Wednesday, June 30, 2021

A Day at the Shore and Some International American Football News


Mon.-Tues., June 28-29, 2021 

Much of the western United States was suffering under a record setting heat wave that I'm sure did not phase the anti-global warming crowd's mindset, but definitely caught our attention.

Seattle was heading to a high
of 104°F/40C on Monday

Usually, a day in the 80s°F is considered a scorching day in this beautiful Pacific Northwest city.

By comparison, in this Nevada
mecca, 100°F is a normal
temperature this time of the year

Having seen these outrageous numbers on Monday, we opted to head to the beach on Tuesday.

Did I mention that we are definitely
NOT having a heat wave where we live?

Regardless, we headed to the Carpinteria shore for our first beach day of the Summer.

Of course, a sumptuous breakfast in
Carpinteria was the first order of business

A short walk was needed to improve the digestion before hitting the sand.

Yes, there is some fun art in Carpinteria

Carpinteria has used this slogan
for as long as I can remember

Acrobatic seal fountain

The Sun was starting to make a valiant effort to pop through the traditional "June Gloom" morning cloud cover, so we headed to the beach to stake out our territory.

We would plunk ourselves down
just to the north of the State Park

World's Safest Beach
INDEED!

Not many people at the beach on a
Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.

As more people arrived, the Sun did a disappearing act.

By 10:30 a.m., the "June Gloom" was back in full force and it became a tad chilly. Laurie was wrapped in beach towels to combat the low temperatures combined with the breeze.

By Noon, we decided to head home for the day.

In the evening I drove to LAX to pick-up Mike, Vanessa, Jacob and Mary who were returning from their two week vacation in Maui. It was great to see them all again and to hear the wonder in the grandkid's voices as they related all of their Hawaiian adventures to me.

On the international American football front . . .

The poster for the Modena Vipers (6-1)
at Varese Skorpions (7-0) DII Semi-Final
playoff game this Saturday in Italy

The poster for the Catania Elephants (5-0)
at Barletta Mad Bulls (5-0) DIII Quarter-
Final playoff game also on Saturday in Italy

In Spain this Saturday in Week #3 of
European League of Football action
it's the Hamburg Sea Devils (1-0) at
the Barcelona Dragons (0-2)

This week, the Mexican collegiate American football scene became clearer as the 2021 conference alignments were announced.

The Conference of the 14 Bigs'
Green Group

These seven universities comprise one-half of Mexico's elite conference for the countries super powers of the game.

Our Europe Warriors lost a close game to the Pumas CU at Mexico City's Olympic Stadium in the Summer of 2017. 

The Conference of the 14 Bigs'
Red Group

The Red Group is the other half of the Elite 14.

The next three conference groupings would be akin to the NCAA's old Division I-AA level of football.

The National Conference
has only the one group of universities

Our Europe Warriors beat the Águilas UACH in Chihuahua, Mexico back in August of 2018.

The Central-South Conference's
Southern Group

The Central-South Conference
Central Group

I found it interesting that two American Universities apparently each have an auxiliary campus in Mexico that play American football in the Central-South Conference Central.

In America, the Arkansas State University Red Wolves play at the NCAA's top FBS level in the Sun Belt Conference and they will visit the University of Washington Huskies for a game on September 18th of the upcoming season.

Arkansas State's Mexican campus is located in the the city of Colón in the state of Querétaro about 130 miles north of Mexico City.

The football field at Arkansas State's
Mexican campus

The University of the Incarnate Word Cardinals' main campus is located in San Antonio, Texas and they are a member of the NCAA's FCS  level Southland Conference.

UIW's Bajio campus is located in the Mexican city of Irapuato about 200 miles northwest of Mexico City.

Looks like the UIW team in Mexico
still needs to work hard on their
Offensive Line Get-Off 

While I need to do much more research on these two programs of interest in the near future, I need to spend time with Kevin, Jacob and Mary more.

Road trip?

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