Sunday, 23 February, 2020
Despite the growing concerns over the breakout of the Coronavirus in the Milan area, some American football teams forged on today.
It was the Opening Weekend for
Italian DIII, a.k.a., CIF9 football
Our old Catania Elephants squad that we coached in during the 2008 and 2009 DI campaigns would open their 2020 DIII season today with the Sicilian Derby against the new Palermo Eagles United club.
The Eagles United is this season's reincarnation of 2019's now combined DII Palermo Sharks and DIII Palermo Cardinals.
Italy's DIII/CIF9 level plays nine-man football.
We'll revisit this game later in this post.
As for the Skorpions, our Women's Flag team was scheduled to have a scrimmage at home starting at 10:00 a.m. today against the Busto Arsizio Tempeste.
To review, flag football in Italy features five players at a time per team battling on a much smaller field.
The Savona Pirates team was also originally in on the scrimmage today but opted out as they did not want to travel the 120 miles from the Liguria region through Lombardia in general and Milano in particular and risk exposure to the Coronavirus outbreak currently centered in Milano.
Understandable decision.
Tex, Agnese and Alice showing
different levels of intensity
Warm-ups were a bit jovial too
Sofia getting into it
Agnese much more serious too
Let the scrimmage begin!
Laura stretching for the First Down
Tanya's hair may get
in the way of this snap
Sofia going for the interception
Tex on a Jet Sweep,
no blocking allowed Laura
Giorgia pulling a flag
Tex pulling shorts
Carlotta raising her hand to
signify her intention to blitz
Arianna daintily about to blitz
Arianna's blitz flushes the QB
Laura, Tex, Tanya and Agnese
in a Bunch Formation
Carlotta in her DB stance
Carlotta and Alice trying to
pull a flag
Agnese has open field wiggles
Agnese about to juke
a Tempeste defender
Good swarm to the ball on defense
Nice Tempeste catch, Tex and
Giorgia to the rescue!
Giorgia harassing the
Tempeste QB
Alice also chased the elusive
Tempeste lefty throughout the day
Lefty is a player blessed with good
movement and a strong arm
Arianna just a hair late
on sacking the QB
Alice's turn to get a Sack
Alice is a rookie that
shows much promise
Agnese, it's a football NOT
a loaf of bread!
OC Omar Passera discussing
things during a timeout
Tanya has shown steady
improvement every season
Tex on a Jet Sweep Pass
Margherita hounding a
Tempeste receiver
Tanya tries her hand at catching
the Tempeste QB
Tex turning on the jets
Laura concentrating on making
a tough catch
AWESOME Designated Blitzer
stance by the Tempeste QB now
wanting to harass our QB Sofia!
Close but Sofia got the ball off
in time for a completion
Dynamic, angry stride by this
Tempeste receiver who failed
to catch the pass
It's never too late in the scrimmage
to get in another stretch
Irena Leite, one of Italy's great professional sports photographers, was on hand to take photos as well.
The next 13 photos are hers.
Pre-scrimmage huddle
Sofia about to get sacked
Laura again stretching out,
but this time for a TD
"Swivel Hips" Agnese on the loose
Sofia calm in the pocket
Agnese drawing a crowd
Tanya, Sofia and referee Gabo
The water Boy and the Subs
Lots of action but no completion
Tex is the team's veteran starting
her 11th season of flag football
Other than Tex, our ten-woman squad is a young one made up of three rookies, four second year players and two third year competitors.
Agnese got a lot of
Media Attention today
Laura making a
highly contested grab
Another Skorpion Bunch Formation
GRAZIE Irena for all of your pictures and continued efforts to encourage the growth of our beloved game through your photographic efforts.
The traditional post-contest
"High Five" lines
The equally traditional two teams
combined photo
After the scrimmage,
the Skorpions ordered pizza
Head Coach Dario A'Delfio asked me if I wanted to join them.
My answer was simply, "You know Dario, the blog is called Coaching for Pizza, for a reason."
Good times!
Now, as for that CIF9 Sicilian Derby . . .
The Elephants ruled the day!
The 41 teams in the CIF9 level of Italian football are broken down into nine girones or leagues.
The Elephants and the Eagles United play in Girone I.
The I could stand for Island as the four teams in Girone I include the two Sicilian island squads and the two clubs based on the island of Sardinia, the Cagliari Crusaders and the Cagliari Sirbons.
The Elephants (1-0) and Crusaders (1-0) are tied for first in Girone I after the Crusaders won the Cagliari/Sardinian Derby today 28-0 over the Sirbons.
In the evening, Giorgio
dropped off this plate of
traditional Italian carnivale treats
Low caloric powdered sugar, I'm sure.
DELICIOUS and "Oh, so good for me too!"
As for the Coronavirus outbreak in Lombardia, here is the status as of tonight.
The CIF9 games that were scheduled for today that included at least one team from Lombardia were postponed to a future date.
In Lombardia, all schools, universities, museums, theaters (including La Scala) and cinemas are to be closed until further notice.
All sports games and practices are also suspended until further notice. Thus, at the least, our practice on Tuesday night has been cancelled.
Everyone is asked to stay at home as much as possible to lessen the risk of exposure to the Coronavirus.
Sounds good to me.
Stay tuned . . .
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