I understand all this, all too well. I had enough trouble pleasing everyone at Argosy.
However, at the risk of having a hammer, and seeing every problem as a nail, my only recommendation is, keep on keeping on.
By which I mean this: our SPORT is disrespected. What we do in 4 ft of water is not recreation.
I have great respect for Misty as an athlete. If she wanted to, she could probably start in any BBG we wanted to set up, and is better than any female Panda coming out of Argosy.
But she mocks our "seriousness."
Well, let's turn that around. I assume she plays sand, right? Should her sand games be invaded by drunkards and children, because you don't want to take yourself too seriously, right?
Broken record, but do people regularly decide to camp out on the sidelines of sand courts and drink beer, or wander through the game in the middle of it?
I think not.
Here's the respect I have for the sand game: I don't play! Because I realize they're different games, and the only reason I should be involved in a sand game is if you were short a player, Riata pool style. The pros are going to be frustrated and I will stink up the court. It's not that I don't want to learn, but I'm out there with pros, doing things wrong.
One difference--I wouldn't bitch about the rules--we water guys get called for double contact every time on sets. That's true, despite the odd concepts of physics behind a sand set, which looks like a carry to me...
But I digress. Back to water.
I disagree that it is impossible to run the Riata. It's impossible to run it like Argosy, but you can get close.
Godammit, I was running the place before Tbone, Dub, or Lip deigned to show up. And, like I said, that puts me on thin ice. I need the help and support of you Riata residents.l They're almost all new, and had no idea there was anyone in charge there.
That let the Pandas in the door, to do what, for whatever reason, Riata residents don't want to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI6sARmxEuc
And I'm not talking about the Superteam concept here. Argosy has defeated that and then suggested alternatives. Make the games even, but good.
Tbone seems to have a good idea, in that you let the children with waterwings play their interminable games to 21 every once in a while. Then kick em out.
I tried to give you guys a whiteboard, but I heard it was worse than shirts.
What really seems to be the problem up there is that potentially good players up there remain potentially good players. They refuse to engage, as it were.
As such, they remind me of when I first met Mikey, and his younger, taller, stronger, superiorly athletic group, that would lose to my motley crew.
The paraphrased response: "We're done here, and we're going to play 2 more sports, and hit 5 more parties, because we're young, and that's how we roll."
Granted, I was a grandpa at 29, but my response was, "Maybe if you focused more on this one thing, you might win, and could then go on to do all the other things you're gonna do."
I'm not sure how to teach that lesson to the Riata, but I ain't done trying.
The drunk guys LJ mentions are drunk and not good. But, at least for a moment, they want to play on good teams and want to learn. Some of them are better than others. They say they like me and like my style, which, by declension, means that they are willing to accept the AWVP way of war. That's more than I've seen from the venue in quite some time.
Not my place to say how games run up there. But no one else has been! And that concerns me. If there's going to be any sort of law and order up there, I need backup.
Godammit man, why do I have a better assessment of the potential Riata talent pool than "you" do? Get with the program. Teach, and train, or we lose potential recruits for Panda Corps.