Tuesday-Sunday, Nov. 17-22, 2020
It was another week of good weather in Southern California but mentally I continue in a bit of a fog.
Many factors have contributed to my personal situation including the typical non-changing of seasons in the southland.
Now, combine that with the missing of the usual markers of time like Fourth of July's fireworks, birthday celebrations, dinners with friends, visiting high school football practices, not doing color commentary for the Ventura County Star's Game-of-the-Week podcasts and not going to any high school, college or NFL games.
All of this has contributed, at times, to my inability to discern what day, month or season we are in after largely being self-quarantined in Italy and the USA for almost NINE months now with no clear end in sight yet.
Yes, the COVID-19 vaccine is near at hand, but how soon will its effects stem the tide?
Meanwhile, back to the Wonderful World of American Football . . .
If it's Tuesday, then it's time for . . .
. . . another Zoom meeting with
the Varese Skorpions
This week we answered questions about the mysteries of the Skorpions Counter play with the coaching staff and players.
As always, GRAZIE to Coach Bumba for organizing the session and to Coach Santa for acting as our interpreter.
It was a fun hour with our beloved Italian team.
I was not done with American football
quite yet this week
I also had to breakdown and analyze videos from three of the Pioners practices in Barcelona this past week.
On the plus side, I have seen much improvement in the month or so that I have being doing this labor of love for our good friend, Pioners Head Coach Bart Iaccarino.
On the negative side, Spain is in the midst of the COVID-19's Second Wave, just as we are. Thus, they are facing several restrictions as to their practice times, field usage and on-field protocols not to mention problems getting players to commit to even coming to practice in these iffy times.
Still, I appreciate and look forward to being allowed access to both the Skorpions and Pioners' preparations as it does afford me a modicum of normalcy throughout these troubling timers.
I highly recommend that both
the Skorpions and Pioners invest
in Air Jordan gloves for the 2021 season
We had another good week with the grandkids.
Jacob built a fort
He and his guard dogs kept a
good look out for invading Huns
Mary was enchanted with the
afternoon sunlight going through
the prism-like glass in our front door
Mary is not crazy about insects
and spiders, maybe this will
give her a different perspective
A trip to the park was not all
that easy to actually do
This was the fourth park in Camarillo that we drove by.
We were first checking for a lack of people and people with face masks before deciding to stretch our legs.
It's a good thing that I have
ambidextrous pushing skills!
The next day we rewarded ourselves
for our grand parenting skills
I REALY have to get a better
handle on my salad making
The best map of Spain
that I've ever seen
Saturday night was time for
Huskies PAC-12 football on TV
Arizona Wildcats (0-1)
at
Washington Huskies (1-0)
Being a traditionalist, I was not crazy about the use by the Huskies of their all black uniforms.
That being said, these alternate uniforms did look good.
" . . . mighty are the men who wear the purple and the BLACK . . ."
That is just NOT how the university's fight song goes!
After being ahead 37-0 in the
Third Quarter, the Dawgs
cleared their bench
The Husky coaching staff did not panic as Arizona made a bit of a comeback with the back-ups on the field and stayed the course giving their younger players valuable playing time.
Speaking of playing time . . .
On Sunday the 113th Apple Cup
Game was cancelled
The annual Washington-Washington State game has been a season highlight for both universities and alumni for a long, long time. This year's game was scheduled for this coming Friday, November 27th in Pullman but a COVID-19 breakout amongst the Cougars team forced the unwanted but necessary cancellation.
It is the first time that the Apple Cup Game has not been played since both the 1943 and 1944 games were halted due to World War II concerns.
This great collegiate rivalry started in Seattle in 1900 with a 5-5 tie, the first of six ties in the series. Washington State was known as the Washington Agricultural College in those days.
As for the Apple Cup's history, the Washington Huskies lead the series 74 wins-32 losses-6 ties.
The Huskies have won the last seven games with the Cougars and ten of the last 11 Apple Cups.
While looking up all of this information, I also came across some more interesting Husky football trivia.
During the 36 year span from 1957 to 1992, Washington had only two Head Football Coaches who each held the post for 18 years.
Jim Owens was the Huskies Head Coach from 1957-1974 going 12-6 in Apple Cup games.
Don James led Washington onto the field as Head Coach from 1975-1992 with a 13-5 record against the Cougars.
What I found interesting was that in the now 28 seasons since Hall of Fame Coach Don James retired, the Huskies have had seven Head Coaches.
These are the marks of these seven Husky coaches in the Apple Cup, a combined 20-7 record:
Jim Lambright, 1993-1998, 4-2
Rick Neuheisel, 1999-2002, 4-0
Keith Gilbertson, 2003-2004, 1-1
Tyrone Willingham, 2005-2008, 1-3
Steve Sarkisian, 2009,2013, 4-1
Chris Petersen, 2014-2019, 6-0
Jimmy Lake 2020- , 0-0
Reading Is FUNdamental!
An interesting historical perspective
on virtually every conceivable facet
of one of the world's greatest rivers
