Fri. & Sat., June 24 & 25, 2022
A great week of crescendo building hype leading up to the playing of the Silver Bowl which would determine the final supremacy of the 2022 Italian DII American football season was finally over.
It was time to play the game, Bergamo Lions (7-1) vs. Varese Skorpions (7-1)!
I liked this one a LOT!
Solid
In the Fall of 2017, I was first contacted by Enzo Petrillo of the Skorpions about becoming the Skorpions Head Coach for the 2018 campaign.
He clearly stated that the people in charge of the Skorpions had a vision of where they believed the team was headed.
The goal was to win the DII National Championship and thus move up to DI in five years.
A lofty goal considering that Varese had gone just 3-6 during the 2017 season in the 24 team Italian DII campaign that finished with a 63-6 Wild Card playoff loss to the Barbari Roma Nord.
Still, Enzo and his equally determined right hand man, Giorgio Nardi, had a vision and a plan on how to reach this goal the right way through lots of hard work and Barnum & Bailey like promoting.
Nice graphic from the
Italian Federation
Tale of the Tape
Contrast and Compare
Even the referees were being hyped!
With Laurie's all important approval, I agreed to become the Skorpions Head Coach in 2018.
My goals for my first year were simple and to the point, double the 2017 win total from three to six and win a playoff game.
In that 2018 season there were again 24 teams in DII and we finished 5-4, one game short of our win goal. As for the playoff game, we lost to the Modena Vipers 40-33 in overtime in another Wild Card game.
We had definitely improved but were just short of our two team goals.
Too bad the Federation didn't
use real team images in this one
The 2019 season saw 19 teams battling for the DII title. We went 7-3 in that season showing great improvement again both in player development and roster depth. We won our Wild Card playoff game 13-7 over the Palermo Sharks before getting hammered by the #2 seeded Cernusco Daemons 36-0.
Our other two losses that season were to the undefeated, 11-0 National Champion Milano Rhinos 24-10 and an overtime 20-14 loss to the same Cernusco Daemons team that we played again in the playoffs.
We were, overall moving in a positive direction and chomping at the bit for what promised to be an exciting 2020 season!
Simplicity is good in the
world of hype, I believe
I returned in 2020 to the Skorpions for an unheard of, for me, third season. A total of 20 teams would vie for the DII crown this season.
This year the first goal was to win our conference and earn a bye during the playoff's Wild Card weekend and then do serious damage in any subsequent games.
We had a solid set of pre-season practices and a good scrimmage in Switzerland against the Lugano Rebels. The regular season opener against the Savona Pirates was just a week away.
Then Covid-19 hit Italy like the proverbial ton of bricks.
After about eight weeks of the season being first postponed and then finally cancelled, I returned home and decided that it was a time to pass the torch onto someone new to lead the Skorpions to the promised land.
But who?
Hammer Time
During the pandemic, our good coaching friend Bart Iaccarino had set up a series of Zoom coaching clinics for coaches in Europe and Mexico to talk shop while we could not actually coach our various clubs.
Bart asked if I could ask college coaches in the USA to be presenters, so off I went.
I can never say "No," to Bart.
One of the coaches that I contacted was Nick Holt who had been the highly successful Defensive Coordinator at National Champion Southern California, Washington and Purdue.
When I contacted him, he said that he was looking for a job as his term at Purdue had come to an end. I told him about the wonders of coaching in Italy in general and with the Varese Skorpions in particular.
We talked a few more times and I tried to be as honest as possible about what EuroBall life in answering his many questions.
Finally he talked to Enzo and Giorgio and they closed the deal.
Voilà . . .
Nick Holt
Varese Skorpions Head Coach
2021 and 2022
Coach Holt's first year with the Skorpions saw DII shrink in the initial post-Covid 19 season to just 17 clubs.
Still, the Varese squad stayed the course going 6-0 in the shorter regular season. After winning the first playoff game 41-14 over the Sarzana Red Jackets, the Skorpions were upset in the semi-finals 24-21 by the eventual National Champions, the 8-1 Modena Vipers.
The Skorpions finished the 2021 season with a good 7-1 record but there was definitely a feeling of unfinished business.
Pre-Game live stream
QB comparisons
Top WR Comparisons
The two clubs top defenders
The 2022 season saw only 12 squads in DII but the Skorpions were still focused on the Five Year Plan that Enzo and Giorgio had embarked on, you know it, five years ago.
The regular season saw the men from Varese go 5-1 in the regular season losing only to the also 5-1 Bergamo Lions, 31-18. The Skorpions won the return match in the regular season, 20-7.
After both clubs won their first two playoff games, they would meet in Milano in the rubber match for all of the Italian DII marbles. Both clubs were now 7-1 with winning a ring and the elevation to DI in 2023 that goes with it, on their minds.
HERE COME THE SKORPIONS!
Laurie was ready for a long day
watching the game that was being
live streamed on YouTube
Varese was kicking off to
start the game
The Skorpions love to run the ball
This KO Return for an apparent
TD was nullified by an
Illegal Wedge call
The replay on the live stream showed that it was a bogus flag, unfortunately there is no avenue in the Italian league for reviews.
CB Andrea Mora recovered two
fumbles in the game, one for a TD
When it was all said and done . . .
. . . the Five Year Plan worked
to perfection!
WR Matteo Mozzanica
was named the games MVP
Old war horses Nicolas Principi
and Pietro Limido getting their
Championship Medals
Then the post-Championship hype started on-line . . .
DII Playoff Bracket
The win today was wonderful to watch and we were both so happy for Nick and Julie Holt, Enzo, Giorgio and the entire fun loving, focused Skorpion family on fulfilling the dream through years of hard work and planning.
There was only one thing left to do . . .
Enjoy the traditional Skorpions
post-game ritual known as
PROSECCO TIME!
"IL DESTINO!
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