Sun.-Mon., May 29-June 6, 2022
Overall, sleepy Camarillo was just that again this week.
We started the past week with a request from the Varese Skorpions Women's Flag Team Head Coach, Dario D'Adelfio, for us to send him a video wishing his team good luck before they headed to Grosseto, Italy for the National Championship Tournament.
There are 14 clubs with Woman's teams in Italy. The National Championship Tournament would see the eight best Women's squads in the country come together for one final weekend in 2022.
Here is our video that was made in only one take . . .
In Boca Al Lupo, Skorpions!
Day 1 of the weekend's tournament did not go well for the Skorpion Women as they competed in pool play.
After beating the Bergamo Lions 19-18, they lost to Milano Sirene 32-20 and to the Catania Elephants 19-13.
On Day 2, the Skorpions were relegated to playing for, at best, fifth place in the tournament.
They did indeed come in fifth after beating the Torino Driadi 30-12 and the Bergamo Lions again by a final score of 25-21.
As for the 2022 National Championship game, the Parma Panthers defeated the Catania Elephants 19-12 to claim the Gold Medal.
Europe's mega-circuit, the European League of Football, began their second season this past weekend.
The ELF expanded from 8 to 12
teams in 2022
The full slate of games in Week #1
Istanbul Rams at Cologne Centurions
Barcelona Dragons at Stuttgart Surge
Berlin Thunder at Hamburg Sea Devils
Vienna Vikings at Tirol Raiders
Leipzig Kings at Wroclaw Panthers
Rhein Fire at Frankfurt Galaxy
The Dragons are our favorite
ELF team by far
The fact that Bart Iaccarino and Jesús Sánchez are involved as the key front office personnel and that Alex Posito plays LB for the Barcelona team may have something to do with it.
One thing that I love about the ELF is their tendency to do everything in a first class manner when it comes to PR.
Here are four examples:
Each team had a series of
PR releases like these
14 Coaches on Staff
A deep 26 man Offensive Roster
23 Defenders + 2 Specialists
Thus 51 players and 14 coaches flew to Germany with one goal in mind, come home with a 1-0 record.
Mission ACCOMPLISHED!
And in dominating fashion as it turned out!
These are the overall Week #1
results in ELF play
And here are the Conference Standings:
Northern Conference
Hamburg Sea Devils 1-0
Wroclaw Panthers 1-0
Berlin Thunder 0-1
Leipzig Kings 0-1
Central Conference
Vienna Vikings 1-0
Frankfurt Galaxy 0-1
Stuttgart Surge 0-1
Tirol Raiders 0-1
Southern Conference
Barcelona Dragons 1-0
Cologne Centurions 1-0
Rhein Fire 1-0
Istanbul Rams 0-1
Up next for the 1-0 Barcelona Dragons is another road trip to Germany to play the also 1-0 Hamburg Sea Devils on Sunday, June 12th.
The Catania Elephants were the
first EuroBall team that we coached
and they had a playoff game in
Bologna to play the Doves
Back in 2008 and 2009 when we were in that gritty, exciting Sicilian town coaching the Elephants, we were in Italy's DI league as were the Doves.
Now, both teams compete in Italy's CIF9 competition which is really DIII playing nine man football.
The Doves took care of business
as the Elephants season came to an end
Meanwhile, in Switzerland . . .
Our 2012 club, the Thun Tigers, won what must have been a stirring 24-21 overtime contest!
The Tigers are now 5-3 on the season and hold down third place in the current Nationalliga A standings, Switzerland's top league.
In Sweden, two Ystad Rockets linemen
As only happens in charming EuroBall, #65 is #50's father.
Grandson Jacob is always pumping me for information about my favorite all-time Los Angeles Ram.
His is Ram DL Aaron Donald, a solid choice to say the least.
Mine is WR Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch
In German, the word hirsch means deer.
Given the way Crazylegs ran, that's an apt surname.
At the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
His best season was in 1951, the year that the Rams beat the Cleveland Browns 24-17 in the NFL Championship game.
In that championship campaign, he caught 66 passes for 1,495 yards and 17 TDs. Amazingly, those 17 TD catches covered an average of 51.2 yards each!
Each NFL club only played 12 games a season back in those days which makes Hirsch's totals even more interesting.
He even starred in a 1953
autobiographical movie
I think it won the Academy award for Best Picture that year if memory serves me correctly.
It rarely does these days.
We had pizza and beers this week
with young Tom FitzGerald
We were joined at Camarillo's Institution Ale Company by Tom's brother Brian and his wife Koreen for a fun evening.
On Sunday, it was time to help
with this wonderful Induction Dinner
Besides Laurie and I helping to set up the hall before the dinner and awards ceremony, I was also asked to be the reader charged with reading the short biographies of each of the Male Athlete of the Year award winners from each of Ventura County's 23 high schools, three community colleges and one university.
The big deal of the day was the induction of five more stellar people with Ventura County ties into the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame.
Our five newest inductees
From Left to Right:
Henry Lobo, Head Boys Basketball Coach at Oxnard H.S.
Kim Mortensen Newman, Thousand Oaks H.S. who set a National H.S. Record 9:52.80 in the 3,200 meters
Terrail Lambert, St. Bonaventure H.S., Notre Dame University and NFL defensive back
Ryan Clopper accepting for his deceased mother Lynn Clopper Losch, Ventura H.S., an outstanding basketball, tennis and softball athlete
Mike Lieberthal, Westlake H.S., a longtime major league catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers.
These five were originally scheduled for indiction in 2020 but then that Covid-19 thing got in the way.
With them finally officially inducted, the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame now has 192 members.
The rest of this past week brought these clearcut truths from the internet . . .
Sounds about right to me
YES!
I never thought about this
A taco truck on every corner,
still the American dream
Truer with each passing day
Life is all about the tacos this week
A grim reality amongst the levity
No, I don't think that arming teachers is the answer either.
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