Mon.-Sun., December 13-19, 2021
Every week should really start with Mexican food for dinner . . .
. . . and so this one did!
On Monday, Laurie and I ventured to Camarillo's oldest and, in our opinion, best Mexican restaurant, El Tecolote.
Nothing gets me into the holiday mood like three of El Tecolote's crunchy beef tacos!
One of El Tecolote's many signs
brought back interesting college
memories from the late 1960s
A quick note from the college football scene . . .
. . . the Transfer Portal . . .
. . . is WIDE OPEN!
College football is becoming more and more like the Wild West every year.
USC's three year starter, Kedon Slovis, has completed 68% 0f his 953 Trojan passes for 7,576 yards, 58 TDs with 24 interceptions. He is moving on with two more years of eligibility due to the 2020 Covid rule that did not take away a year of eligibility for any college athletes that season.
I find it interesting that the previous USC starting QB, J.T. Daniels, used the Transfer Portal in 2019 after Slovis' rise to excellence after Daniels was injured.
As for Michael Penix, Jr., I saw him play on TV two seasons ago for Indiana University and he had some electric moments. The Huskies QB room just got a bit more interesting methinks.
Penix started 17 games for the Hoosiers completing 59% of his 576 passes in passing for 4,197 yards, 29 TDs with 13 interceptions.
Now it's time for some EuroBall/NCAA DI recruiting news . . .
Jeffrey M'ba - Defensive Lineman
Independence Community College
6'6" - 305 lbs.
Jeffrey M'ba is considered to be the No.1 Junior College football player in the country. Born in the Congo, his family moved to France when Jeffrey was a child.
It was in France where he was introduced to the great game of American football as a member of the Tours Pionniers football club in the northwestern quadrant of the country.
His passion for the game led him to America to play for Oakdale H.S. before heading to Independence C.C. in Kansas.
This weekend he agreed to continue his college career as an Auburn Tiger in the SEC. He will have three more years of eligibility.
More on Jeffrey M'ba can be found here:
https://247sports.com/college/auburn/Article/Jeffrey-Mba-commitment-Auburn-Tigers-football-recruiting-junior-college-178759007/I mentioned in my last blogpost that we went to a sports trading card show last weekend. Curious about the current status of card collecting, I went on a Google search to find out more about current card prices.
Was I ever surprised . . .
Trevor Lawrence's Rookie Card
from way back in 2021
I completely understand the higher cost of any star's Rookie Card but this is actually Lawrence's rookie year and he has yet to establish himself as an NFL star.
$4,999.99 . . amazing!
This 1958 Topps card
goes for about $100
They just don't make cards like this anymore.
The Huskies announced their
2022 Schedule this week
I can't wait for those first two games at Husky stadium vs. Kent State and Portland State.
They should be barnburners.
I hope our UW Huskies have learned a lesson after opening the 2021 campaign with a 13-7 loss to the Montana Grizzlies.
their final U-18 game of the regular
season on Sunday
The Skorpions are having an outstanding, dominating season as today's score against the Cernusco Daemons indicates.
The 6-0 U-18 Skorpions are the Champions of their conference, Girone A.
There are 14 teams playing U-18 football in Italy this year playing in three Girones creatively named A, B and C.
The Skorpions results to date are:
6 Wins - 0 Losses
65 Balangero Blitz (3-3) - 30
56 Milano Seamen - 7
60 Cernusco Daemons - 6
47 Torino Giaguari (2-4) - 6
31 Milano Seamen (4-2) - 16
63 Cernusco Daemons (0-6) - 0
On to the Playoffs!
Laurie and I continue packing boxes full of American football equipment to ship all over the globe to teams in need.
All this is due to the generous donations of area high schools looking to lower their inventory of unwanted but still extremely usable gear.
So far this Fall, Laurie and I have been able to pack 21 boxes for 13 different teams loaded with a total of:
23 Helmets
37 Shoulder Pads
326 Jerseys
204 Pants
3 Face Masks
1 Agility Ladder
3 Mouth Pieces
52 New Game Socks
So who benefitted from these shipments you ask?
Well let's look at the roll call of those teams
Spain's Guadalajara Stings
who we've helped several times
over the years
Also located in Spain near Alicante,
the Ibi Industriales needed help in
making the transition from a strictly
Flag club to their first Tackle team
They have been the recipients of a whopping eight of our boxes.
The Tenerife Helldogs are
another a Spanish club
They are based in the Canary Islands and are coached by the infamous Jack Siete Dos who was our starting Center in 2016 with the Osos Rivas in suburban Madrid.
Still in Spain, the Ávila Grizzlies
were new to our program
No, Spain is not our only destination . . .
This club is located in the
United Kingdom's Cornwall region
The U.K.'s famed Cambridge University
has a team, who knew?
The Pythons are part of the Cambridge University sports scene but an under funded part as American football ranks far behind the traditional sports that England loves.
As a result, the Pythons' coach asked for help with some jerseys.
These were donated on Friday and
they were on their way to Cambridge
on Saturday!
Which brings up an interesting story. The way we work it all of the gear we have is donated to us and we, in turn, donate to these clubs for free. All we ask is to be reimbursed for the cost of the shipping boxes and the shipping tape to secure the boxes plus the cost of shipping them via the United States Postal Service. The USPS is both the cheapest and slowest way to send things overseas.
The Cambridge Head Coach alerted me to the fact that the total cost of shipping these 42 used Under Armour jerseys to him was amazing.
How amazing I asked? Well he responded, the same amount of money would only cover the cost of about 2 1/2 of these Under Armour jerseys if new and purchased in the UK.
Laurie and I both felt good about this news.
On to Italy with the Catania Elephants!
The Sicilian team was my first EuroBall team when I coached there in 2008 and 2009.
The Cagliari Crusaders
Another club that is also located on an Italian island, this time Sardenia.
Sweden's Göteborg Marvels
received a box
Sara Hilgers, the daughter of Frank Hilgers who I coached with the Hässleholm Hurricanes in 2010, is playing for the Marvels and requested the gear we sent.
France's Grizzlys de Lannion
located in the region of Brittany
are our latest club
We packed a box with 35 jerseys and 30 pants
today to send to the Grizzlys on Monday
It's not just Europe that we've helped
this Fall, this Colombian team received
23 jerseys and 23 pants
Even Israel's Ramat Hasharon Hammers
are getting some much needed
jerseys and pants!
It has been fun helping these and so many other clubs grow their programs over the past eleven years since we started sending these football Care Packages overseas.
Our first ones were sent to Sweden in 2010, earmarked for the Hässleholm Hurricanes that I was coaching at the time. We found a transport company in Orange County that shipped American muscle cars to Göteborg by boat. Our boxes rode in the back seat of some of those cars at a dirt cheap price thanks to their only caring about the volume of the boxes not their weight.
We also caught a break with this Orange County company when the head man asked what was in the boxes. Telling the truth about it being used football equipment, he broke into a smile and proudly declared that he was a player for the Göteborg Marvels back in the day. That's about the same time that he declared that he was cutting the already great rate in half thanks to our new found bond of American football brotherhood.
GOOD TIMES!
On Friday night, I was asked to attend the El Camino Real H.S. Football Awards Banquet.
It was a fun night held at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel to celebrate the Royals 2021 C.I.F-Los Angeles City Section 2A Championship season.
Terri and Jason Sabolic
Jason is the Royals' Head Football Coach and the son of our longtime friends Paul and Joanne Sabolic.
I had a small part in Jason's season working as the team's Analytics Coach breaking down their game videos and offering suggestions on how to improve the club's performance.
They had an excellent video playing
scenes from the Championship Game
vs. the Hamilton Yankees, a 37-18
El Camino Real victory
Jason did a good job setting a
positive tone not only for the 2021
season but also for his vision of
the future of ELCO football
If you win a Championship,
you earn a ring
I was informed that thanks to a secret benefactor of the program, I was getting a ring, too.
SO COOL!
A heartfelt and sincere THANK YOU to Paul Sabolic for this extremely kind gesture.
On Saturday afternoon, we headed to Rancho Campana H.S. here in Camarillo to attend granddaughter Mary's first dance recital.
The Performing Arts Center at
R.C.H.S. was packed!
Mike and I were both smiling in
anticipation of Mary's performance
I video taped Mary's two-minute group performance and I thought she did well, especially with her hand gestures.
Unfortunately, the video was too long to be uploaded to this blogsite.
A happy Mary after her
performance
Proud Grandparents with America's
new Ginger Rogers!
We also received our newest University of Washington Huskies Christmas ornament this weekend, again courtesy to Paul Sabolic.
Here is our entire array of
UW Husky ornaments from over
the many years
The 2021 UW Husky fire truck
joins our beloved Christmas Collection
All in all, another good week leading into the final few days before our traditional Contreras Family Christmas get-together at our home next Saturday after a one year Covid related hiatus in 2020.
I expect more good things to happen again soon, at least that is what my Chinese fortune cookie said tonight.
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