Coaching for Pizza: Thursdays Are Practice Days

Friday, February 7, 2025

Thursdays Are Practice Days

Thursday, February 6, 2025

I did a lot of walking today but did not take any pictures for some unknown reason.

I did do a lot more work on HUDL making video cut-ups of our next opponent's, the Osos Rivas (2-1), better offensive plays for the Mariners (1-2) to study before our game in Madrid on February 15th.

I was proud to open a text message from son Michael about our grandson, Jacob.

Jacob performed well in both the

U.S. History and World History portions

of the Camarillo Academic Olympics

Good job, Jacob!

In the evening, I boarded the #1 bus for the 20 minute ride to our practice facility.

It was a balmy 12°C/54°F

with no rain in sight

Practice was getting started at the

baseball facility next to us as I arrived

With only five total OL/DL players on the

field, we were back to a fundamentals and

half-field 7-on-7 practice again tonight

Again, not what we had planned for but in the Wonderful World of EuroBall, adapting is a must.

As is fortunately the Mariners norm, I saw a lot of individual improvement tonight as the players in attendance worked hard at their craft and were extremely coachable.

As the Mariners Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Line Coach, I must give major credit for the tremendous work developing our young men to our Linebacker Coach, Iván Canto, and to our Defensive Backs Coach, Isaac Abid.

Great job, coaches!

During the last week I sent out e-mails to the usual suspects, high school coaches in Ventura County, trying to get many needed parts donated to help refurbish the unissued helmets in our storage room.

Typical of our equipment shortages, we have six replacement left jaw pads but no right ones for one style of helmet.

Four high schools responded instantly with offers of not only parts but in some cases complete helmets as well, AWESOME!

One coach requested photos of our current equipment and here they are.

All sorts of different helmets . . .

. . . in different stages of readiness . . .

. . . with cracked inner padding

or missing padding in some cases

Thursday is my favorite practice night because afterwards I meet with Mariners Team President Kiké Prado Alonso for an always fun post-practice meal.

Tonight we were joined by Raúl Saavedra who is a former Mariners player and coach. He now coaches in the European League of Football (ELF).

Besides having coached the Mariners, Raúl has also enjoyed stints with Austria's Danube Dragons, Spain's Coslada Camioneros and was the Linebackers Coach with the ELF's surprising Madrid Bravos in 2024.

In 2025, Raúl will again be coaching in the ELF, this time as the Special Teams Coach of the Fehérvár Enthroners based in Budapest, Hungary.

Tonight the three of us descended upon the Cimavilla district where Gijón was founded.

Pizza at The Wow was excellent

and a bit eclectic

We shared two of these giant pizzas

I have no clue as to all of the toppings but they were both, well, WOW!

Caleya is a darn good

Asturias Pale Ale

Liked this restaurants logo

I learned lots of new facts about Spain in general and Gijón specifically tonight.

Some I will share with you tomorrow after revisiting some sites.

Our wonderful OL/DL from Southern Oregon University, Taye Courtney, just returned from a few days in Lisbon and opined about the fact that though Portugal and Spain share the Iberian Peninsula they are in different time zones.

Why?

Simple, back in the days after Spain's Fascist dictator Francisco Franco took over the reins of power after victory in the Spanish Civil War he decided that rather than being on Greenwich Mean Time as was the norm then, Spain would switch to Central European Time. He wanted his newly conquered land to operate in the same time zone as his chum Adolf Hitler's Germany.

Beats me why they haven't changed back as Franco has been dead for 50 years now.

We had another batch of photos from last Saturday's Zaragoza Hurricanes game posted on the internet.

Here are the ones that I really enjoyed.