We start with a celebration of our daughter-in-law's 20th birthday dinner two weekends ago.
Vanessa and Jacob
Maybe she turned 21, I can't recall.
Playing with Blocks while the
49ers and Seahawks played
Apparently, priorities change when a grandson is in the house.
"Snake" Stabler avoiding the
INTENSE Pass Rush
When he is done with his playing days, Jacob is considering majoring in Architecture
A little Red Wine with Laurie's
EXCELLENT French Birthday Dinner
It was a good Sunday for family time.
NorCal All-Sports Clinic
This past weekend, I drove up to Foster City which is located just south of San Francisco to attend a very good clinic. While there were coaches speaking on baseball and softball. Obviously I was there to hear a great set of football coaches fire up my passion for American football once again.
University of Cincinnati Bearcats
$1,100 (805 Euros) Riddell Helmet???
This top-of-the-line helmet usually sells for $250. Why the outrageous price tag you ask?
According to the salesman at the NorCal clinic, the shrink wrap like red and black checkers plus the other claw marks and C add a cool $850 to the cost of styling.
Makes you wonder how much the University of Oregon, or Nike's Phil Knight more than likely, has invested in their helmet inventory.
As for the clinic itself, it was very refreshing to hear several new approaches on how to improve our coaching. Over the course of three days I listened to 18 hours worth of lectures from a wide variety of coaches.
Here is a list of the lectures that I attended:
TJ Ewing, Monterey Trail H.S., Elk Grove, CA
"Tackle and Turnover Drills"
"Competitive Line Drills"
Adam Hazel, St. Francis Central Coast Catholic H.S., Watsonville, CA (more about Adam later)
"QB and WR Fundamentals"
Rick Stewart, Delano H.S., Delano, CA
"Gang Green 4-2-5/3-4 Defense: Coverages & Alignments"
"Tackling and Pursuit Drills for any Championship Defense"
"Team Building Year Round"
"No Huddle Wing-T Offense, Signals, Wrist Bands, Audibles"
"Pistol Wing-T Combo Plays and Zone Read"
Kevin Kelley, Pulaski Academy, Little Rock, AR
"Onside Kicks: The Numbers Behind It, Over Ten Different Kicks"
"Fourth Down, No Punt Philosophy"
Mark Modeste, Sacred Heart Prep, Atherton, CA
"Gap Cancellation and Force and Fill Techniques"
Rick Jones, Greenwood H.S., Greenwood, AR
"Spread Offense: Quick Game and Dropback"
"Spread Offense: Running the Ball"
Kevin Navarra, Buhach Colony H.S., Atwater, CA
"3-2 Hex: Defending the Wing-T"
"3-2 Hex: Defending the Option"
"3-2 Hex: Defending the Power"
Travis Cox, El Dorado H.S., Placerville, CA
"3-5 Cougar Attack Defense"
Jack Messina, Fremont H.S., Sunnyvale, CA
"DL - Pass Rush Techniques and Drills"
Jim Fassel, former Head Coach, New York Football Giants
"QB Development and Fundamentals"
I was both exhilarated and mentally tired each night. What to do? Food but of course!
Jacob calls Laurie "GiGi"
While trying to find an open ice cream shop in Burlingame, I discovered Laurie's clandestine boutique.
I also found a GREAT ice cream shop!
Saturday morning I went back to nearby Burlingame to find a bit of breakfast.
It was ok but not up to French standards
Still, I needed more . . .
FIKA TIME!!!
I know that Fika is Swedish and Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark. Close enough for me! It was quite good.
Meanwhile, back at the NorCal clinic . . .
Danny Chan
Head Coach at Lowell H.S.
Lowell H.S. is located in San Francisco. As it turns out, Danny was Denver Wade's coach when he attended Lowell in the early years of the 21st Century.
You may recall that Denver was our excellent line coach with the Catania Elephants back in 2009 and that I visited with Denver and his scintillating Sicilian girlfriend Melissa Lodato before last month's Fight Hunger Bowl game in San Francisco.
Small world . . .
With Erik Peterson Saturday Night
Erik was an outstanding defensive lineman for us in the early 1980s at Westlake H.S.
He was attending the clinic because of his position as Defensive Coordinator at Yosemite H.S. in Oakhurst, CA.
It was great to see him and catch up on old times.
Really small world . . .
Adam and Eva Hazel
When I first met Adam, he was the Offensive Coordinator at Menlo College. We had previously made contact via the internet because he played football in Germany for two seasons.
He is now the Head Coach at St. Francis Central Coast Catholic H.S. in Watsonville, CA, as I stated earlier.
He did a very good job as a speaker at the NorCal clinic.
With Adam
On Sunday morning, I stopped in Morgan Hill to meet the Hazels and their lovely baby daughter for a great country breakfast.
Good people.
A fine winery on the outskirts
of Arroyo Grande
Laetitia is one of Laurie's favorite central coast wineries and after a weekend away, I thought that buying her a couple of good bottles of wine would be a wise idea.
Being a good husband can, at rare times, be a N0-Brainer.
2 comments:
I would love to see a movement where Division I football teams agreed to do without a half-dozen helmets, or ones with $850 wrap jobs, and donated the money they saved to financially strapped programs like, say, Grambling.
That would make WAY too much sense.
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