Wed. & Thurs., Dec. 6-7, 2023
A busy two days to be sure as we continue to get into the Holiday Spirit.
It all started with the buying of our Christmas tree from Camarillo's Big Wave Dave's Christmas Tree Lot as has become our now traditional family ritual.
To get it home we always have to squeeze it into Laurie's dashing, red Chrysler PT Cruiser. Once in, there is only room enough for her and the tree.
That left me alone to walk the nearly four miles to Casa Contreras.
Shades of my 2010 Camino de Santiago stroll.
The tree looked good in our home
Laurie will be hard at work the next few days decorating it to new artistic heights.
My job in our Christmas Division of Labor Roommate Agreement, will be to take down all of the ornaments sometime shortly after New Year's Day.
We also brought home this new
little fellow from Big Wave Dave's
All that I needed now was to put on the Christmas Season music CD that the D'Antuono's recorded years ago to really set the Holiday mood for us.
It went double platinum if memory serves me correctly.
On Wednesday night, Jacob had his first basketball practice at the Las Colinas Middle School Gym.
Jacob about to rebound a
fellow Orangemen's layup
He had to stretch to get
this errant shot
His coaches are both organized and
positive while stressing the fundamentals
of movement and passing at tonight
Shooting the mid-range jumper
I'm not happy with his "Hook 'Em, Horns!" sign on this shot!
The Huskies play the Longhorns in less than a month now.
Jacob was hot and sweating at the end of the workout, the healthy byproduct of a solid evening of work.
On Thursday I headed over the hill into Thousand Oaks to give another general EuroBall recruiting talk.
CLU's Head Football Coach
Anthony Lugo had asked me to
speak to some of his Seniors
OH MY GOD!
Someone had stolen the entire CLU Field Turf field from their stadium.
Did Coach Lugo know?
It turned out that it was time for the 12 year old surface to be replaced, so this was not the cause for concern that I thought it was.
Maybe replacing the field at El Camino Real H.S. is next after two seasons with no home games.
Concise reasons to attend CLU
as I entered their football facility
Tradition and Motivation
throughout the complex
Nice historical display at
the top of the stairway
Lots of great players and coaches
have gone through the CLU program
Tribute to the last game played in
CLU's old stadium
Michael and I attended that game. An easy CLU victory over Occidental, 24-0.
The 1971 California Lutheran College football
team won the NAIA National Championship
CLC became CLU decades later.
Locker Room Stool
Motivational signs abound . . .
. . . in the CLU Locker Room
It was time for our meeting.
Part of the . . .
. . . 11 players with interests in
becoming EuroBall athletes and
ambassadors of the game
Our meeting lasted 90 minutes and was, in my opinion, a good one with a good amount of questions and answers.
LOVE that sword in the Locker Room
Before leaving, Coach Lugo wanted to show me something.
A pair of new Nike football cleats
No, not just a pair of Nike football cleats . . .
FIVE HUNDRED PAIRS of
Nike football cleats!
The Los Angeles Rams practicer facility is on the CLU campus.
Nike gave the Rams tons of free shoes including these.
The Rams then gave 2,000 pairs of these Nike shoes to CLU.
After giving their Kingsmen players multiple pairs of cleats and offering them to local high schools, CLU still had these 500 pairs of shoes that no one wanted.
Coach Lugo asked if anyone in Europe might want them?
My response, you ask?
"Coach, I'll be back tomorrow morning to start taking them home to be shipped overseas."
Laurie will be SO HAPPY to help with the boxing of these shoes, talk about her Holiday Spirit!
GRAZIE, TACK, DANKE, MERCI,
GRAZIE, OBRIGADO and just plain
THANK YOU Coach Lugo!
Now we just need to gird our loins for this weekend's 15 California State High School Championship games played at three SoCal Junior Colleges.
Saddleback College is in Mission Viejo
A great slate of games but it is just too far away.
Pasadena City College's
games were solid
The chance to see the Ferndale vs.
Fairfax game at El Camino College
in Torrance was the winner for me
We had stumbled upon and fallen in love with the quaint Victorian village of Ferndale, California for the first time on our recent trip to the Washington vs. Oregon State game.
The Ferndale H.S. Wildcats (10-4) were the C.I.F.-North Coast Section D7 Champions.
The Wildcats' opponents, battling for the 2023 California 7-AA State Championship, were the Fairfax H.S. Lions (10-4) who were the C.I.F.-Los Angeles City Section D2 Champions.
It should make for a good Friday afternoon with the usual suspects, Michael and Jacob.
News from the net . . .
Aha, I knew it!
Yes indeed, it's
FIKA TIME!
This made me channel my inner Viking soul from our days coaching in Hässleholm and Upplands-Väsby, Sweden!
Yes, we ARE getting into the
Huskies Holiday Spirit!
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