Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Another Day, Another Set of Games and Practices


Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Before we get into even more American football mania, we must recognize that this is a special day. 

Our grandson Kevin is celebrating
his 11th birthday today

My, how the time flies . . .

In Finland, the IFAF Women's World
Championship of Tackle Football continued
 
All eight National Teams were in
action today, now that Team Mexico
is in Finland after shady dealings
by the Mexican Federation

To review, the Mexican team arrived this weekend after having to forfeit its opening round game against Great Britain because the Mexican Federation failed to buy the team's airline tickets.

An AMAZING SCANDAL, don't you agree?

Because of this snafu, third seeded Team Mexico could no longer battle for a Medal, their best hope now was the Consolation Bracket title that would mean that the would be the fifth place club in the tournament at best.

FINAL SCORE
#3 seed Mexico 34 - #7 seed Australia 6

The seedings looked about right in this one.

FINAL SCORE
#8 seed Germany 6 - #5 seed Sweden 0

An upset to be sure.

FINAL SCORE
#1 seed USA 28 - #4 seed Finland 10

Team USA was, for once, pushed to the limit having trailed host Team Finland 10-7 at the Half. In the long history of this tournament a team representing the USA had never been behind and usually won games by a minimum of 40 points.

FINAL SCORE
#6 seed Great Britain 20 - #2 seed Canada 13

A BIG upset to be sure!

The final games of the tournament will be held over the coming weekend, here are the final match ups:

Gold Medal Game
#1 seed USA (2-0) vs. #6 seed Great Britain (2-0)

Bronze Medal Game
#2 seed Canada (1-1) vs. #4 seed Finland (1-1)

Fifth Place Game
#3 seed Mexico (1-1) vs. #8 seed Germany (1-1)

Seventh Place Game
#5 seed Sweden (0-2) vs. #7 seed Australia (0-2)

News from the European League of Football . . .

Interesting take this week

This week's #4 ranked squad is the 1-7 Istanbul Rams.

I know that the Rams have played great the last two games with a new QB at the helm while beating the #3 Barcelona Dragons and then taking the #2 Hamburg Sea Devils to overtime before losing, but still, #3?

The ELF expanding again in 2023

After a little over a season and a half of existence, the ELF is well on their way to their professed goal to become Europe's best American football circuit and is certainly feeling their oats!

The ELF's inaugural campaign had these eight teams vying for the title that Frankfurt eventually won:

The 2021 ELF Teams
Barcelona Dragons (Spain)
Berlin Thunder (Germany)
Cologne Centurions (Germany)
Frankfurt Galaxy (Germany)
Hamburg Sea Devils (Germany)
Leipzig Kings (Germany)
Stuttgart Surge (Germany)
Wroclaw Panthers (Poland)

Because of the ELF's 2021 success, they added four more clubs this season to make it a 12 team league:

2022 ELF Expansion Teams
Istanbul Rams (Turkey)
Rhein Fire (Düsseldorf, Germany)
Tirol Raiders (Innsbruck, Austria)
Vienna Vikings (Austria)

Today, the ELF announced that Munich would be one of four cities getting expansion franchises in 2023 to make the ELF a 16 team affair. The :

Proposed 2023 ELF Expansion Teams
Hungarian Enthroners (Budapest, Hungary)
Milan Seamen (Italy)
Munich Football Team (Germany)
Helvetic Guards (Zurich, Switzerland)

The ELF's long range goal is to become a 24 team league with franchises in every corner of the European continent.

Bold thinking to be sure!

Today I had too drive Laurie to her dentist appointment in Thousand Oaks which gave me time to visit Westlake H.S. to try to tie up a few loose ends on next month's 40th Anniversary Reunion of our 1982 Marmonte League Championship club.

Yes, I was at the right place

The field looked good and the Varsity
and JV teams were practicing for
their openers on August 19th on
the road against Pacifica H.S.

A light scrimmage in balmy
78°F/25.5°C weather

Westlake Head Coach Mark Servé
still working after the practice
was finished

As it turned out, Michael, Jacob and I were scheduled to visit Pacifica H.S. at about Noon to watch practice and pick up some knee pads for Jacob that the Tritons Head Coach Mike Moon had offered.

Pacifica has some good looking
players with DI talent

Good Pass Protection on this play

Jacob with Pacifica Triton
Jordan Whitney

Jordan is 6-2, 205 lbs. and plays Linebacker. He was a real gentleman in answering all of Jacob's questions and then posing for this photo with him. He had his shoulder wrapped in ice due to a slight injury suffered yesterday in practice but he should be more than ready to roll against Westlake H.S. in just a couple of weeks.

Best of all, Jordan Whitney will be a Washington Husky come January!

The Tritons also have a DB, Maliki Crawford, who is committed to continue his playing days with the USC Trojans.

Finally, we were back at Camarillo's Freedom Park for Jacob's Stingers Pop Warner practice in the evening.

Jacob getting down to make a catch

A new route that the players
jogged through on their first go-round

Overall, he caught the ball much better during this practice than he did the last two nights. 

Still needs to work on
finishing his deep routes

Slow but steady wins the race . . .

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