Coaching for Pizza: Another Ten Days Mostly Devoted to American Football

Sat.-Mon., November 13-22, 2021

Lots to cover since our last post and it is almost all American football related.

This is the time of year in the USA to give thanks for all of our blessings. If you follow this blog regularly, then you know that helping the growth of American football in Europe has become a passion for me.

I give thanks to the many high school football coaches in the Ventura County and Los Angeles County areas who, over the years, have donated all sorts of football gear and field equipment to send overseas. This has greatly reduced the start-up costs for so many struggling EuroBall clubs in a wide variety of countries.

Here are some of the things that schools donated in the past few weeks.

A donated helmet is the

GOLD STANDARD!

Having two donated at once was incredible.

Jerseys and Pants

WOW!

One of our local schools donated about 200 sets of game jerseys and game pants. They will make excellent practice gear for more than a few EuroBall teams.

Although, they are of such good quality that we may see a club switching their team colors to use them as game uniforms as has happened with on of our donations of jerseys a few years ago.

Mary wanted to try on

a blue jersey

So, Jacob had to don

a white one

Loving siblings

The Ibi Industriales in the

Alicante region of Spain is

a big winner this week

They are the recipients of the two helmets and 120 of the jerseys, 60 blue and 60 white, as their club adds their first tackle team to their already extensive flag football program.

Add in the 20 shoulder pads that we have previously shipped to Ibi and you have a good start to their tackle team project.

Meanwhile, back on the gridiron for the two high schools that I help via Analytics breakdowns of their game videos . . .

C.I.F.-Los Angeles City Section

Division II Playoff Semi-Finals

The Westchester Comets

#4 D-II Playoff Seed

4 Wins - 7 Losses

The El Camino Real Royals

#1 D-II Playoff Seed

4 Wins - 7 Losses

Obviously the records are not glossy for these two Semi-Finalists but the competition was really good.

BIG tackle for loss by

the blue clad Royals

The kickoff was at 4:15 p.m. as the Los Angeles Unified School Districts bus drivers union are still embroiled in some sort of labor dispute and refuse to drive their busses to night time athletic events.

ECR pressuring the Comets' QB

Michael bought Jacob

a Royals football t-shirt

Elco's Offensive Line surging

as the Sun goes down

Under the lights at last!

After dominating the first 36 minutes of play in building up a 27-0 lead, El Camino Real had to withstand a furious Westchester Fourth Quarter comeback attempt.

The Comets scored three unanswered TDs but the Royals defense stopped two 2-point PAT attempts and were aided by a botched snap on the other Westchester PAT try.

Final Score

El Camino Real (5-7) 27

Westchester (4-8) 18

The Royals will now play in the C.I.F.-Los Angeles City Section Division II Championship game at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 27th at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, a virtual home game for the Royals.

Their opponents will be . . .

The Hamilton Yankees

#3 D-II Playoff Seed

9 Wins - 3 Losses

In their Semi-Final game, the Yankees beat the #2 seeded Fairfax Lions (5-6), 21-13.

As for my other team's game which we could not attend due to a combination of time and distance . . .

C.I.F.-Southern Section

Division VIII Playoff Semi-Finals

Buena Bulldogs

9 Wins - 3 Losses

Pacific View League Champions

Silverado Hawks

7 Wins - 5 Losses

Desert Sky League Champions

Both of these teams had interesting non-league seasons.

Buena was only 2-3 entering PVL play and had lost two of those games by a point each to Oak Park (5-5) and Rio Mesa (7-4). To add more spice to their record, the Bulldogs have also won two games this campaign by a single point against Agoura (7-3) and cross-town rival Ventura (7-5).

Silverado started out their 2021 season with five straight losses before hitting their stride. They were now on a seven game winning streak playing at home which was problematic for Buena.

The bus ride from Ventura to Victorville, where Silverado is located, is about 135 miles/220 kilometers long and takes about three hours each way. Advantage Hawks.

Silverado's third TD with only 1:32 left in the First Half gave them a commanding 20-0 lead as the intermission approached.

That is when Buena finally woke up and scored both a TD and a 2-point PAT with 30.3 seconds left in the Second Quarter to cut the Hawks lead to 20-8.

The Second Half was all about the Bulldogs as they outscored Silverado 22-6 to win an extremely memorable Semi-Final game.

Final Score

Buena (10-3) 30

Silverado (7-6) 26

Buena H.S. opened in the Fall of 1961

Despite their rich American football history over the last 60 years, this is the first time that the Bulldogs have reached the C.I.F. Finals.

Congratulations to Buena Head Coach Ryan Bolland and all of the Bulldogs!

As for the Bulldogs opponents this coming Saturday, November 27th at 7:00 p.m. at Buena High School's stadium . . .

Third Place in the Mojave River League

10 Wins - 3 Losses

In their Semi-Final game, the Diamondbacks beat the Highland Bulldogs (10-3), 18-13. It was the second time that Serrano has beaten Highland this season having also won their first meeting, a non-league affair, 21-12 back in early September.

So what we have is the opportunity for a Finals Doubleheader this Saturday, the El Camino Real game at 3:00 p.m. in Woodland Hills followed by the Buena game at 7:00 p.m.

GAMES ON!

I still needed another in person football fix on Saturday, so I heeaded down to Canoga Park to watch a C.I.F.-Southern Section Division II 8-Man Football Semi-Final.

It was a chance to watch the game with good coaching friend Bill Corliss from Visalia as we both wanted to support another mutual coaching buddy, Charlie Casale, who is the Offensive Coordinator for Coast Union H.S.

The match-up in this Semi-Finals . . .

The Coast Union Broncos

Coast Valley League Champions

#3 D-II Playoff Seed

9 Wins - 2 Losses

The Faith Baptist Contenders

Third Place in the Mt. Pinos League

#2 D-II Playoff Seed

8 Wins - 2 Losses

WHOA!

They are more than just Contenders

This impressive banner on the Faith Baptist press box tells of the school's previous eight C.I.F. Championship teams and yet another ten clubs that made it to the Finals.

A grand total of 18 trips to the finals since 1984 sure sounds like an 8-man dynasty to me.

From the opening kickoff,

the Contenders were knocking

Broncos ass over teakettle

Broncos wide receiver screen

to #56 with #18 and #8 blocking?

In a throwback to my high school playing days, 8-man football apparently has no rules as to eligible numbers.

Contenders and Broncos

being knocked around

Contenders Smothering

Kickoff Action

Actually, smothering is the perfect word for the Contenders' dominant performance on this day.

After scoring easily on every First Quarter offensive possession plus a defensive scoop and score, Faith Baptist was up 38-0 and was way too physical for the Broncos. Safety was a definite concern.

Unlike Inglewood H.S. in their recent, infamous 106-0 victory over Morningside H.S., the Faith Baptist coach gladly agreed to start the Mercy Rule running clock at the start of the Second Quarter.

At Halftime, Faith Baptist led Coast Union 54-0. The Contenders' starters would not see the field the rest of the game.

Final Score

Faith Baptist (9-2) 62

Coast Union (9-3) 6

One of my first thoughts in watching the Faith Baptist machine at work was how strong is the Mt. Pinos for the Contenders to finish in third place and who were the two teams that beat them?

As it turns out, Faith Baptist's two losses were both in Mt. Pinos League play to Thacher (44-20) and to Cate (42-34).

These two league losses were to the top two seeds in the C.I.F.-Southern Sections Division I 8-Man Football Playoffs.

Thacher (8-1), the D-I #1 seed, was upset in the D-I Semi-Finals last week, 43-34 by Grace Brethren.

This weekend Cate (9-1), seeded #2, won the D-I 8-Man Championship by outscoring Grace Brethren (8-4), 50-30 in the Finals.

More like Juggernauts!

To continue the saga of how strong the Mt. Pinos League is, it must be noted that the road to the D-II Finals for Faith Baptist has been, shall we say, easy.

The Contenders' three playoff wins have all been walkovers in thrashing United Christian Academy 54-0, Lancaster Baptist 60-0 and now Coast Union 62-6. That's an average of 58.7 points per game in the playoffs!

Next Saturday, #2 seeded Faith Baptist (9-2) will hit the road to play the #1 seeded California School for the Deaf Cubs (12-0) in Riverside for the D-II title.

Since the Cubs have averaged an astounding 72 points/game in their three game playoff run, expect a fan friendly contest for the crown.

And then there are our beloved,

woeful Washington Huskies

The Huskies (4-7) lost both a game and any chance for bowl eligibility by losing to the Colorado Buffaloes (4-7), 20-17 Saturday.

The UW's final game and chance for glory will come in this Friday's Apple Cup game against the Washington State Cougars (6-5) in Seattle. A strange game this time as both schools have fired their Head Coaches in mid-season and are led by interim HCs.

Finally, on Monday, after finishing my three days of Analytics game video breakdowns for El Camino Real and Buena, I headed over to Buena to watch their first day of Championship Week practices.