Coaching for Pizza: The Turkey Day Weekend

Tues.-Sun., November 23-28, 2021

If you love American football, your family and lots of food . . .

. . . then this weekend is right

up your proverbial alley!

On Wednesday, Andrew, Jenn

and Kevin arrived from Las Vegas

We all joined Michael, Vanessa, Mary and Jacob for pizza at Freda's in Old Town Camarillo.

Good times!

Thanksgiving Day with

Jenn, Kvin and Andrew

in front of Grandma Chuny's home

in San Marino

My sister Linda with our mother

Chuny and Kevin

As has become the family custom, Linda is the main chef of the day's meal.

While always good, this year's feast was her best effort ever!

Linda reminded us all that I say that every year about her cooking. I do because it's true again every year!

Andrew, 97 year-old Chuny

and Kevin

Chuny with her great-grandsons

Max, Kevin and Leo

This year, Michael, Vanessa, Mary and Jacob were spending Thanksgiving at Vanessa's parent's home.

It was a GREAT day as one would expect!

When we finally got back to Camarillo, we found that some of our neighbors had already moved on to the next holiday . . .

. . . like this family that has tons

of Christmas spirit in their hearts

Friday was all about one thing . . .

. . . the 113th edition of

the Apple Cup

It was the University of Washington Huskies (4-7) hosting the Washington State University Cougars (6-5) with nothing but pride and bragging rights on the line for the Huskies who had won the last seven contests between the two universities. The Cougars, who were already bowl eligible, could find themselves in a better bowl with a win and the chance to rule it over Huskies worldwide after enduring barbs and insults while losing to the UW each of the last seven years!

The series between the school's started in 1900 with a 5-5 tie game played in Seattle. In 1901, WSU, known then as Washington Agricultural College, won the return game in Pullman, 10-0. After that game, the Cougars led what would become known as the Apple Cup with one Win, zero Losses and that one tie.

It was the last year, 1901, that the Cougars ever held the lead in the series. The Huskies won the next three games in 1902,1903 and 1904 and have never relinquished the series lead.

The Huskies led the all-time series going into the days battle with 74 Wins, 32 Losses and 6 Ties.

Laurie was wearing her

Husky colors as we settled

into Michael and Vanessa's

home to watch the game

We all agreed that both Kevin and Jacob will pass Laurie in height by next Thanksgiving if not sooner.

A for the Apple Cup game, it was awful to watch how poorly the Huskies played in the face of an inspired Cougar squad.

The Final Score was Cougars 40 - Huskies 13.

The Husky still lead the series 74-33-6.

Saturday at around noon after the Michigan Wolverines destroyed THE Ohio State Buckeyes 42-27, Jenn, Andrew and Kevin headed back to Las Vegas.

Saturday afternoon and evening were set aside for not one, but two high school playoff championship games that we needed to attend.

At Pierce College at 3:00 p.m. we had the C.I.F.- Los Angeles City Section's D-2 Championship Game.

The Hamilton Yankees

#3 seed in the D-2 Playoffs

9 Wins - 3 Losses

vs.

The El Camino Real Royals

#1 seed in the D-2 Playoffs

5 Wins - 7 Losses

It was a BEAUTIFUL day for

American football at Pierce College!

Michael and I were raring to go and cheer the Royals to V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!

El Camino Real in their

home blues

The Royals did a fine job of

mixing the pass and the run

The ECR defense came to play as well!

Our family friend, Jason Sabolic, is the El Camino Real Head Coach and has done a great job getting his players to believe in themselves besides a ton of adversity during the regular season. The team has shown steady improvement to the point where they can now call themselves the 2021 Los Angeles City D-2 Champions thanks to solid, suffocating 37-18 win over Hamilton today.

Now, it's on to the California State Division 6A Semi-Finals!

The Royals will take on the

Arlington Lions in a game to be played

in Riverside on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

The State D-6A Semi-Finals shape up like this:

Northern California D-6A Semi-Final

Aragon H.S. Dons of San Mateo

9 Wins - 4 Losses

C.I.F.-Central Coast Sections D-5 Champions

Salesian College Prep H.S. Pride of Richmond

9 Wins - 2 Losses

C.I.F.-North Coast Section D-6 Champions

Southern California D-6A Semi-Final

El Camino Real H.S. Royals of Woodland Hills

6 Wins - 7 Losses

C.I.F.-Los Angeles City Sections D-2 Champions

Arlington H.S. Lions of Riverside

6 Wins - 8 Losses

C.I.F.-Southern Section D-13 Champions

Just as the Royals were starting their Championship celebration, Micheal and I had to hustle out of the stadium to pick up both Jacob and Laurie on our way up to Ventura in time to watch the 7:00 p.m. Kickoff of the C.I.F.-Southern Section's D-8 Championship Game.

The Serrano Diamondbacks

10 Wins - 3 Losses

The Buena Bulldogs

Pacific View League Champions

10 Wins - 3 Losses

When we arrived we had to stand in a long line before getting into the stadium.

The Home Stands were PACKED!

It was Standing Room Only

all around the field at ground level

It made for an awesome atmosphere for a high school game of this magnitude.

With three of our players

from our 2001, 2002 and 2003

Buena Bulldog teams

We finally found seats in the

visiting stands

Buena for an early SIX!

Buena was swarming on Defense

against a physical, ground and pound

oriented Serrano attack

Buena led 14-7 at the Half but . . .

. . . Serrano controlled the Second

Half of play

A 42 yard TD run with 3:12 left in the game tied the score at 14-14.

Then a miracle happened, just not

for our Bulldogs

The Diamondbacks back-up QB entered the game with his club backed up in their end of the field and time in regulation about to expire. Most of us were thinking, Overtime.

But not Serrano, their back-up QB calmly dropped back and threw a pass as far as he could up the right sideline to a tall, speedy WR who is actually the Diamondbacks' starting QB. The receiver high pointer the ball over a much shorter Buena QB who tried to wrestle the receiver down for about seven yards before slipping off to see the about to be named Serrano Co-Hero-of-the-Game along with the back-up QB cover 79 yards for the winning score and only 21 seconds left in the game.

Final Score: Serrano (11-3) 21 - Buena (10-4) 14

Disappointing to say the least but still a GREAT season for the Bulldogs.

Meanwhile, in EuroBall news . . .

The European League of Football announced their new 2022 Conference alignment that includes the four clubs that are joining 2021's original eight.