Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Europe Warriors First Day of Two-a-Days


Monday, December 2, 2019

The American Dream should be a taco stand on every corner. In Mexico it is not a dream, it is a reality!

Today was the start of our practices in earnest with two practices on the daily agenda.

An action packed day to be sure

Our full Roster of
hard working women

In the morning the street in front of
our hotel was jam packed as usual

I was out of the hotel early looking for a good cafe de olla to wake me up.

The juice looked refreshing but . . .

. . . this looked better to me

They served cafe de olla, so I was now a patron.

That's my breakfast taco
on the grill

Meanwhile, back at the team hotel . . .

The Europe Warriors were
assembling for our first full
contact practice of the day

We had about a ten minute
walk to our practice field

Our practice field was part of this
HUGE Mexican Sports Confederation
sports complex

Honoring Mexico's Olympic Medalists

If you are an official government
building in Mexico you MUST have
a colorful mural

It's the law as far as I know.

Each plague is for a sport covered
by the Federation and has the
Hall of Fame names of said sport
emblazoned on it

Our sports complex includes a
gigantic stadium that has a Formula One
race track around it

Defensive Linemen Alina Markl and
Melissa Bedwell enjoying the scenery
from our dining area in the sports complex

Many of the Warriors joined them

The stadium is used primarily for baseball, concerts and, at times, for American football.

Time for breakfast

Talking about nutrition

Our team continuing to bond
over food and football

Bart Iaccarino reviewing our
defense with two players before
the start of the morning practice

Our Warriors were anxious to start
so they started tossing the ball
around on this open hallway
next to our dining room

A good sign I thought.

Sue Valdivia is our truly amazing Team Photographer who has been a key member of our staff in all four of our Europe Warrior games in Mexico. These are some of her photos.

Trainer Shira hard at work

 TheWarriors take the field

 Introducing our Punt scheme

As the Team Santa Claus, I was also going over the list of who has been naughty and nice.

Christmas is getting closer.

International shoulder pads

QB Mona Stevens from Germany

A stretching DB Hannah Ploskonka
from Finland via Detroit

WR Sarah Viola from Belgium

The organized chaos which is
part of our dynamic warm-up

Desperate times require
desperate measures

Like RB Isabel "Izzy" Burger from Germany writing the plays on her hand.

Danish RB Stine Madsen was
the one who wrote the plays down
on Izzy's hands

Teammates helping teammates is always a good thing.

Running an Inside Zone
play in the morning

WOW!
What a face mask on Mexican 
Offensive Lineman Marcela Ortiz

I liked the effort in the morning practice but the confusion that surrounds implementing a new playbook was a normal part of a first practice.

The key would be how many of our mental hiccups we could correct by this afternoon's workout.

Meanwhile, back at the Coaching Staff's search for CDMX's best street taco . . .

We assembled our panels of judges
at the spot I visited this morning alone

The hand made tortilla
making process

Four Coca-Colas, eight tacos al
pastor and four chicken quesadillas
por favor

No, not just for me, that was a Staff order that cost us about $12 USD TOTAL.

A taco stand like this one on every corner . . .

Our panel of judges liked the tacos
over the quesadilla by a 4-0 count

Our dietary needs satisfied, we were off to our afternoon practice. 

A close up view of our Mexican medalists
in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic
Medalists for Team Mexico

Team period near the end
of the evening workout

QB Julia Schlatow from Germany
slinging the rock

I am pleased to report that the evening practice was a huge step in the right direction for the Warriors as our groups passion for the game was combined with a great leap forward in knowledge and execution.

All in all, we made good progress today.

One last Offensive Team meeting
before heading back to the hotel
for some much needed rest

I am blessed to be working with some wonderful coaches and athletes in Mexico City.

Life is good and best of all, Tuesday promises to be . . .
A BEAUTIFUL day
for American football!

Stay tuned . . .

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