There has been a great deal more turnover at Riata recently than I have seen in the past.
Don't know how long it took to build the great Riata teams of the golden age. Since we're telling war stories, it took Argosy at least 5 years from my inheritance of the court in 1992 to know our ass from a hot rock.
But it really took off from there. And it took about 2-3 years for me and mine to even get an invite to play at the exclusive resort community. Which kind of riled me... LJ, you can blame attorneys Kent and Big Shot Rob, former Riata denizens, for your demise.
Also, Ronin Steve, TJ, Lloyd, and Charlie, who we met and bested at the Preserve with vastly smaller and inferior teams--on paper.
Credit where credit is due, LJ--the initial Riata teams we faced were the best I've ever seen. Will when he was fast and skinny like Mikey was the only player who has ever really scared me. He was beating Mikey on the net and hitting harder (if not accurately), about 70% of the time.
Those initial games would always go 16-14. So well fought. If somewhat uphill. Showing my age, but those were Lakers-Celtics matchups from back in the day.
My memories of maven Linda were of a game rigger, rather than an organizer. Talk about home cooking! She was the progenitor of balls that skip and hit the wall being out, and of 100% of the calls going to the home team, and of arguing vociferously forever until it was so. And I thought Deto was a bad ref! We eventually just realized no call would go our way and won anyway.
And kept doing it, until, when given the choice, be thee Argosy, or be thee Riata, the high class play came our way. Can't beat em? Join em!
LJ deserves a great deal of credit for rallying his troops over and over to change the metrics. Didn't happen. Not with the classic rock Riata water players, and later not with sanders.
Something worth discussing--what was the key to Argosy style ball?
We were not tall. We didn't have anyone on our team who had any significant experience as a volleyball player outside of water.
My thoughts are that we turned these weaknesses into an advantage. Big TJ once said, "You play different. You move."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgN1sLcAQnw
Since we all learned in water, and only water, we didn't have bad habits to unlearn. Which allowed us to write the book, which I synopsized as this:
"Let me be first, fast and accurate, mobile, agile, and hostile. Let me serve my team well, and get to 15 before my enemy does."
That focus on consistent ball every weekend, without distractions, produced a certain esprit des corps, which is one of the intangibles in a game. But is quite tangible in other ways--branding, awards ceremonies, website, etc.
Being part of a group can be very powerful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Mg6Gfh9Co
No, I can't control them. My vision got way ahead of me. Pretty soon, Pandas wanted to play every day. Rather than leading and finding no one following, I found myself in a position of having to grab the reigns on the horses and yell, Whoa!
But those times are past. Argosy is dead. LJ thinks Riata is dying. And, compared to what it was, I would have to concur.
So what do you do when that's happening? Try harder to recruit and prostheletize, dammit! It starts right here: "I like watervolleyball. Do you like watervolleyball?"
I for one will not repeat the mistakes of the teams that we found and killed back in the day--ossified, never play anyone different or capable of beating them, and therefore comfortable in their abilities. To a fault.
Everything comes to an end. It will not always be fun for you when it happens--see when Jesus & Mr Tasty lost their first 2s game, and when the Grizzlies beat the Vets.
What I can tell you is that it's better if your loss comes from within, meaning people you've trained and brought on board, than if it comes from without.
Wouldn't you agree, Lippy?
Which means that, when we go to Dallas to play the Sith Lords, and we will, this year, we run the risk of losing. I'm not getting a lotta love from the project--these days there are sooo many other things pandas have to do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLJ8ILIE780
To quote a Sec St who lost a war, or at least didn't win it, "You go to war with the army you have."
We WILL fight Dallas this year, with whoever decides to go. If we lose, there can be no excuses that we didn't have our best players. Those who show up to play, by definition, are the best. Because they are the only ones you have.
Broken freaking record:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAvmLDkAgAM