Tue.-Wed., July 13-14, 2021
One of the things that holds me back every day before I start my necessary health walks is the boredom of strolling through the same neighborhood time and time again.
To combat this negative mental state, I try to tour a different spot at least once a week.
So, on Tuesday it was on to . . .
. . . the Home of the Kingsmen/Regals
CLU's men's athletic teams are known as the Kingsmen while the women's teams are called the Regals.
This small university in Thousand Oaks has an enrollment of about 4,150 students. Walking through there campus was a treat.
A statue of one of their founders
Richard Pederson was a local rancher, the son of Norwegian immigrants, who donated his 130 acre ranch in 1957 so California Lutheran College could be built. Classes began in 1960 with 330 students.
In 1986, it changed its name to California Lutheran University.
Today, the university has 2,800 undergraduates and 1,350 graduate students from around the world representing a diversity of faiths and cultures.
"The Enormous Luther"
It is a modernistic tribute to Martin Luther. The statue was conceived by Sir Bernardus Weber, one of the university's first art teachers. The statue came to fruition from Weber's impression of Luther while studying art in Holland as a youth.
The one word that captured Luther for Weber was . . . "enormous."
It was getting hot and this
fountain was indeed inviting
On to the CLU athletic fields
Celebrating Coach Bob Shoup
and CLC's 1971 NAIA DII
National Championship Football Team
Cool bent face mask
No longer in the NAIA,
CLU has enjoyed success at the
NCAA DIII level in several sports
Now this is a great tie-in to EuroBall
Fredrik Nanhed grew up in Malmö, Sweden and started playing American football as a high school foreign exchange student in New Hampshire in 1990.
When he returned home, he started to lift weights and joined the Limhamn Griffins American football team where he would eventually earn two Swedish American Football Federation MVP awards.
In 1995, he enrolled at CLU and, as they say, the rest is history.
The CLU Football/Soccer Stadium
Art on campus
The CLU walk was a good diversion on the way to my daily 10,000+ steps.
On Wednesday, it was time to
talk American football
I was asked to put on a clinic for the coaching staff at El Camino Real H.S. in Woodland Hills by their Head Coach Jason Sabolic.
Since its doors opened in 1969, ECR athletic teams have been referred to as the Conquistadores.
Starting this Fall they will become the Royals as community activists pushed for the rebranding as the Conquistadores moniker was felt to have negative connotations to the indigenous people of the Americas in general and, apparently, Woodland Hills in particular.
First, I sat with long time UW friend
Paul Sabolic, Jason's Dad, to watch
the Royals practice
After practice we adjourned
to the classroom to talk about
culture building
I thought that it went smoothly and I hope that I gave the coaches something to think about as the new season quickly approaches.
After over two hours of talking football,
it was time to eat and have an adult beverage
From left to right are Ali Mirbaha, Jason Sabolic, Paul Sabolic, me and Dan Rappa
Dan Rappa, the ECR Offensive Line coach on my left, is an Italian American whose Dad is from Palermo and Mom is from Bari.
We shared our mutual love of horse meat, a Sicilian delicacy.
We bonded.
GOOD TIMES!
No comments:
Post a Comment