Coaching for Pizza: A Few Weeks of Literary Laziness

Tuesday, August 13 - Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Yes, I know that I have been neglecting this time honored blog for most of the month of August, time to catch up.

Let's start with my Mother's 95th birthday/swim party at her home in San Marino, California.

Laurie and Mary poolside

Mary and her Great-Grandmother Chuny

with our Niece Lauren photo-bombing

Michael at the Kids Table with

his two kids, Jacob and Mary and

Lauren's two boys, Leo and Max

Chuny with four of her

five Great-Grandchildren

Kevin was missing as he was in Las Vegas with school looming the next day.

Blowing out the candles

Mary keeping Chuny entertained

Later in the week, we were in Moorpark for some authentic Italian desserts at the Carrara Pasticceria.

Unfortunately, the prices were definitely not authentic

Italian ones.

A Vespa with a gelato side car

How much more Italian can you get?

Cat Conti and her son Cooper

Surprise!

Our longtime friend Cat Conti, who is one of the few women certified to referee American football at the NCAA DI level, was enjoying a cannolo at Carrara's when we arrived.

It was good to catch up with her as always.

On to high school football . . .

Bakersfield's Garces Memorial was at

Rio Mesa, in white, for a scrimmage

Simi Valley's Royal HS

at Ventura's Buena HS,

on offense here, a bit later the same day

during their scrimmage

Royal vs. Buena in action

Fun time as Summer ends and school begins . . .

With Jacob at the Annual Camarillo Air

and Classic Car Show at the

Camarillo Airport

Jacob thought this roadster

was more his style . . .

. . . until he saw this WWII jeep

Trying to close the deal on

taking this baby home with him

He settled for a toy airplane instead

"Hey Poppo, let's go into that huge cargo plane."

It was indeed HUGE inside!

It was a GREAT DAY!

Jacob in a Marine attack helicopter

Jacob's new haircut, ready

for the first day of Second Grade

the next day

Mary, in T-K, and Jacob

on their first day of the

2019-20 school year

Back to more high school football . . .

Newbury Park HS Offensive Line

drills with Coach Ryan Hurley

Finishing the blocks

Practice at Ventura HS

I was there to gather information for Friday night's Royal at Ventura season opening game as I was scheduled to once again be the color commentator for the Ventura County Star's Game of the Week podcasts.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day for

American Football at Venutra HS!

It was a great day for a Tommy's

chili cheese burger as well

The Royal-Ventura JV game before

our podcast at Ventura HS's. . .

Larrabee Stadium in a game

played on . . .

. . . Turner Field

Larrabee Stadium is

79 years old this season

The Varsity game about to kickoff

The Ventura Cougars (1-0) looked sharp in beating the Royal Highlanders (0-1) 51-14 tonight.

Next up, AYSO Soccer . . .

Jacob in action with his Blue Sharks

Mixing it up cautiously

After his game, we all raced home to watch some college football.

Mary just wasn't feeling the

Week Zero contests on TV

Sunday at a Ventura Winery

with Rio Mesa teachers both active

and retired to hear Karen Pecht sing

That's Karen on the left across from me. She did a splendid job as usual.

It was fun seeing some people for the first time in years on this day.

Back, once again, to high school football . . .

Ou Game of the Week podcast was

the Thousand Oaks Lancers (0-1) at

the Newbury Park Panthers (0-0)

It was the 50th year that these two schools would meet for the Conejo Valley Championship Trophy in a series that started in 1970 with a 48-48 tie.

I was at that incredible 1970 game as it was my first year of coaching serving as an JV assistant at Thousand Oaks HS.

Each team scored six TDs and six 2-Point conversions that day and with 1 minute and 5 seconds left in the game the score was 40-40!

The series stands at 27-22-1 (they played each other twice in 2012) in favor of TOHS going into tonight's contest, but NPHS has won the last three games between these friendly rivals.

With Jacob in the NPHS Press Box

before the game

Mike and Jacob on the sidelines

Nice t-shirt Mike!

Jacob engrossed in the

NPHS JV Goal Line Offense

The Varsity game's First Quarter action

The NPHS stands were

PACKED!

Mike and Jacob urging on a Panther

on one of many long TD plays

for NPHS this evening

Newbury Park, which was my last California HS coaching stop a few years ago, won the game comfortably 44-21.

The series is still in favor of the Lancers 27-23-1 but it's now four in a row for the Panthers.

At Cronies after the TO-NP game

young Jacob just could not hang

with the big dogs

Saturday it was back to Rio Mesa HS

for some Pop Warner football

Our family friend Debi Murphy's grandson

Dylan Moore plays for the Cougars

Dylan made a nice interception from his CB position to help seal the victory for the Cougars over the vaunted Simi Valley Bulldogs.

Let's see what's happening on the Continent with our happy-go-lucky Skorpions . . .

DJ is now a Europe Warriors WR!

As is Brovo at an RB spot!

With these two additions to the Warriors' final 55-man roster for the mid-November game in Vienna against the Austrian U18 National team, it makes a total of six Varese Skorpions. to be named to the latest/fourth Europe Warriors incarnation.

The other Skorpions on the roster are WR Filippo Petrillo, OL Gabriele Distefano, LB Stefano Lusuriello and DB Federico Zanetta.