Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Last Two Weeks Before Blast-Off


It's been awhile since my last post so let's do some catching up as we have been busy before our next trip overseas . . .

First Stop,
The Home of The Flashes

Why you ask? 

To be the Color Commentator for the Ventura County Star's Game-of-the-Week streaming broadcast of the 106th American football game between the Santa Paula Cardinals and the Fillmore Flashes.

I would be working with Play-by-Play broadcaster Danny Page and Sideline Reporter Will Cowan for the second straight Friday night.

We had a lot of fun again on this warm evening.

 Santa Paula led the series
that dates back to 1923
59-39-7

Future Flashes packed the aisles

At Halftime,both bands shared the field

Since Fillmore only has stands on one side of their field, the two fan bases shared the stadium's seating 50-50 too.

This was not a problem as this is an intense but friendly rivalry in the final analysis.

It was a good game with lots of ebbs and flows. I thought that the smaller, underdog Fillmore squad played way over their heads for most of the contest but in the end Santa Paula's size advantage just wore the Flashes down.

Final Score: Santa Paula (2-2) 34 - Fillmore (0-4) 19.

The Cardinals increased their series lead to 60-39-7.

Saturday night at Pierce College

Laurie and I journeyed down the 101 Freeway on Saturday evening to Woodland Hills to catch a Junior College game, the Southwestern College Jaguars (2-0) at the Pierce College Brahmas (1-1).

Pierce's problems continued as they lost 42-13.

Sunday could only mean one thing, NFL football was officially back in Los Angeles!

 After 22 years in St. Louis,
the Rams were back at the Coliseum

The first Ram game that I ever attended at the Coliseum was back in 1958, a 24-24 tie with the "Monsters of the Midway," the Chicago Bears.

On Friday before the game Mike talked me into going arguing that we simply had to be in attendance at the Rams first home game of the regular season if we were truly to be born-again Ram fans.

Seattle Seahawks (1-0)
at
Los Angeles Rams (0-1)

We found affordable tickets on-line, so off we went.

#75 David "Deacon" Jones
The Secretary of Defense

Mike's favorite Ram growing up
Erik Dickerson

Lots of tailgating on this Sunday!

Having food and a cold beverage
before entering the Coliseum

Our view from the cheap seats

We were in the Coliseum's Bob Uecker seats and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing live at the far end of the field to get the crowd's juices flowing.

 Our seats directly faced
the blazing Sun

Mid-way through the 1st quarter we walked around to that ?Jumbotron in the distance which would cast a cooling shadow on us the rest of the afternoon.

What a crowd of 91,046 looks like

It was a defensive battle
from the start

Todd Gurley trying to run over
Seahawks DB Richard Sherman

 Robert Quinn forcing a
Russell Wilson fumble

Defense INDEED!
Final Score: Rams 9 - Seahawks 3

We opted to take a mid-week get-away to the Avila Beach-San Luis Obispo area.

Our destination was a new spot for us, the Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort.

I highly recommend it the next time you vacation on California's Central Coast.

Laurie on our hike from the Resort
to Avila Beach

Summer is over but Avila Beach
still looked good to us

 The Sycamore's relaxing mineral
hot tubs allowed us ample
time to reflect on life

 Eventually we reflected all the way
to SLO's Apple Farm for . . .

. . . DESSERT!

Apple cobbler for me and the apple dumpling for Laurie.

Damn that was good!

We eventually made our way slowly back down the coast via stops in Los Olives and Solvang fully relaxed and ready for action.

 Last Friday Night Lights
for some time

I was up in the booth for the Venice HS at Newbury Park HS game trying to help Jason Klein with the defense. It was a good night to be a Panther!

Final Score: Newbury Park (4-1) 28 - Venice (2-2) 0.

So what is next you ask?

This reminded me

 I'm off to Madrid for our
Eighth EuroBall Experience

To review, here are our previous seven stops:
2008, Defensive Coordinator, Catania Elephants, Italy
2009Head Coach, Catania Elephants, Italy
2010, Head Coach, Hässleholm Hurricanes, Sweden
2012, Head Coach, Thun Tigers, Switzerland
2012-13, Head Coach, Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons, France
2015, Head Coach, Murcia Cobras, Spain
2016, Consultant, Wäsby Warriors, Sweden

 2016, Consultant Osos Rivas

As I was asked to do in Sweden last Spring, this will be another short stint during the Osos' off-season in the Madrid suburb of Rivas.

I am being asked to coach the coaches and teach fundamentals to the Osos and one of their feeder programs in nearby Guadalajara.

It should be a lot of fun in a GREAT city!

Reading Is FUNdamental!

 Nordic Noir with a happy ending

My favorite Inspector
in all of Sicily

The next time I reach out to you, I will be on the Iberian Peninsula.

YAHOO!

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