Friday, December 8, 2023
It was another Friday made 100% for American football, but first . . .
Laurie had performed her Christmas
tree magic one more time
I mentioned in our last post that California Lutheran University Head Football Coach Anthony Lugo had a ton of brand spanking new Nike football cleats that the Los Angeles Rams had donated to CLU.
A ton as in 2,000 pairs of shoes, way more than the Kingsmen could use. After CLU gifted several pairs of shoes to local high school, they still had 500 pairs of Nikes on hand.
I happily accepted Coach Lugo's offer and started my first of what will be several trips to the CLU football complex to start the process of shipping much needed cleats to teams all over the globe.
Standing guard over the
entrance to the CLU stadium
Celebrating CLU's football team that won
the 1971 NAIA National Championship
CLU will be adding another team as
the CLU Women's Soccer team won the
NCAA DIII Championship last Saturday
Finally, it was time to load up the Honda with as many shoes as possible.
The trunk was packed . . .
. . . as was the back seat
I took one last look at the room where the 500 pairs of Nikes were stored after loading up the car and realized that I had hardly made a dent in the pile.
YIKES!
of Nike shoes was . . .
A total of 69 pairs of matching shoes plus another ten shoes that did not match.
You may recall from yesterday's post a picture of a heaping pile of Nikes begging for a new home, many no longer in their boxes. I am sure that on future trips to CLU I'll find their mates.
For the record, NFL players are LARGE people. The shoes that I brought home today ranged in sizes from 10 to 18, with 49 pairs being sizes 13 or larger.
Have you ever held a size 18 Nike football shoe in your hands? It is a bit humbling, I'll tell you.
Due to time constraints, we move on in the day . . .
I mentioned that the 15 California State High School Championship Games were being played at three Southern California junior colleges this weekend.
El Camino College, Pasadena City College and Saddleback College were each hosting two games on Friday at 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm. On Saturday, the games will kickoff at 11:00 am, 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm.
Our original plan for today was to head to El Camino College for their two games after picking up Jacob from school at 3:10 pm. We were on schedule knowing that we would definitely be arriving a bit late for the first game.
But how late?
A check of my Waze App told us that the drive to Torrance would take over two hours.
Welcome to Los Angeles traffic on a Friday afternoon.
We needed a Plan B.
The games at Saddleback College which is much further south than El Camino College were out of the question leaving us only one other option, Pasadena City College.
Waze predicted a 75 minute drive to the PCC campus.
Plan B was put into gear.
We arrived at PCC just before
Halftime of the first game
Division 6-AA
California State Championship Game
St. Vincent de Paul H.S. Mustangs (12-2)
C.I.F.-North Coast Section Division VI Champions
vs.
Wasco H.S. Tigers (9-5)
C.I.F.-Central Section Division V Champions
St. Vincent de Paul in white
running the ball well
Both teams relied heavily on the run
As the game wore on, St. Vincent de
Paul simply wore down Wasco
The fighting in the trenches was
INTENSE!
The Tigers strewn behind this
Mustangs running back
Tigers triangulating the Mustangs RB
Wasco trying to sweep the
Mustangs right flank
FINAL SCORE
St. Vincent de Paul Mustangs (13-2) - 27
Wasco Tigers (9-6) - 6
Most of the people that attended this
first game left the Pasadena City College's
Jackie Robinson Stadium . . .
. . . but not us!
We were still excited to be part of a rare twi-night high school football doubleheader.
The only problem was that since both St. Vincent de Paul and Wasco were heavy run teams, their game ended at about 6:00 pm. We had two hours to kill before the second games kickoff.
Add to that that if we left the stadium we would have to pay a second hefty entry fee.
What to do?
Jacob and Michael played catch
while I guarded our belongings
Never pass on a chance to improve your skills.
The time passed fairly quickly as we
relocated to the home stands for . . .
Division 4-AA
California State Championship Game
Soquel H.S. Knights (12-2)
C.I.F.-Central Coast Section Division II Champions
vs.
Jurupa Hills H.S. Spartans (9-6)
C.I.F.-Southern Section Division VIII Champions
The Jurupa Hills Spartan was ready!
But so was the Soquel Defense
in the white jerseys
The Knights defended the Spartans
pass and run in a relentless,
suffocating manner
The Knights Offense was a well
oiled machine that made big plays
Words to live by on the entry doors
to PCC's Weight Room
FINAL SCORE
Soquel Knights (13-2) - 28
Jurupa Hills (9-7) - 7
What to do after a rousing evening of top notch high school football?
Why EAT at one of Pasadena's
finest dining spots, of course!
What a great day we had!
News from the net . . .
Two Huskies who received
well deserved honors today
The Huskies QB also won one
of college football's major awards
on this fine football Friday
Then we had the latest info
on the Transfer Portal for QBs
The Huskies are shopping for a new QB with the imminent departure of their highly decorated Senior QB Michael Penix Jr.
The mathematical realities
of the Transfer Portal
Many will enter the Portal, many will never leave.
Thank you Kevin, Jacob and Mary
Those mysterious voices in
my head were back today
What does this all mean?
Well, Tuesday is only four days away now.
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