Friday, March 25, 2022
Our time in Brazil was quickly coming to an end but there was still work to do.
It has been a wonderful,
rejuvenating week for me
This young man was behind the
lobby desk during the night shift
at the Hotel Del Verde
He always had a smile on his face that overcame our language barrier.
Friday's original plan was amended
by the popular request of the coaches
We were scheduled for a morning two hour, helmets only walk-through type of practice.
In our staff meeting last night, we all agreed that we would be better served using our time with a long, in-depth video session with our groups.
Thus the change was made.
The Defensive got to use my
mini-projector first
We enjoyed a good session before the Offensive staff had their time in our meeting room.
Smart Offensive Linemen
In 2009, my sister-in-law Gayle and her husband David visited us in Sicily while we were coaching the Catania Elephants. With them, we journeyed to the city of Siracusa to see their famous Greek ruins.
Before entering the ruins, we opted to grab a quick snack and an adult beverage at a small cafe that used plastic chairs such as the ones you see in the photo above.
We were sitting for about ten minutes when suddenly and unexpectedly, my chair simply snapped into a broken heap. Everyone laughed at the "fat guy breaks a chair" scenario except for the waiters who scrambled to pick up the pieces and get me a new plastic chair.
The only thing injured was my dignity.
About five minutes later, David's chair similarly exploded. David weighs about 150 lbs. after a third trip through a Vegas buffet line.
Now I was the one laughing.
I remember being surprised that long ago day that the cafe didn't add the cost of the two broken chairs to our tab.
The news of this event has apparently gone global as all of our big boys now use the double chair technique when sitting in a plastic chair like the ones we destroyed in Siracusa long, long ago.
Good move.
In the afternoon, some of the
Onças coaches were asked to
join in a coaching clinic
Each speaker was given 45 minutes to develop their topic in front of about about 25 coaches and players in the room plus another 140 or so watching on-line.
Onças HC Brian Guzman led the way,
his topic was
"Fabricating Explosive Plays"
Next up was Fabrício Ataíde on
"Coaching Staff Recruiting and Development"
The third speaker was yours truly trying to develop the topic "Aggressive Special Teams."
I say trying because our HC, Brian Guzman, had to translate what I was saying into Portuguese for many of the coaches who were either in attendance or watching on-line.
This necessary translating ate up a lot of my teaching time which did not fully allow me to develop the topic as I wanted.
Such is coaching life overseas.
Breno Takahashi was up next discussing
"Developing a Winning Culture"
Finally, Clayton Lovett reviewed the
importance of Defensive "Run Fits"
Overall, I thought that using the Onças staff for this event was a great idea to help improve the level of coaching and program development throughout all of Brazil.
After the clinic we all discovered
that QB Coach Ester Alencar has
a lot of musical talent
Her go-to instrument is the violin followed closely by the guitar. She said that the piano was a distant third in her mastery of musical instruments.
She sounded pretty good to me once she got going.
A Brasil Onças local school visit
While we were doing our clinic, CB Marlon Tamasia and some of the Confederação Brasileira de Futbol Americano (CBFA) Board
of Directors visited an elementary school located directly behind the stadium where Saturday's final scrimmage of the week will be held.
Another good move to inspire local interest.
Since many players and coaches would be heading home directly after Saturday's scrimmage, the staff thought that we would suspend the evening's activities to allow all of the Onças one last social night together.
The Sun was setting on both the
game and Onças Week
The staff headed to Itapecerica da Serra's
Barbecue Bar for a lot of food, a few
libations and a ton of musical fun
The Three Amigos, Alex Posito, Bart Iaccarino (R to L) and I were the first three revelers on the right of this photo.
A group of locals enjoying a
Friday Girl's Night Out
Meat, it is ALWAYS about the
meat in this country
This is just another reason why I LOVE Brazil!
Some of our staff busting a move
A group shot from the other
end of our table
As we were leaving, our guitarist
played a traditional song that all
Brazilians know by heart
People from Camarillo, California, not so much.
It was a great time with a bunch of people that I have grown to like and respect immensely in the past week.
Our Final Scrimmage will be held on Saturday afternoon, it should be a competitive, high energy affair if this past week is any indicator.
Stay tuned . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment