Coaching for Pizza: EuroBall Experience XVII Starts With But a Single Flight, Well, Two Actually

Saturday, 11 January, 2020

At long last, it was finally the day to fly to Milan, Italy to start our latest adventure, EuroBall Experience XVII.

A recap of all of our EuroBall Experiences:

I: 2008, Defensive Coordinator, Catania Elephants, Italy

II: 2009, Head Coach, Catania Elephants, Italy

III: 2010, Head Coach, Hässleholm Hurricanes, Sweden

IV: 2012, Head Coach, Thun Tigers, Switzerland

V: 2012-13, Head Coach, Bron-Villeurbane Falcons, France

VI: 2015, Head Coach, Murcia Cobras, Spain

VII: 2016, Consultant, Wäsby Warriors, Sweden

VIII: 2016, Consultant, Osos Rivas, Spain

IX: 2017, Consultant, Wäsby Warriors, Sweden

X: 2017 O-Line Coach, Europe Warriors Senior, Mexico

XI: 2017 O-Line Coach, Europe Warriors U18, Mexico

XII: 2018, Head Coach, Varese Skorpions, Italy

XIII: 2018, Head Coach, Europe Warriors Senior, Mexico

XIV: 2019, Head Coach, Varese Skorpions, Italy

XV: 2019, Special Teams Coach, Europe Warriors U19, Austria

XVI: 2019, Head Coach, Europe Warriors Women, Mexico

XVII: 2020, Head Coach, Varese Skorpions, Italy

What a ride it continues to be, E-Ticket worthy for those of you old enough to know what an E-Ticket meant at Disneyland back in the day.

With great timing, FIDAF, Italy's governing body for American football picked today to finally announce the final alignment of the 21 teams in Division II for the 2020 campaign.

With 21 clubs, we are up two

teams from the 2019 season in DII

The Varese Skorpions will compete

in this season's Girone or League A

Here is the rundown on how the 2020 League a teams fadein 2019:

The Bergamo Lions were in DI last year where they endured a rough 1-7 season. The drop to DII this year will give them a chance to regroup. Historically, the Lions have been unbelievable in winning 12 DI Super Bowl championships including an unheard of ELEVEN straight titles from 1998-2008! We have not played against the Lions in my previous two seasons with the Skorpions.

The Bologna Braves went 2-6 in DII play in 2019. We have also not played against the Braves in the past two years.

The Brescia Bengals were a DII playoff team in 2019, going 4-5 in the process. We beat the Bengals in a wild, regular season shootout last season 58-43.

The Legnano Frogs went 0-6 playing a DIII (nine-man) schedule in 2019. We have not faced the Frogs in my tenure with the Skorpions.

The Savona Pirates were a DIII powerhouse in 2019 in winning their league and going deep into the playoffs. They were 7-1 last season and once again, we have not faced them in either 2018 or 2019.

The Varese Gorillas, our cross-town rivals, were in DII in 2019, going 2-6 during the season. They gave us all we could handle as we eked out a hard fought 14-6 victory against the Gorillas in 2019.

Your Varese Skorpions enjoyed a stirring 7-3 DII season in 2019 with all three losses coming at the hands of the top two ranked teams in 2019 DII.

I really like the idea of facing four opponents for the first time in 2020.

As for DII's other two leagues, here is their make up with their 2019 records and Division included:

Cernusco Daemons (8-2, DII)

Ferrara Aguile (4-5, DII)

Modena Vipers (1-7, DII)

Monza Brianza Hammers (3-5, DII)

Padova Saints (8-2, DII)

Toscana West Coast Raiders (5-2, DIII)

Verona Redskins (10-0, DIII Champions)

Canavese Mastifs (3-6, DII)

Castelfranco Cavaliers (1-7, DII)

Isonzo Sentinels (1-7, DII)

Reggio Emilia Hogs (8-2, DII)

Sarzana Red Jackets (3-6, DII)

Venezia Islanders (5-2, DIII)

Verona Mastini (8-2, DII)

Now about that trip to Italy . . .

The alarm at Casa Contreras went off at 2:30 a.m. as my first flight of the day took off from LAX at 7:00 a.m.

Laurie and I left the house at about 3:30 a.m and with no traffic to speak of on the usually clogged 101 and 405 Freeways, we made it to the airport in a mere 50 minutes.

The American Airlines area

was virtually empty make for

more smooth sailing

Interestingly, the American Airlines ticket agent demanded to see my six month Italian Work Visa as a prelude to being allowed to check in today.

That is a huge departure from the slack immigration check days of EuroBall yesteryear.

It is never easy to say good bye to

little Laurie for three months

Note the time at the American Airlines

clock . . . it was 5:09 a.m. as I entered

the TSA line

Again only a few other traveling souls were in the line and I was through to the boarding gate area in about four minutes.

My first flight of the day would last

about five hours to . . .

. . . The Big Apple, New York City and

JFK Airport

We experienced a lot of turbulence over the midwest but I was strong.

I now had a three hour layover to endure.

Nice American Airlines sculpture

At the sports bar where I had a GREAT

hamburger, I spied a Skorpions omen

Now for the eight hour flight to Milan

As one would suspect, there were a lot of Italians on this flight which made for lots of fun watching the Italian cultural chaos begin all around me.

First, an Italian family of six people were scattered in about three separate rows and on both sides of the aisle around me.

Only two sitting next to each other in two middle seats and only one was in an aisle seat.

Before takeoff they asked one of the hostesses if they could change seats. "To all be together?" the hostess asked.

No, we ALL want aisle seats!

That did not happen, but the four who were not sitting together did at least get to sit with their respective spouses.

As for me, the lady next to me was part of the family and she was moved to a new aisle seat next to her husband, it meant an empty middle seat for myself on the aisle and the young man by the window for the rest of the trip.

All three of us were now extremely happy!

At about 3:00 a.m., the same group, resplendent with their colorful, light weight scarves, decided that having a loud discussion (is there any other kind of discussion for a true Italian?) near the restroom was a great idea.

Many passengers either disagreed or were as mildly amused as I was.

Of course, upon landing in Milano, all of my new countrymen gave a large round of applause to the pilots upon our successful landing as is the Italian tradition.

We made it!

My long travel day was finally over as we arrived in Milan at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday which was 11:00 p.m. Saturday back in California. Thus ended my 20 hour and 30 minutes of voyaging from the alarm going off to landing on foreign soil.

My Skorpion ride into Varese from the airport was a bit late so I opted to . . .