Riptide Coach Searching for Consistency
Keith Antigiovanni
Friday May 16, 2003
“The guys will be happy to be back at home after a long road trip and will be inspired to play in front of the great fans in San Diego,” Morris said. The dreaded ‘I’ word, “inconsistency” continues to plague San Diego. “We just flat out didn’t execute. Tulsa is a very solid team so you have to play at your best to beat them.”
The Riptide actually led at the half 28-27 before collapsing in the second half as Tulsa scored on all five of its possessions and shut down San Diego. Despite the loss the Riptide are still only one game out of first trailing Hawaii and Wichita, both currently at 4-2.
San Diego and Cincinnati enter Saturday’s contest with 3-3 records even though the Swarm are an expansion team Morris knows that they cannot be taken lightly. “We’re both coming into this game at 3-3 and hungry for a win. They got roughed up by Albany last week and we got roughed up against Tulsa.”
San Diego knows all about being an expansion club after entering the af2 last season, making the playoffs and being named expansion team of 2002. Expansion doesn’t necessarily mean a cakewalk since Cincinnati has already won three games. Believe it or not this is actually a must-win game for San Diego because it’s a game that they are expected to win. These are the games an established club must win to get into the post-season.
“I’m still not satisfied with the way were playing. Even if we were winning I wouldn’t be satisfied. The moment I start getting complacent is when I should get out of coaching.” Morris hopes the Riptide develop that attitude very soon.
Keith Antigiovanni is a free-lance writer in San Diego, California. He has worked for several local newspapers covering sports, government and business. Keith started writing in 1995 after graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Mass Media Communications from the University of San Diego. Aside from working as a sportswriter he has a side business of providing marketing assistance/research for small businesses and also directs,produces and hosts a regular public access television show on Time-Warner Cable named "San Diego Yesterday". Antigiovanni is also a member of the San Diego Sportswriter Association.
