Unfinished Business

The gear has been stowed, the exit meetings completed, and winter workouts will be outside the office door soon for the players to retrieve. It hasn't felt like we should be done with soccer. Maybe it is the unseasonably warm weather, or possibly the continuing analysis about how things could be better. In all honesty, it probably doesn't feel like the 2009 campaign should be over because we have some really serious unfinished business.

To lose one heart-breaking game in the closing minutes is unsettling, but to finish six games that way is practically unbearable. I found myself in anticipation of that next chance for so many of our games this year, and we fell barely short so much of the time. It has taken me a few weeks to finally accept the fact that yes, we are indeed done. That breakout didn't happen this year, and in true form, we were meant to end things in a shootout. It was so painfully appropriate.

Part of me is ready to start fresh next year, before there is any disappointment, or frustration or disbelief. The other part of me is having a hard time letting go of the fact that we never managed to tap into the potential of this team.

There is next year, and for that I am thankful. However, there is also right now, and right now needs to look better and be better than past years to move this team to the other side of those close matches. I am encouraged by the commitment of the returning players to work with and for each other in the off-season. I, too, vow to work harder so that I can be the potential-tapper that a coach is expected to be. It will take the combination of the commitment of the players and the focus of the coaches to bring together the formula that will lead to success. There were enough of those "character building" exercises this year in our tough losses, that character should never be our issue. Winning needs to be, and getting prepared to finish that business starts now!