Wed.-Thurs., January 24-25, 2024
Wednesday was dedicated to more scrounging for usable, donated American football equipment earmarked for Spain's Guadalajara Stings.
On Thursday, we journeyed to Nevada to visit Andrew, Jenn and Kevin for the weekend.
Before we review the happenings of these two action packed days, let's look at the ever whackier events in the infamous Transfer Portal.
The Crimson Tide is losing their
All-American RB in the wake of
Nick Saban's retirement
While that move surprised me . . .
. . . this one shook me to my core!
Wednesday morning found a . . .
. . . GORGEOUS sunrise greeting
the day at Casa Contreras
After dropping off Mary and Jacob at school, I met with Doug Dagan from Newbury Park H.S.
Doug had two more helmets for the Stings
A total of 16 donated helmets in just two days was record breaking in our now 15 years of gathering and shipping American football gear overseas.
I was not done yet gathering gear on Wednesday.
California Lutheran University
Home of the Kingsmen
CLU Head Coach Anthony Lugo
had more Nike cleats to donate
A GREAT Offensive Line is the key
Cool furniture in the CLU locker room
Building a program one brick at a time
Hammer Time, CLU Style
18 pairs of Nike cleats bound soon
for the Iberian peninsula
These cleats were originally donated to CLU by the Los Angeles Rams whose practice facility is located on the CLU campus.
The ones pictured are sizes 10.5 to 13. They were culled from literally 100s of cleats that were mostly sizes 14 to 18 and way too big for the vast majority of EuroBall athletes.
It would appear that NFL players are typically extremely large human beings.
Wednesday night was dedicated to watching Jacob's basketball practice at the Las Colinas Middle School gymnasium.
Jacob made this layup
The majority of the one hour session was dedicated all types of individual shooting drills.
Jacob's two coaches continue to do a good job of keeping things positive as they stress the fundamentals of the game.
A full moon over Casa Contreras
to end a fruitful Wednesday
ROAD TRIP!
Two magical words indeed.
Las Vegas here we come but after two and a half hours of driving we were getting hungry.
We stopped in Boron, California
for breakfast
Near Boron is the Rio Tinto Borax mine, the largest open-pit mine in California. Borax is a salt used today in cleansers, toothpastes, mouthwashes, lotions, skin creams, moisturizers, sunscreens and acne care products. This mine accounts for about 30% of the world's borax production annually.
The city of Boron started out as a mining town just a few miles from the U.S. Borax mine as it was called about 100 years ago.
Great hole-in-the-wall breakfast dining
in the middle of nowhere Boron
Their chicken fried steak smothered in gravy, two eggs over easy, hash browns and two pancakes in lieu of toast really hit the spot for me.
A few hours later in our drive, we pulled into Baker, California, The Gateway to Death Valley, for a stretch of the legs and some liquid refreshment.
One of Baker's iconic dining spots,
but not today for us
The World's Tallest Thermometer
registered a balmy 58° Fahrenheit
today in Baker
It looks like a huge UFO has landed
behind Baker's Alien Fresh Jerky
store since our last visit
About 90 minutes after we left Baker we arrived at our destination where the first order of business was Kevin finally getting to open his Christmas presents a month late.
Love Kevin's impish grin
Among other gifts, these three
X-Box gift cards were a BIG hit
Kevin is sporting one of his
new Christmas presents, a
Manchester City jacket
He has also shot past his Grandmother in height since the last time we saw him.
For our three grandkids, getting taller than Laurie is a goal.
Not a huge goal I'll grant you, but a goal nonetheless.
While Kevin and Jacob have made it, Mary still has a little ways to go.
Now for some football news . . .
The Rams had an excellent Draft!
The United Kingdom's
Cambridge University Pythons
look sharp in their huddle
The best game of the Spanish Serie A
weekend looks to be the
L'Hospitalet Pioners (2-0) at
the Mallorca Voltors (1-0)
Our friend Bart Iaccarino's
Cecina Trappers announced their
2024 Italian Division II schedule
Italy's Division III that plays
nine-man football announced
their league set-up for 2024
When I coached the Catania
Elephants in 2008 and 2009,
we were in Italy's DI
A neighborly group of four
More to the northwest of Italy
These four are in the northwest
of the Italian boot
Another group of northeastern clubs
When I revisited coaching in Italy in 2018 with the then DII Varese Skorpions we had a total of 72 clubs playing American football in Italy's DI (10), DII (24) and DIII (38) levels.
Since the COVID-19 epidemic shut down the 2020 campaign before it started, many of those 72 clubs are sadly no longer in existence.
The 2024 season in Italy will see nine squads in DI, 13 teams in DII and only 21 clubs in DIII. That is just 43 teams total, 29 less than in 2018.
Not a good sign at all.
They actually have wonderful
tacos in Las Vegas I am told
Well, not really but what the hell,
what happens in Vegas,
STAYS IN VEGAS!
No comments:
Post a Comment