Hoping to Learn from Past Mistakes
by Jac Coyne |
Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
In each of the last two seasons, Jim Nestor has made the walk.
It isn't a fun stroll, walking away from the field in defeat after
reaching the final weekend of the season. Everything races through
the mind - each dropped pass, missed shot and unforced error.
"It nags at you a little bit," admitted Nestor, Salisbury's head
coach.
It's also bittersweet.
Making it to the national championship game and the semis in
consecutive years, as the Sea Gulls have, is concrete evidence that
a program is operating at the peak of women's Division III.
However, falling short of the ultimate prize leaves one with an
empty feeling when slogging back to the locker room.
With Nestor and Salisbury entering their third consecutive final
four, the memories of the previous losses are as clear as if they
happened last week.
"When you look back at it in hindsight, last year's game against
Hamilton, which was a one-goal game, you see how many mental
mistakes we made," said Nestor. "Hamilton did a great job with its
defense against our offense, but we had too many men on the field,
we had a false start; just mental mistakes that cost us
possessions. I thought that those were key factors."
Nestor is not about to let his team be satisfied with the small
mistakes that cost them championships.
At this time of year, practices are usually for fine-tuning the
general concepts utilized during the year. For the Sea Gulls, it
will be about precision from the first whistle of practice to the
last.
"We are definitely focusing on it," said Nestor of cutting out the
little gaffes. "Instead of letting things go in practice, we're
focusing on it a little more. Just make sure we're not making those
same mistakes or errors again.
"Sometimes there's a situation within a game, maybe with a card
and someone is off the field. Then somebody doesn't realize it and
the next thing you know you're offsides. Some of the players
weren't doing their job in terms of communication, little things
like that."
This will be a significant challenge for the Salisbury players
considering the amount of academic pressure that they'll be dealing
with along with the usual stress of a national semifinal.
The spring exam period begins on Thursday and runs through the
weekend, forcing some of the players to reshuffle their tests, but
also cram study time into an already hectic schedule.
"I think they've been through it enough, but that's always in the
back of their minds that they still have to come back after the
weekend and keep on studying," said Nestor. "They have us doing so
many things, but we'll be doing some studying on the bus and when
we get a chance."
Along with finals, there is the small fact that Salisbury will be
playing a Gettysburg team operating at a very high level right now.
Nestor cites the pinpoint passing and cutting on the offense end a
stingy zone as the Bullets' strengths.
The word he chose to describe Carol Cantele's team is
efficient.
"I saw them early on and I've been telling my kids they are a very
good team," said the Salisbury coach. "Don't be fooled by the
F&M scores. They are just a very good team and I had a feeling
we'd be seeing them at some point."
He wasn't sure it would be in the national semifinals, but that's
secondary for Nestor and the Gulls right now.
Nestor just wants to be able to walk away from championship
weekend without thinking about what could have been.
