Verne Merrill was an outstanding baseball player on the 1974 Thousand Oaks H.S. freshmen baseball team that was the league co-champions that season. I was the VERY inexperienced coach of that team. His future wife, Debbie, was one of our stat girls and would be our oldest son Andy's first babysitter!
Thirty-four years later, Verne is a Board Member for the Pacific Youth Football League. Commonly referred to as Pop Warner Football, this organization has 17 chapters with various age level teams exposing pre-high schoolers to the great game of American football. The PYFL's 17 chapters are found all over the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County.
Every year Verne hosts a football clinic at Newbury Park H.S. in August to give the PYFL coaches a chance to learn some more about football from high school and community college coaches in the area.
I was invited by Verne to speak today to the PYFL coaches about "Special Teams Organization" and my experiences coaching in Italy.
David Townsley and Ted Smith
These two former Thousand Oaks H.S. linebackers are now parents and PYFL coaches! They were seniors on our 8-3 1977 team that lost in the quarter-finals 7-3 to traditional powerhouse Long Beach Poly H.S.
David was an outside LB who played at 170 pounds and was All-C.I.F. as well as the Marmonte League and Ventura County Defensive MVP in 1977.
Ted was an all-Marmonte League middle LB playing at a whopping 160 pounds!!!
It was GREAT to see these two guys today and to see that they are still involved in football. They both look like they could still play a few downs if needed!
Some of the PYFL coaches who sat in on my 90 minute talk.
I also talked up the Elephants and put told them to let any of their former players who might still be playing as seniors in college to keep us in mind as an option for their future plans!
During the day, I realized that this upcoming season is my 50th as either a player or coach!!!!!!
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