Thursday, 13 June, 2019
Big news from Las Vegas, Nevada today . . .
Grandson Kevin got glasses!
He's looking quite handsome, don't you think?
I wonder how much money he has raked in from the tooth fairy so far?
Meanwhile, back on the mean streets of Varese . . .
Laurie liked this fence art on
our almost daily walk to the
Pasticceria Marabelli
After our nutritional needs were met, we took the C line bus into Varese for some minor shopping, if there is such a thing with Laurie.
Juliet's balcony where Romeo
wooed her in Shakespeare's play
That was in Varese, right?
No, it was Verona come to think of it.
Never get tired of this view
of the Basilica di San Vittore
Nor of this view of one of
Giuseppe Garibaldi's Red Shirts
Hmm, Varese's DI Basketball team
was set up downtown to sell
their colorful wares
This club was established in 1945 and has won ten National Championships in its history.
This year was not one of those ten.
In the evening, it was time for more Varese Skorpions football practices.
The U16 Tackle team getting ready
for their season that starts in September
Some of the newer players
still need their gear
Drill Time with the U16s
Our Women's Flag Team was
hard at work too
They have a big seeding tournament
this weekend in Bergamo before
heading to the National Championship
Tournament in two weeks in Calabria
The Prima Squadra was at it
in the evening
As their coach, I was extremely
concerned tonight as we had our
first unfocused practice
in a long, long time
That is not good when in just two more nights we play in the . . .
. . . Italian DII Quarter-Finals
The #7 seeded Varese Skorpions (7-2) at the #2 seeded Cernusco Daemons (7-1).
We both lost to the #1 seeded Milano Rhinos (8-0) and the Daemons beat us back in April 20-14 in OT.
On HUDL, they look like they are playing great at the right time of the season. We are in for a tough game to be sure.
Speaking of the playoffs, on the FIDAF (Federazione Italiana di American Football) website they list all of the goings on from the 2012 season to the present in all of American football's tackle, flag male and female permutations.
Thus armed, I did a little research on first how Wild Card game winners have fared in subsequent playoff games and then on the recent history of the Skorpions.
As for the Wild Card game winners in DII, not so good the rest of the way. There were no DII Wild Card games in 2012 but since 2013 there have been a total of 20 Wild Card games.
The bad news is that those 20 teams have only won two of their next 20 playoff games.
The good news is that the two clubs that did win the game after the Wild Card round fared very well indeed. In 2013, the Roma Grizzlies parlayed their Wild Card win into an eventual DII National Championship with a 16-7 win over the Bergamo Lions in the title game.
In 2018, the Roma Pretoriani went all the way to the Finals after winning in the Wild Card round. The Pretoriani lost to the Bologna Warriors 30-14 in their National Championship contest.
As for our beloved Varese Skorpions, here is a look at our fortunes since 2012, remembering that in Italy DIII plays nine-man American football:
2012: DIII, 10-2, Playoff Semi-Finalists
2013: DIII, 5-4, Playoff Quarter-Finalists
2014: DII, 5-3, No Playoffs
2015: DII, 2-6, No Playoffs
2016: DII, 4-5, Lost Wild Card game to the Catania Elephants 49-12
2017: DII, 3-6, Lost Wild Card game to the Roma Nord Barbari 63-6
2018: DII, 5-4, Lost Wild Card game to the Modena Vipers 40-33 in Overtime
2019: DII, 7-2, Won Wild Card game over the Palermo Sharks 13-7 . . . and still playing for another weekend
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