Sunday, December 8, 2019
As it turned out, each and every one of the Warriors was accounted for in the morning after a night of disco dancing and celebrating new friendships made over the past week via the Europe Warriors experience.
Well, except for Coach Daniel "Balas" Monfared perhaps.
That being said, I awoke this morning realizing that my time in the world of street tacos was rapidly coming to an end.
Coaches Marc Aurellano and Honza Rauš shared my plight as well, so we agreed that we needed to make one last street taco breakfast run. The problem was that our two favorite nearby taco stands were closed on Sunday.
We needed a Plan B.
I had it. The Barbacoa Los 3 Reyes that I had visited the Sunday after our first Europe Warriors game against the UNAM Pumas back in 2017.
An Uber ride got the three of us and a slightly hungover LB Malene Mølgaard to the barbacoa in about 15 minutes thanks to relatively no traffic on the Sabbath.
Marc, Malene and Honza
ready to eat large
The tortillas were being produced
as fast as humanely possible
Malene called the tortillas, pancakes.
It was ok, she's Danish after all.
The Mariachi Music just
added to the overall ambience
YUM!
Digging DEEP into one of
Los 3 Reyes barbacoa pits
Starting to dig into the one kilo
of meat that would become our
street taco breakfast
After gorging ourselves on moist, delicious animal flesh, the four of us returned to the hotel to join our teammates in the long process of checking out by 1:00 p.m., getting to the airport and then starting our long journeys home.
After getting the players loaded up on the bus and on their way to their flights home, I opted to check my bag in at the hotel for later pickup so that I could do a little sightseeing as
I did not need to be at the airport for four more hours.
I got another Uber ride, this time to Mexico City's vibrant Coyoacán district.
Once there, I opted to satisfy my history urges and visit a museum that was the home in CDMX for Russian Revolutionary figure Leon Trotsky from 1937 to day of his assassination via an ice axe to his head in 1940.
Trotsky had been a close ally of Lenin's during the 1917 Russian Revolution. He was exiled in 1929 by the USSR due to his opposition to Stalin's oppressive regime dynamics after Lenin's death. He had led a nomadic life until he settled down in CDMX.
The entrance to the museum
Leon Trotsky over his 61 years
With Lenin in vivid colors
The garden entrance to Trotsky's home
where he was assassinated in 1940
Trotsky's bedroom
A colorful Mexican themed
dining room in Casa Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
1879 - 1940
The Leader of the Red Guard
After finishing my tour of the Trotsky Museum, I walked about seven blocks to the main plaza of the Coyoacán district.
There were lots of colorful
things to see on my walk
Speaking of colorful, check out
this sharp dressed Latin lover
He's got ALL the moves too!
DAMN but that sounds good!
Coyoacán's Cathedral
Mass was in session so
I stayed outside
That Da Vinci guy is
EVERYWHERE I go!
No ID anywhere but he
looked heroic to me
Quaint Coyoacán
Lots of quirky little shops near
the main plaza
Beautiful flowers for sale
Christmas decorations
were everywhere
This market was the perfect spot to
buy my grandsons Lucha Libre masks
Coyoacán
The Place of the Coyotes
Having seen the Trotsky Museum and with two Lucha Libre masks tucked into my backpack, I headed back to the hotel to pick up my carry-on luggage and ride the hotel's free shuttle to CDMX's nearby airport for my flight home.
Interesting Dia de los Muertos
art in the airport
Famed Mexican painter
Frida Kahlo is an institution
in Mexico City
I knew nothing about any of this
during the week's street taco food fest
Just flat out COOL!
In the airport, I kept running into several of the Warrior coaches and players who were waiting for their flight back to Europe so we said our goodbyes several more times.
Finally, I boarded my Volaris flight for the four hour trip back to . . .
. . . Los Angeles, Laurie and home
That's when I found out about the
UW's Bowl game for 2019
Many elements of the Contreras family will be in Vegas for this game to be sure.
I promised more photos from Saturday's game and here they are thanks to our Sue Valdivia and some of Team Mexico's photographers.
The Trophy Stand
All of the players and
coaches received medals
Simone Kistler chasing down
Mexico's good RB
LB Malene "Pancakes" Mølgaard
on the tackle
FS Sylvie Aibeche making a play
Life in the Pit about to become hectic
RB Izzy Burger on the loose
DB Liz Mondragón on the coverage
OT Verena Menzel
about got dominate
QB Mona Stevens on the keep play
"Two tacos all pastor for favor."
RB Stine Madsen
RB Stine Madsen being swarmed
under by good Team Mexico pursuit
The LOS with Team Mexico on offense
QB Juila Schlatow about to sling it
The LOS with the
Europe Warriors on offense
DB Liz Mondragón with
a solid open field tackle
Warrior Defense
RUNNING TO THE BALL!
RB Izzy Burger at it again
RB Stine Madsen high stepping
You can run but you can't hide
DL Leslie Mendez about to
deliver a devastating blow
FUMBLE!
Valentina Millán and Malene Mølgaard
about to greet the ball carrier
QB Julia Schlatow scrambling
QB Julia Schlatow going DEEP!
Danish LB/Assassin
Malene "Pancakes" Mølgaard
The long arm of QB Julia Schlatow
Izzy Burger at it again
QB Julia Schlatow avoiding the
Team Mexico's pass rush
LB Britta Exner pursuing Team
Mexico's hard charging RB
QB Mona Stevens trying to
get outside
Mona is still going!
I like her body lean
We had a good crowd at the game
She could have put her
in the nickel seats
Good hustle to the ball
FS Sylvie Aibeche getting a hug
from CJ Tisserant after one of
her two interceptions
Looking better defending the
Team Mexico sweep on this play
Mona Stevens holding up the
team's trophy
An excited group of Warriors who
put in a solid week of work and bonded
quickly during our hectic week together
After the game with . . .
How the heck can I tell with that mask on?
It was Left Guard Marce Ortiz if memory serves me correctly. Her family gave the coaches similar Lucha Libre masks as gifts.
Finally, I feel that I must address some of the issues that came up this past week that caused our shared experience to become much more hectic than usual in our previous trips as a team to Mexico.
As a review, the Europe Warriors have played three games in the last two years in Mexico. In August of 2017 our Men's team lost a close game in Mexico City against a UNAM Pumas team that played in the collegiate National Championship game.
We returned to the city of Texcoco in December of 2017 with a U19 version of the Warriors to play Team Mexico's National Team. Team Mexico dismantled us that day
In August of 2018, our Men's team defeated the University of Chihuahua.
In all three of these Europe Warrior incarnations, our Mexican sponsors treated us in a first class method on all occasions providing us with good hotels, solid and varied buffet meals three times a day, good training facilities and a desire to correct problems quickly if and when they arose.
Thus Europe Warriors General Manager Bart Iaccarino and I, the only two people who have been part of every Warriors game to date, have come to expect a relatively high level of professionalism from our Mexican brethren. It is with this level of trust that we recruit players to the Warriors projects like the one's who made up our Women's team this past week.
And then there was this week . . .
To begin with our hotel was indeed a good one located within an easy walking distance to our practice facility.
Then there was the practice field itself. There were no goal posts and no lines making it hard to practice a game based on lines to gain, lines of scrimmage, sidelines, etc.
Adding to these field issues, the field had broken beer bottle glass on it plus dozens of Corona bottle caps strewn throughout the playing surface. The final straw was the unevenness of the field. All of this led to safety concerns for our players.
Our hosts would not respond to our concerns.
As for our meals, we shared a solid breakfast on Sunday after our team's plane arrived at 5:00 a.m. and also were provided with our first team taco eating experience at a good taco shop.
Now whereas our Men's teams had enjoyed buffet meals in our hotel's restaurants, our ladies had to make do with limited variety meals in a dining area next to our practice field. The low point of these meals was the night that we were fed frozen waffles and pancakes (not tortillas) for dinner.
On Wednesday's trip to the Teotihuacan Pyramids, we were provided with a good recliner bus and our hosts bought us a buffet lunch at a really good restaurant. One of our players remarked to me that it was the first good meal she'd had in days.
I agreed.
As for our practices, we were given a two hour block of time in the morning and another 90 minutes only in the evening.
We would have preferred another two hours in the evening.
Wednesday night we had to share our field, with no advance warning, with a Team Mexico youth team.
On Thursday when we practiced on the Game Field at the Polytechnic University, we again had no lines to work with and the goal posts were disassembled.
We made contact after Thursday's practice with the Head Coach of the Cheyennes, Poly's feeder team for teenagers before they play for the Poly Burros Blancos. His practice field is located just behind the game stadium, has pristine grass and even goal posts. When he learned of our plight, he offered to have the field lined that afternoon for us to use on Friday. All we needed was a bus to make the 45 minute drive from our hotel to the Cheyennes' field.
Our hosts vehemently declined our request for a bus and told us to find our own vans or cabs if we wanted to change fields for Friday's final practice.
On Friday night, with player nutrition a huge concern for the coaching staff, we decided to pay out of our own pockets for the player's dinners at a good Argentine style restaurant with a solid buffet. We arrived at the restaurant via rented vans.
Our hosts did not offer to help defray the costs of either the meal or the vans.
On Saturday, Game Day, our hosts had promised us a bus for the trip to the stadium. We were scheduled to leave at 8:30 a.m. before our 11:00 a.m. kickoff. At 8:45 a.m. we received a call from our hosts that no bus would be picking us up, we were told to order vans, Ubers and/or cabs to get to the game on our own. We instantly got on our cell phones to try to get the vans that took us to dinner the night before. About five minutes later we got a phone call from a bus driver saying that he was parked two blocks away to take us to the stadium.
Unbeknownst to me, before warm-ups while I was in the locker room, one of Team Mexico's coaches tried to start a fight with our Offensive Coordinator.
Speaking of Mexican coaches, we were assigned two of them to help us with our team. They came to all of our practices from Sunday through Wednesday. The next time that we saw them was on Saturday on the Team Mexico sidelines helping to coach their team.
We mentioned in yesterday's post the pre-game boasting by some of the Team Mexico players to our Europe Warriors Mexican players about their "40-0 Halftime goal forcing us into a Mercy Rule running clock Second Half."
Respect?
Again, with about 30 seconds left in the game, leading 20-0, Team Mexico coaches called for a double pass which we did intercept. In the world of unwritten but clearly understood American football coaching etiquette, this is considered poor sportsmanship.
Class?
After the game, Team Mexico's Head Coach did not join the traditional 50 yard line handshake line to shake any Europe Warriors' hand.
Sportsmanship?
At the post-game Awards Ceremony, the Head Coaches of both teams are asked to come up and accept either the Champions or Runner-Up trophy. Team Mexico's Head Coach was in charge of giving out these trophies. He just shoved ours into the hands of our nearest player instead of calling up a coach.
Embarrassed?
At the dinner after the game with both teams sharing street tacos, the Team Mexico Head Coach was at the start of the line handing players a plate with tortillas to use in choosing which meats they wanted on their tacos. When it was my turn, he just handed me a plate and said nothing.
Guilty?
On the positive side of Game Day's doings, I found the Team Mexico's ladies to play hard, clean and aggressive American football. They were a joy to compete against. I also thoroughly enjoyed eating my tacos after the game sitting with Team Mexico's two children who over the years I have come to find charming youngsters.
Finally, on Sunday when our hosts sent a bus to take our team to the airport, they sent us one that did not have any storage space underneath. It was also located on a side street two blocks away like it was on Game Day instead of in front of our hotel. We had to load all of our players luggage into the passenger area instead. At least six of our players opted not to go on this bus and instead take the hotel's smaller, free shuttle bus to the airport later in the afternoon.
Despite all of these issues and treatment as second class citizens compared to what our Men's teams had been afforded in the past, our Ladies were generally unfazed. They just brought a joy and passion to each and every practice despite all of these hassles.
I had never coached a Women's team before, only a few individual women playing on men's teams over the years. After this week I would coach high character, funny and caring women like this in a heartbeat.
More than anything else for me, coaching is about the wonderful people I meet along the way.
With that thought in mind, it really was a BEAUTIFUL week for American football.
Finally, thank you to Bart, Honza, Marc and Daniel for the great job they did this week as coaches!
Go Warriors GO!
3 comments:
Some really unfortunate issues there. Gamesmanship? Sexism?
Sounds like the ladies need to find a different opponent if you want to do this again. On the bright side, I'm sure they'll remember the friendships that developed a lot longer than they'll recall the negatives.
I think that both. sexism and gamesmanship definitely entered into the picture this past week.
Despite it all, our ladies handled it like the champions of character that they are at all times!
As a coaching staff, we believe that we owe all of our ladies the level of experience that airmen have enjoyed. Thus we are already started on bringing these ladies to Barcelona in December of 2020 for a game against a team to be determined.
It would only bright.
Glad they'll get another, better chance to fully enjoy the experience.
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