NCDS: Jay Walton, Asst. Coach - Lipscomb

By: Jay Walton, Asst. Coach - Lipscomb

I remember the feeling going back to high school. Your season ends, almost always sooner than you hoped, and for a few days you don’t know what to do with yourself. Three o’clock rolls around each afternoon and there is no practice to go to and no upcoming opponent for which to prepare. I remember thinking, “So this is what normal students feel like everyday after school.” I didn’t like the feeling. The same was true as a player in college in those lost days between the last game of the year and the beginning of the offseason.

As a coach the feeling is still there. A couple of weeks back, we were upset in the first round of our conference tournament by a 'game' Kennesaw State team. The next 48 hours were a mix of shock, disappointment, shame and sadness. In fact, I’m not sure we have totally recovered yet. When you put your heart and soul into a season, it really hurts to see it end, especially when there are such high aspirations. You truly don’t know what to do with yourself. The best you can hope for is to accomplish a few mindless tasks like cleaning out your inbox or reorganizing the equipment room.

Our staff was definitely looking for a cure for the upset blues. Unlike our players, we really don’t get a few days off to decompress, not yet anyway. None of us felt like going to the office. At this point you don’t really want to see anyone you know for a while. You don’t want to talk about the game. You don’t want to hear how proud everyone is of the effort. You don’t want to hear people say they are sorry. You just want to get away.

For us, recruiting provides that relief. The three assistants on our staff got out of town quicker than a coast-to-coast layup. We both stayed gone for a couple of days and trickled back into town over the weekend.  We weren’t planning on recruiting those days... but we saw a lot of prospects and were able to get a little space for ourselves.

Slowly but surely the fog begins to lift. After the initial hurt, we are able to look at some of the positives that came out of the season. We did earn a share of the conference championship after all. Considering that over 50 of the 346 other Division I teams finished with a losing record, perhaps our overall body of work wasn’t so bad. You also soon come to realize that the world does not revolve around your team’s wins and losses. The sun does rise again.

In earlier times folks believed the best way to cure a bite from a rabid dog was to place a few hairs from said beast on the wound. Thus the phrase, “Hair of the Dog.” We seek treatment from a similar remedy. For us, the best way to get over a disappointing end to this season is to start talking about the next one. Plans are being made and some of our players have even found their way back to the gym already.

Fortunately for us, the outlook for next year is positive. In fact, every single player returns, plus a few talented newcomers. Of those 346 other teams, few will be so lucky.

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