Onças Week Tuesday Happenings

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

From what I have learned, the word "Brazil" comes from an ancient Portuguese word meaning "sultry, humid and constantly sweating."

Still, the positive energy was at a high level as we entered the third day of the Onças Week Camp.

The day's schedule was action packed

It started with a 6:30 a.m. coaching staff meeting and would eventually see us transition into 9:00 a.m. practice, coaches' and group meetings, an afternoon walk-through and another round of evening staff and player meetings.

Our morning practice schedule

One of the best things about the week was the tight, efficient practices. A part of this was because of Head Coach Brian Guzman constantly keeping us on schedule and the other part was the effort and passion that the players brought to the field.

Every day at the end of practice I asked myself, "Is that it?" I could have gone much longer due to the energy and competitive nature of each workout.

A rudimentary Team Photo

It was actually taken after Monday's afternoon practice with the city's Mayor. It was an important PR moment for the Brazilian Federation as the Mayor has made a huge commitment. The Mayor has announced that the city will build a permanent American football facility for Brazil's National Team.

That would be AWESOME!

CB Marlon "No Fly Zone" Tamasia

contemplating before the day's

first practice

A horse heading to the nearby

equine training facility

It was a BEAUTIFUL day for

American football!

What else did you expect?

One-on-One Pass Rush Drill

The Defense wears the green jerseys.

Team Time

OLB Luis Polastri bending the corner

Each practice would end with

a kicking competition vs. air

That is not to say that the kickers

didn't face at least some verbal

abuse/encouragement while attempting

long distance Field Goals

After the morning practice, Bart Iaccarino and I opted to walk back to the hotel again in search of a good hole-in-the-wall lunch spot.

This market's meat counter

set the mood

I'm not 100% sure what this

was but I liked it

We were both still hungry so we walked up the street to that little, gritty spot that I highlighted in yesterday's blogpost.

MUCH BETTER!

Our second lunch was a testament to our basic carnivore instincts.

We made it back to the hotel in plenty of time for our afternoon meetings.

Defensive Video Review of the

morning practice

One of the drawbacks of the Onças Week Camp was a lack of projectors to show videos. Fortunately, I had packed my mini-projector to save the day. 

We could have used at least one more and probably three more to make things run a little more efficiently.

The site of our afternoon walk-through

practice was on our hotel's grounds

Practice field abutting

a Brazilian jungle

We look good in our

uniforms warming up!

After practice, we were a tad hungry and definitely parched, so in the evening we had a new exciting dinner plan to execute. 

Brazil is known for its meat-centric churrascaria restaurants and Bart and I both wanted to visit a good one as did our Spanish/Europe Warriors LB Alex Posito.

An Uber ride whisked us all away to a recommended spot.

The Uber driver also nearly got us killed.

At the top of the Hotel Del Verde's steep driveway is a busy, two-lane road. Said driveway enters the road on a curve making it hard to see the traffic in both directions.

After waiting for several seconds, our somewhat hyper, impatient chauffeur had a "What the hell" moment and decided to shoot the gap. The three of us in unison yelled . . . 

"CAMIÓN!!!"

Camión means truck and by truck we meant a BIG rig was bearing down on us from our right with its horn now blaring.

Fortunately, both the truck and our Uber ride had GREAT brakes! By the time the two of us came to a stop, the traffic on our left was quickly approaching and thankfully stopping in a timely manner.

Order restored we proceeded with our left turn where the drivers of the first few cars we passed had several interesting Brazilian comments to add to our driver's Yelp ratings.

Deep inside, I just knew that God would not take me before I had first tasted the world famous Brazilian meat served on skewers in Brazil.

We eventually got to the desired spot, the Churrascaria São Leopoldo, in one piece. It was located in the middle of a freeway truck stop with lots of big rigs in the parking lot.

That was a good sign.

Unfortunately, once inside, we were told that on Tuesdays they do not do the traditional multiple meats on skewers that Brazilian churrascarias are known for worldwide.

We settled for steaks which were

not bad but it wasn't the true

churrascaria experience we were seeking

Our first experiences with the

famed, traditional Brazilian

cocktail, the Caipirinha

It is made with a sugarcane based hard liquor called cachaça, sugar and lime. This particular one had way too much sugar for my tastes but I'm willing to try another one at a better churrascaria later this week.

Getting back to the Hotel Del Verde in time for the scheduled 9:00 p.m. coaching staff meeting proved to be a bit problematic.

In São Paulo, Uber has a recent history of canceling rides for unknown, random, unexplained reasons which we would find out about first hand on this evening.

After five cancellations, the sixth Uber driver did pick us up and he was a safe and sane, defensive driver.

We made it back to hotel with about ten minutes to spare before the start of the scheduled meeting thank goodness.

Our search for the perfect churrascaria will certainly continue for at last one more day . . .