Knowledge and advice from Ann Arbor’s leader.

On Friday afternoon, we spoke with Michigan’s head coach John Paul and asked him to look back on the first half of their season and to answer some rumors about the program.

Part 1 focuses on the 2010 team and how things have changed at Michigan since Coach Paul begin his term.

Part 2 (coming tomorrow) details the how the current program operates and what the future holds.

412: Hey Coach, are you ready for tonight ?

JP: Yeah, we better be ready for tonight. It’s good to be home. We haven’t been home a lot this season so it’s nice to be here. Although, we wish we were playing outside. It’s 83  and sunny here today. [Michigan beat Western 29-5]

412: That field won’t be ready until next year?

JP: The field is probably a couple of years away. That is not our project. It’s the university’s project it really has nothing to do with us. Well, it has something to do with us but it’s not anything we have control over. The building is our project.

Editor’s note: More on the building tomorrow.

412: Coach, I’ve got some questions about the season so far and then I want to focus on program related questions.

JP: Great. There are so many rumors out there about what we are and how we do things, I think it’s helpful. I think it can be helpful to the MCLA to understand what we actually do and how we got here. So, fire away.

412: How has the season gone so far?

JP: Obviously, we’re winning. I wouldn’t say we’re playing great lacrosse yet. We’ve had to scratch and claw a little bit to get where we want to be. We’ve been a little bit more banged up than we’ve been the last couple of years. And, we just haven’t quite clicked yet. So, we are encouraged that we are winning anyway but we’d certainly like to get the team playing at a level we hope we’re capable of and that’s our mission over the next couple of weeks.

412: So with the loss of last year’s senior class particularly at the midfield and like you said the injuries so far, you think the team hasn’t really peaked yet.

JP: Certainly who we lost is part of it, because we had a core of guys, especially on defense who had played together for a long time. We’re playing well defensively I just think we’re not firing on all cylinders. We can point to a number of things in each game that we just aren’t doing at the level that we want to do and that we were doing at the end of last year. And, we’re impatient. We want to be there now.

412: Was the trip to Dallas a shock for the team in terms of dealing with things you can’t control?

JP: The weather no question was a shock. It was 75 and sunny when we practiced on Friday. We knew the weather was coming.  We saw the reports. But, it was a beautiful day on Friday and then a record bad day for Dallas that time of year on Saturday. And, it is what it is. Both teams had to deal with it. It’s not like Oregon is used to playing in 30 degrees and 30 mph winds either. The best way to put it is, we got through it. And, we feel fortunate that we got through it.

412: I remember reading an interview you gave earlier this season in which you mentioned the team would have to overcome some adversity especially if you did lose a regular season game. How has the team handled the ups and downs so far?

JP: We talk to them about adversity almost everyday. And, we try to put them in situations in practice that they have to deal with adversity through unexpected things or through competitive situations. I think that in many ways prepares a team to handle things right. Dallas, for example, was an amazing event that we were so looking forward to playing in. It usually gets seven, eight, nine thousand people at the game and instead we’re playing in miserable weather in front of empty stands.

Mentally that can really bring you down when you’re expecting one thing and you get something else. I think it’s that kind of thing that we prepare the guys to overcome. We had the situation out west where we had to suspend some players for a huge game. It was a shock for the first day and then the team said carry on. The same thing could happen if we drop a game at some point. That’s what we try to prepare them for. Bad things happen. We just have to be ready to handle them and move on.

412: There was a stretch last decade when Michigan would lose in the quarterfinals every national tournament. From the outside looking in, it seemed like the program had a lot more support then the CSUs, UCSBs and BYUs. What things have changed for the program since then that have put you in a position to advance beyond the quarters?

JP: We get asked that a lot and it was a number of things, but the main thing was an attitude change. Our loss to Northeastern in the first round in 2007 made us all question what we were doing and how we were doing it. We came back the next year and decided we were really going to step things up. Not so much what we required of the guys, but step up their accountability. If we tell everyone this is what we’re doing, then this is what you’re doing, and if you don’t want to do it then this isn’t the team for you.

And, we did. I remember having this conversation at the end of the summer with Bobby Morales, who was one of the captains on the 2008 team. We were talking about these drastic changes we were going to make and the character of the team. I was warning Bobby that what we were going to do was going to put the team in a bit of turmoil. I remember warning him that we may be a .500 team, something we’ve never been. I said, you as seniors have to be prepared to go through that and to understand that what we are doing is setting up the team for the future. That’s the way we looked at it. We didn’t look at it as an immediate fix.

Bobby looked at me and said, “If you do this, we’re going to win a national championship.”

412: This question is in a similar vein. When you began coaching at Michigan, what was the player commitment like then compared to now?

JP: We had a team that had been around for years but it was a club team. I took over a team that had student officers that wanted me to coach them at practice and nothing more. There was a club sports department that didn’t want to know that any coaches existed. They didn’t want to see or hear from us. We had a small budget that was 100% driven by dues which were under $1000 a year. The commitment level was sporadic at best.

We were good for college club lacrosse at the time but we were way behind some of the western teams that had been operating at a higher level for years. Where we were is where a lot of MCLA teams that are just starting to develop are now.

412: Since those first years coaching, how was the quality of play changed in the MCLA?

JP: No question its gotten better especially at the top its night and day. When I look at film of our team from ten years ago, we had a few great individual players but our team now would kill those teams. That’s indicative of the whole league. Everybody is getting better and taking it more seriously. The teams in the middle of the pack are doing the same thing.

We play Western and Central this weekend. We’re certainly the better team for a lot of reasons but where they are now compared to five or six years ago is night and day. They have commitment among their players. They’ll come in with a game plan. It’s huge improvement.

412: Now that the team has gone from the top 15 to being the title favorite, have your rivalries changed at all?

JP: Chapman came out of no where in the last three years and for obvious reasons they have become a rival. But otherwise, no. Our rivals in conference have come and gone. When I first started coaching, our rival was Illinois. Then for a few years it was Buffalo. Oakland had a great team for a while. Michigan State is a constant because they’re Michigan State and we’re Michigan.

Our national rivals are the same as they’ve always been. BYU and Colorado State were always the benchmark programs that we looked to for years. Those are still games that we get fired up to play because we know they are going to be great competitive games.

Notes

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 with Coach Paul

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