Back at it in Camarillo

Tuesday, August 22, 2017:

Pleased to report that upon weighing in this morning I had gained "only" 1.3 kilos or about 2.9 lbs.

As much as we ate of the incredible cuisine that Mexico had to offer, I thought that it would be far north of five lbs. that I would have retained.

Time to diet.

Again.

I have agreed to accept a fun, non-paid job as the color analyst for the Ventura County Star's Friday Night High School Game-of-the-Week live streamed telecasts.

I enjoyed doing these telecasts twice last year before I shipped off to Madrid to help coach Jesús Sánchez's Osos Rivas team and had a ton of fun working with Danny Page who did the play-by-play and Will Cowen who was our sideline reporter.

We will hit the field running as we will broadcast a cross-town rivalry season opener this Friday night at 7:00 p.m. as the unranked Division III Camarillo Scorpions of the Marmonte League travel to Rio Mesa H.S. to take on the the Division VIII top ranked Spartans of the Pacific View League.

The first order of business today was to go to Rio Mesa to interview the Spartan's Head Coach Jim Bittner to get some background on his club. We had a good session for about half an hour and then I went out to watch a little of their practice.

Rio Mesa Spartans

Spartans Frosh Coaching Staff

L. to R.: Chris Gagua, Ralph Lemos, Gordy Abellera and Sam Cvijanovich

I coached both Chris and Gordy when they enjoyed their great high school careers at Rio Mesa and I also coached with Ralph at RMHS.

I have never worked with Sam who one of the legendary football players in Ventura County history having earned Rookie-of-the-Year in the Canadian Football League as a LB back in the 1970s.

Pre-practice walk through

#21 is a long drink of water

On Wednesday, I will repeat the drill by interviewing Camarillo Head Coach Jack Willard and watching some of their workout.

On to grandson Jacob's soccer practice . . .

The Ninja Sharks Head Coach

Mike Contreras sporting a

GREAT new t-shirt

 Coaching these five year olds

continues to be like trying to nail

jello to a wall

Such patience exhibited by these two coaches.

 Dribbling/passing drills

It looks like a Ninja Shark

is seriously down

He was ok as it turned out, just practicing his flop move.

It's good to be home.