I had a really long Saturday as I took my baseball team down to Silver Cliff to play a best 2 out of 3 tournament. We ended up winning the games 20-8 and 17-5, respectively, as we earned a birth into the Colorado state tournament.

Thinking back, I've been a primary coach for 4 different years. In my first 2 years of college, I coached the Seward juniors, in college I coached our club team, and now I'm coaching in Colorado.

In my first year with Seward, our team went to state. For those that know, we hosted state that year, so people might say that doesn't really count, but we ended up getting 2^nd, so we showed we deserved to be there.

With the club team, the only year that I coached, we made it to regionals and found out why Colorado State had won the national championship the past three years. Regardless, we were ranked in the top 5 most of the year and earned a birth to a regional tournament.

Then this last Saturday, our team qualified as one of eight 15- teams to compete for a chance to play in the regional tournament in Iowa (woohoo ... I know).

So thinking back, in the 4 years that I've had a major role in coaching a team, I've taken 3 of the 4 to tournaments that you have to qualify for. I'm not going to say that I have a great coaching technique or anything (well, at least I won't tell you), I just think I've fallen into the right teams at the right time.

Team chemistry is first and foremost for qualities that help you have a strong season. So if you're reading this Matt Richart, that's the reason we selected you for the '06 club team.