Friday, May 22, 2020
Today started with a painful but correct decision about our lives in EuroBall.
I had a phone call in the morning
with Varese Skorpions' man about town
Enzo Petrillo
With my 73rd birthday coming up this July and the knowledge that being away from our family for six months a year coaching in Europe was causing me to miss several once in a lifetime events with our three grandchildren, a decision had been looming for a long time.
We did not get a chance to take a
team photo in the Covid-19
shortened 2020 season
It was with great sorrow that I told Enzo about our decision not to return to the Skorpions for a fourth season, certainly not because of any dissatisfaction with the team, the Skorpion family has been nothing but first class in welcoming us.
No, the truth of the matter was that we were giving up EuroBall coaching in general after 12 wonderful seasons.
It was time to rein in our time traveling and enjoy our family much more.
We have met so many amazing people in our EuroBall travels and have been able to experience so many different sights, cultures and cuisines. Both Laurie and I have enjoyed every single moment that we have spent in Europe since retiring from teaching in 2007.
We have been blessed.
GRAZIE Varese Skorpions!
But our thanks go out to all of the players, coaches and people associated with the clubs we've coached over the years. It is the warm, gracious, welcoming people that we've met on this most exotic of American football journeys that we'll long remember.
To recap our travels, here is where EuroBall brought us:
2008 & 2009, Catania Elephants, Italy
2010, Hässleholm Hurricanes, Sweden
2012, Thun Tigers, Switzerland
2012-13, Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons, France
2015, Murcia Cobras, Spain
2016 & 2017, Wäsby Warriors, Sweden
2016, Osos Rivas and Guadalajara Stings, Spain
2017, 2018 & 2019, five Europe Warriors All-Star Games in Mexico (4) and Austria (1)
2018, 2019 & 2020, Varese Skorpions, Italy
Again, GRAZIE, TACK, DANKE, MERCI and GRACIAS to everyone in Europe whose kindness thankfully made this such a tough decision.
Now I'm not out of the EuroBall scene 100%, as I'll still be doing weekly Zoom meetings with the coaches of both the Varese Skorpions and Romania's Cruj Crusaders.
Also I'll continue to talk with Ventura County high school football coaches in my efforts to scrounge up used gear that we can ship to needy teams in Europe.
Europe Warriors
Even though the time to go overseas for six months at a time are apparently now behind us, the Europe Warriors All-Star games are not. I can do a few weeks at a time.
If the Coronavirus Countermeasures abate, we have three Europe Warriors games scheduled for 2020.
This year's slate of Warriors games looks like this:
U19 Warriors at Wroclaw, Poland, Nov. 22nd
Women Warriors at Barcelona, Spain, Dec. 5th
Men Warriors at Guadalajara, Mexico, Dec. 20th
Meanwhile, back in Camarillo . . .
We made pancakes for breakfast
for Jacob who slept over last night
Family tradition DEMANDS that
Jacob catch the first pancake of the day
A catch is a catch regardless of the unorthodox technique.
After breakfast, Jacob ate three pancakes, we moved on to more cerebral adventures.
Channeling our inner Indiana Jones
Jacob had received a gift of a Smithsonian Institute archaeological hands on experience.
We had to gently pound on a solid block of strata-like rock, sand and earth trying to find the bones of a mini-dinosaur.
It took time but we found a bunch of bones!
Of course, then we had to reassemble them to see what we actually had found.
EUREKA!
A T-Rex we think
All we needed were cool hats
and bull whips
Mary joined us for lunch
For Mary, lunch is always
Story Time
When Mary invites me to tea,
I MUST accept!
Did I mention that Ventura County
restaurants were starting to open
today with Social Distancing rules
firmly in place?
We've taken advantage of both home delivery and drive through meal options about five times over the last couple of weeks but we are not going to go out to a sit down meal in a restaurant for at least a couple of weeks yet.
We'll let the more adventurous among us act the part of the guinea pigs in this next phase in the easing of the Coronavirus restrictions.
Still, it was a tough decision today, we'll miss the European lifestyle greatly.
2 comments:
Hard to believe that at this start of this journey, we sat down so you could ask me a little about travel to Italy. Any advice I may have given proved to be wholly inadequate, as you have far surpassed me as a traveler, but if it was any help at all at the beginning of your adventure, I'm pleased to have contributed, because I think you have probably done more for international relations and the standing of Americans among Europeans than any 10 other people I know. It has been such a joy to follow your adventures, sometimes with a little envy, and at times over the last three years, as a form of experiencing vicariously while my own ability to travel was limited. I salute you and all you have done, and look forward to our next lunch in Camarillo, whenever that may be.
Thanks David, your sage advice got the ball rolling back in 2008 and was the basis for all we did enjoying the varied cultures, cuisines and people of Europe and Mexico during our EuroBall inspired travels.
I too look forward to our next lunch in Camarillo my friend.
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