What Vassar Athletics Needs Is A Slogan

In high school, I never played a team contact sport like football, lacrosse, hockey, or even basketball so I missed out on the locker room experience. My only exposure to the moving team prayer or the fiery half time speech is from what I’ve seen in various clichéd sports movies so the locker room has a mythical quality for me. I dream of a chance to slap Jon Henderson in the face to pump him up, or to stare into Ray Lewis' eyes as he leads the famous “Game time” chant.

Because my athletic career, though long and diverse, lacks a true locker room experience, it’s something I yearn for. I came close to it at Vassar when coach took us to the locker room for a pre-game speech when we played indoors, but something was off. I didn’t feel like the guys in Miracle did after Kurt Russel’s speech, but that’s understandable because tennis requires a more cerebral approach anyway.

I think the problem was that there was no sign with a slogan to touch as we exited the locker room like in Rudy with Notre Dame’s hallowed “Play like a champion today” sign. To fulfill my dream of an authentic locker room experience, I need a sign with a good slogan that I can slap as I exit. It would be similar to the low, nearly record-setting branch of Vassar’s plane tree which I slap during midterms and finals because I heard it’s good luck.

During a hellish week of midterms, I posted a sign with Notre Dame’s famous slogan “Play like a champion today” in the stairwell of my TH so I could touch it whenever I went downstairs. Thanks in part to the sign, I knocked out 3 papers, a midterm, and a presentation.

Inspired by former NBA head coach and blogger extraordinaire Eric Musselman, here’s my categorized ideas for Vassar’s new locker room sign which will come to a vote in the coming weeks:

Coaching adages:

“Your greatest strength is the exploitation of your opponent’s weaknesses via your strengths.”

“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” –Albert Einstein

“Reasons = Excuses” – My 6th grade music teacher

Rhetorical question:

“How does what YOU accomplish today influence your ambitions for tomorrow?”

“IDK what you’ve done lately, what will YOU do today?”

“What skills do YOU have?”

Motivational:

“DESIRE to set a goal. Dedication to pursue it. Determination to overcome the obstacles.” – Archie Griffin via Vassar alum Jim Citrin.

“It’s going down.”

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

“You can always try harder.” - My friend while coaching 10 year-olds at a tennis camp.

“Motivation is simple, you eliminate those who are not motivated.” – Lou Holtz

Performance-oriented:

“Imagine. Concentrate. Execute. Appreciate.”

“Play beautiful.”

“Smooth is fast. Fast is smooth.” – movie Shooter

School-related:

“You represent Vassar first, yourself second.”

“Victory is relative.”

“I am… We are…”

“Vassar is a small, coeducational, highly selective liberal arts institution.”

The Mental Side of Tennis

This idea is fresh in my mind because I just used it as an opener for a soc paper I wrote yesterday.

I often catch myself daydreaming about the future and reminiscing about the past. I think G-Reg and Stretch are guilty of wandering minds too because sometimes they look like they're strolling through K-Mart when they're playing a match. (Robin's joke but I'm borrowing it.) These thought processes are natural and evolutionary because we learn from experience and plan based on expectations.However, the theory of mind that allows us this capability is onerous when the thoughts of past and future distract us from the present. In my all-time favorite book, The Inner Game of Tennis, a seminal piece on sports psychology, Timothy Gallwey explains the importance of focusing on the present. It doesn't help my concentration to dwell on the forehand I just shanked or to imagine what I'm going to say in my interview after I win the match. (Yes, that thought crossed my mind in high school when I was playing for the league championship.)

This usually isn't a problem on the big points because one realizes the gravity of the situation. One must commit to the present to stay focused on the routine points early in the second when people are most prone to losing focus.

Staying in the present is also a productive outlook for the season to direct attention to only the next match. After Mike Mattelson won the A flight singles at the Wallach Invitational this past weekend, I asked him in my final question of a casual interview, "How you feel going into Nationals?"
Coach Kroll interjected and ruined what could have been a good transition and quotation to cap off my story by saying, "You kidding me, bud? He's not thinking about Nationals yet."Right, Mike was preparing to win the A flight doubles crown shortly thereafter.

When it comes to motivation, Max Willner is proof time and time again that there individual differences.After winning the B flight singles (Yes, Vassar did well at the Wallach Invitational. To read my story, click here), Willner revealed that, "I was thinking about my loss last week at the ITAs and so it feels good to bounce back and win this."

He's so chippy... Bingo... Max's new nickname is Chipper.

A Memo From No Joke

My new nickname in the Sports Information Bureau is “No Joke” because I find it necessary to add “no joke” in order to seem convincing at times when I do say something serious. That makes me the tennis team’s resident prankster, a title I embrace, because Bill Walsh was also a joker. When the 49ers arrived at the hotel before the 1982 Super Bowl, Walsh greeted his team disguised as a bell hop and it took several minutes before his players recognized him. The joke loosened up the team and they went on to win the big one.

When I heard of the administration’s plans to re-organize the budget to allocate money for a bronze representation of ITA Champion Mike Mattelson overlooking the Josselyn Courts, I took the opportunity to hyperbolize and build on the celebratory climate. I bring you this blog’s first attached team email, which was confusing to some, and a laugh for most:

Subject: Practice Today
From: shdonahue@vassar.edu
Date: October 5, 2009 1:11:24 PM EDT
To: VC Tennis Team

Special Announcement:

Part four of our blog has been posted. Tell your folks. And you should all be following by this point while it's still cool, before it becomes bandwagoning or front-running. I refitted the site and it flosses but there's still a bit more construction to be done.

I don't know if all of you congratulated Mike yet. Not cool. Get on that. There's a parade in his honor today at 4 on the quad so we need to all be in tennis apparel. I saw them setting up the stage behind Rocky this morning. Bags will be ready at noon. Tom Brady is the emcee.

And just for Mike, 2 videos, but don't get used to it because I usually just do one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzSpPaCIG0g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRALJyv86eY&feature=related

/

One of the reasons I like having freshman on the team is because they’re still susceptible to my jokes.

“Goose” texted me, “Hey is this parade thing for real?” I detected some skepticism so he passes.

“Stretch” sent me my favorite text of all time which set me off laughing as I walked across the entire campus, “What the [expletive] Shane? Liar! I’ve been waiting in the quad for an hour almost.”

As I suspected, he didn’t actually fall for it, just tried to flip it back on me. These freshman learn quickly. They do go to Vassar.

Mattelson Wins ITAs and Makes History

I was not there so I did not witness it. But, I covered it. From my write-ups that I assume you all read, you know that Mike played a beautiful tournament and survived the rigors of 12 hour days with no days off. In the finals, his body held up and his opponent’s did not. He even fought off six match points in his 3rd round match. Imagine that of all the balls he hit in those six rallies alone, had one of them been just an inch out, Mike would’ve never been the third men’s tennis player in Vassar history to make nationals, after the now disbanded diaper dandy, All- American duo of Greg Katz and Max Willner.I’ve missed a shot and even framed a ball on match point only to shrug it off as tough luck. Even Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer in last year's Wimbledon with a framed forehand on match point. It's not a fun way to end a match. Mike and I once had a discussion about controlling the outcome of a match. I argued that it’s unreasonable to set outcome-based goals because they’re not directly controllable due a plethora of uncontrollable factors.

Mike stated that if he plays well, he can beat anyone, and that he ultimately dictates how he plays. I countered that he should figure out how to play his best every time on the court and never lose a match again. Our debate continues but I do concede that Mike made a conscious effort to win and was in seemingly complete control of his path towards that goal, even if it took him three sets to win in the final.

Everybody who played the tournament deserves a ton of credit for representing Vassar well amongst our foes. Props to “Goose,” “Maximus,” “G-Reg,” “J.R.,” “Mr. Defense,” and of course, “Smash.” Among those less-mentioned guys since Mike is sponging all the praise, Max Willner stands out for me.

I sometimes draw comparisons between the playing style of a guy on the team and that of a well-known professional a la my idol, Mel Kiper Jr. Max embodies the style and mind-set of Andy Murray. We all know that Max has great court sense and shot selection, similar to Murray. As far as mindset, I’ve come to realize that he’s a chippy econ major who loves statistics, rankings, and bracketology.While some people just go play and let the ranking take care of itself, Andy Murray knows every player in the top 500, and he not only understands the ATP ranking system, he knows which matches of his own, and of others, have ranking implications.

Max is the same way so I was surprised when at practice a couple days before the ITA tournament, he knew who everyone on the team was playing but couldn’t remember who he drew in the first round. This is when I saw the chip on his shoulder forming. He felt slighted by his #15 seed, was bothered by the lay-out of the draw, and therefore didn’t want to talk about his upcoming match.

While worrying about these uncontrollable details may have hindered most people, Max thrived on this snub for his motivation and it may have helped him reach the semi-finals of the ITAs for the second straight year. Congrats to Mike, but Max, next year is yours.

The Role of a Tennis Team Senior

How does it feel to be a senior on the team?

I get more air time and the older guys don’t talk over me, which is good, because I often have something funny to contribute. I’m not an official leader because Mike (Mattelson) is our “Tim Tebow” minus the concussion, but I do feel a responsibility to take care of the freshmen.
We have five of them. They add some diversity to the metaphorical salad or melting pot because before them, the team was mainly a New York stew. Our freshmen hail from Tanzania, Texas, Florida, Rochester (Not tri-State mind you), and the last is a French and Japanese tri-cultural Northern Californian.

I have two people on the team to speak French with now. French is one of Euma’s three languages and one of Kartik’s four. Kartik has already taught some greetings, rather insults, in Hindi and Kiswahili. It feels like I play for the UN.

We even have actual brothers on the team. This year, junior Josh Jasso was reunited with his younger brother Nick Jasso. I’m excited for the freshmen to get more comfortable, crack their shells, lower their guard, and open up. I barely spoke as a freshman, well, maybe only the first week. I think our blend of characters has begun to coalesce beautifully. For grinding out the wait and following my blog, well, let’s call it our blog, here’s the final nicknames.

Jeremy: “Arthur” because that’s his last name and also the name of a children’s book character. We also use “J.R.” not as in Smith but because his middle name starts with R.

Euma: A great name like that doesn’t need a nickname but we came up with “310” in reference to the movie and “Puma” because he’s fast and aggressive, a beast.

Max Willner: Another guy who doesn’t need a nickname. I sometime use Snoop’s izz-inflection to say “Mizz-ax.”

Greg: “Franklin” because of his resemblance to the children’s book character or “G-Reg” with “G” pronounced like the letter because it sounds cool.

Shane: I’ve had plenty of nicknames even though I have a great name. Here, I go by “Slash” or “/” because like Kordell Stewart, I can play quarterback and wide-receiver. Ironically, I am mainly a singles player. Some, mainly J.R. refer to me as “Dirty” or “Dirty Dirty” because I talk trash and play physical in basketball and football, tip toeing the line of legality. I do have good hygiene though.

Josh Jasso: He reminds me of a character named “Rig” from a TV show but he didn’t like that so I started calling him “Smash” because it fits his game and rhymes with “Slash.” We call him “Yosh” occasionally but he hasn’t embraced any of his nicknames thus far.

My next ponderings will be about the ITA Tournament taking place this Friday-Sunday.

The Names Behind The Nicknames

I like being part of teams, but I’ve always considered tennis an individual sport masquerading as team sport. I feel the same way about baseball to a certain extent. You can argue, but my sports psychology professor used my exact words the other day, so I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I always thought camaraderie wasn’t important for individual or coacting sports. I learned in sports psych that this is untrue.

People join teams because of attractions to a group for task-based or social reasons. Cohesion or group integration is built on collective task-based or social goals. Cohesion maximizes performance and motivation. In our case, we have both kinds of cohesion. That’s why I’ll look to my mates for support when I’m down a mini-break in the 3rd set tie-breaker.

In order to bolster cohesion and the Functionalist group identity, we often use nicknames. When I coached little league, a mom once told me that her son felt left out because he was the only kid on the team without a nickname. Yeah, nicknames are important.

I met some very kind parents at the Stevens match who were asking me about nicknames so thanks for the idea and let me give a thumbs up to all the parents and readers.

I’ll now explain our nicknames thus far so that you can be in the loop when you come to all our matches. Here’s the deal, because I love teasers and gimmicks, I’ll reveal half the nicknames below and if you read it and click the link for “follow” this blog at the bottom of the page, I’ll reveal the other half next time.

Mike: With a game like his, you don’t need a nickname., but we sometimes call him “Big Mike” or “MJ” becaue Jay is his middle name. We have two middle names of Jay and one of Clay on the team.

Andrew: “The Goose” not because of Tony Siragusa but because his last name is Guzick which sounds like goose. After he stretches, we say “The Goose is loose!”

Josh Kessler: Coach Kroll called him “Mr. Defense” at practice once. It stuck. Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, Gary Payton, Ray Lewis, and Josh Kessler. All great defenders in their respective sports.

Nick Jasso: “Stretch” because he likes to stretch and he looks like a stretched-out version of his brother Josh.

Kartik: Haven’t come up with much yet. He says it’s “Kar.” Start your engines. Vroom.

Look for the remaining nicknames, including my own in the next episode.