Thursday, November 14, 2019

A Short Week and Now It's on to EuroBall Experience XV


Tuesday, November 12 -
Thursday, November 14, 2019

Just a few quick notes before embarking on yet another overseas American Football experience.

As is the norm, on Wednesday I picked up grandson Jacob after school and we were off to our latest museum experience.

But only after another fine dining experience, this time at . . .

Burger King!

Complete with the mandatory Kid's Play Area.

Chicken nuggets consumed thanks to being washed down by some apple juice and after a minimal amount of play time we were off to a local museum that we visited together about a year ago.

The Sea Bee Museum
at the Port Hueneme Naval Station

This museum houses the U.S. Navy's Construction Battalion's   (C.B.) memorabilia from World War II and onwards.

The initials C.B. were turned into Sea Bees in deference to this extremely important outfit's naval connections.

Jacob manning the anti-aircraft gun

Jacob bulldozing the area for
further construction

He operated the heavy machinery
quite well don't you think?

Getting his bearings for the museum's
Scavenger Hunt once we entered

Jacob remembering

The Sea Bee Museum had
a play area as well

All in all, another great experience
for the two of us!

Speaking of great experiences . . .

It's time for my EuroBall Experience XV!

Here we go again!

On Friday, I'm off to London for three jet lag reducing days before heading to Vienna on Tuesday in preparation for our upcoming Europe Warriors U18 team's game vs. the Austrian National U18 squad.

This will be a tall order for our all-star group as the Austrian U19 team won the European Championship for that age group last Summer. On the positive side for us, several of that squad's players are too old to play in our game.

Another part of that tall order for our Warrior coaching staff is molding 55 players, including one female Linebacker from Spain, from ten different countries into a team with only a night of installation meetings Wednesday night and five practices on Thursday (2), Friday (2) and Saturday (1) before playing the Austrians on Sunday!

We knew the job was dangerous when we took it!

As for our players, here is where their passports say they call home and how many we have on the roster from each country:
Spain - 17
Italy - 12
Poland - 8
Germany - 7
Turkey - 3

United Kingdom - 3
Switzerland - 2
Cabo Verde - 1
Denmark - 1
Pakistan - 1

As for a re-cap of all 14 of my previous Euro Ball coaching experiences, here goes . . .

2008 and 2009 with Italy's Catania Elephants
2010 with Sweden's Hässleholm Hurricanes
2012 with Switzerland's Thun Tigers
2012-13 with France's Buon-Villeurbanne Falcons

2015 with Spain's Murcia Cobras
2016 and 2017 with Sweden's Wäsby Warriors
2016 with Spain's Osos Rivas and Guadalajara Stings
2017 with the Europe Warriors in Mexico City

2017 with the Europe Warriors in Texcoco, Mexico
2018 and 2019 with Italy's Varese Skorpions
2018 with the Europe Warriors in Chihuahua, Mexico

Now we will add two more games to the list with all-star games next week and again in December:
2019 with the Europe Warriors in Vienna, Austria
2019 with the Europe Warriors in Mexico City

Two more of our Europe Warriors coaches for the game in Austria were posted this week.

I am looking forward to working
with Joey for the first time

I really enjoyed coaching Honza
when he played Offensive Guard
for our victorious Europe Warriors
team in Chihuahua, Mexico in 2018

Now I'm excited to coach the Offensive Line with him next week.

As for this latest edition of the
Europe Warriors, it will be a bit
of a Homecoming for me

You see, seven of our beloved Varese Skorpions will be part of the U18 Europe Warriors team!

Brovo played for the Men's Italian
National last Summer!

He was an outstanding RB for us in 2018 but did not play for the Skorpions in 2019 as he finished up a year studying and playing American Football in Virginia.

Capo was our Senior Team
starting Center in 2019

DJ is an outstanding player on our
Skorpion Junior Team

Filippo has a wonderful future
in this sport due in large part to
his work attitude and he plays
on our Skorpion Junior team

Lusu was a starting LB for our
Skorpion Senior Team in 2019 and
played on the Italian National U19 squad

Biondo was our Skorpion Senior Team's
starting Free Safety in 2019

Z was our starting CB on the 2019
Skorpion Senior Team and played at
an extremely high level in one of our
sport's toughest positions

It's going to be a BEAUTIFUL week for American football I think!

And yes Paul, Mike and Julien, there will be daily blogposts for the next ten days.

Reading Is FUNdamental

WOW!

I've now read all 12 of Nesbø's books in his Harry Hole series plus four other of his Nordic Noir tomes.

This may be his best effort to date in my opinion but be sure to take some antidepressants before sitting down to read this extremely dark psychological thriller.

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