you
all know, I have one busy week that alternates, last week was my busy week.
When I do come on here I want to make sure that the stats etc. get put up
first.
Our last game was not a typical ‘C’
division game at all. Luckily we had our 2 roughest games out of the way early
and we even snagged a win in there as well to keep morale up! From here on in,
there are no ‘unbeatable’ teams and no huge point spreads anymore, from now on,
anybody can be beaten.
Our next game is against the Troj…errr…the Creamy Beets. I
know that there’s been some talk that because we beat the Offenders and the
Offenders beat the Trojans easily, that we should come out victorious against
the Beets. Don’t forget,
we are still a very new inexperienced team! The Beets aren’t! On
any given day they can destroy a team, just as any team can. Don’t forget as
well, one of their losses came courtesy The Shock who
beat them by a touchdown less than what we gave up!
As usual, we are trying to make it more
challenging for ourselves. Our QB is still not really at 100%, and now our star
rusher is potentially out with an ankle injury. Not to mention that a key
offensive weapon will not be at the game.
We have to pull it together and play as a team, both on offence and
defence in order to win. The Beets are not just going to lie down and let us
beat them just because they don’t have a good record right now, they can whip
us just as bad as any team if we don’t play like we should. Bottom line is not
to get too cocky, don’t look at this game as a ‘guaranteed win’ and just play
like we all know that we can. If we do that, then hopefully, with a little
luck, things should fall into place and we will get the victory. Only time will
tell.
Sweet Victory
What a game last night! We really pulled
together as a team last night. We jumped out to a decent lead by halftime and
by the start of the 4th quarter, we found ourselves losing, not just
in the game, but with the officials as well. However, we worked well together
as a team and overcame it all and retook the lead late in the game, then the defence did their job and held the Offenders out of
the end zone, right up to the last hail Mary play of the game! A well deserved
win for sure. Hat’s off to the Offenders, who played a very good game and never
gave up.
Let’s not let this win go to our heads
though, we’re up against the best team in the division next (The Shock)! With
the tear that they’ve been on and with us having very little time between games
(again!) and our team plagued with injuries, things do not look very favourable
for the Snipers! All we can do is put our non-handicapped players onto the
field and do what we can. We already have 3 starters out for this game, so it
should make an interesting game.
Once again, good job to all for the
victory last night, and enjoy it, we deserve it!!
Against All Odds
It looks like our first win will end up
being much harder to get than first expected. We knew that we were going to
have to play well against the Offenders to get the win, however, at the last
moment we’ve decided to make it much harder on ourselves. As I write this on
the morning of our 2nd game, it appears that our 3rd
string QB (Kyle) will be starting and will have to play the entire game as our
1st string QB (Darcman) is injured and our 2nd string QB
(Kevin) will not be at the game. One of our starting SB (Patrick) has a pretty
banged up knee, and our main utility man on defence (Carl) is banged up with a
bad hammy.
It’s not that I have any lack of
confidence on any of our back ups, it’s just that because of the short break in
between our 1st and 2nd games, we’ve been concentrating
on practicing the starters more to correct some of the mistakes that we
committed at our first game. Offensively, this could be a repeat of game 1
where it took the offence a bit of time to start moving the ball. Only time
will tell I suppose.
All we are is dust in the wind!
Well, our first game didn’t quite turn out
the way we wanted it to, it was almost impossible to throw or even judge the
ball with that wind that we had to play in!
Not to forget the fact that we hadn’t had a single exhibition game or
controlled scrimmage before our first game! The end result, a 34 – 0 loss, was
to be somewhat expected. The team that we played (‘89ers) had been practicing
and playing exhibition games for quite some time and they were winning most of
them! So we simply got beaten by a far more prepared team.
However, there were a few bright spots to
look at. The defence shut down their high powered offence for 2 full quarters,
also snagging 2 interceptions along the way. It took the offence a little
while, but they did finally start moving the ball with some success, even
against the wind. The first pass attempt in franchise history was a completion.
Certain players performed above what was expected, while others just had a
mediocre or bad game. Our post game meeting was a success. A thank you goes out
to Sabu and his words of wisdom that were so
eloquently spoken, and talking about a loss ended up not stinging quite that
much, but it’ll be even better when we started talking about wins!
We played and lost as a team, no one was
pissed off at anyone else for anything. It was a group of guys going out to
play ball, and even though we got crushed, it didn’t matter that much. When you
look at the big picture, you all know that not every game will be like this and
we will all improve over time together as a team.
.