What Else, Two More Days of Dominoes and High School Football

Thurs-Fri., August 24-25, 2023

Another two good days visiting my Mother and watching high school football.

The Dominoes Tournament continues . . .

My Mother and I started our Dominoes battles back on May 10th. Since then, we have now been going at it for a total of 42 days in which we have played 1,511 games with a total of 25,691 points going to the winner.

Here are our current standings:

I lead in Games Won, 759-751-1

I lead in Points, 12,946 to 12,745

My 201 Points leading margin translates to a razor slim 0.13 points per game margin.

To say that we are competitive is a given.

Ruby is the remarkable Activities

Coordinator at my Mothers

Skilled Nursing Home

She does a great job in this all-important position including Thursday's kittens visits with the patients.

My Mother, for one, lit up with a huge smile when Ruby handed this kitten to her.

Pets can be so good for the soul

I often stop at one of many good hole-in-the-wall restaurants for lunch before visiting my Mother.

On Friday, I stopped at Chico's Mexican

Restaurant in Highland Park

I wasn't super hungry, so I just ordered the Chico's Special appetizer that simply consisted of two taquitos, two flautas and a quesadilla.

I did not know about the huge mound

of carne asada nachos buried

underneath my Chico's Special

It was phenomenal and no, I did not even come close to eating all of those nachos.

But I tried.

The St. Francis H.S. campus

on a beautiful Thursday afternoon

I was on my way home from Pasadena and opted to stop at my old Alma Mater (S.F.H.S. Class of 1965) to watch a bit of the day's scheduled Frosh football game.

The mural of St. Francis that I vividly

remember seeing my first day of

high school in September of 1961

I was still impressed when I saw it on Thursday, 62 years after that first view.

What a BEAUTIFUL day for an

American freshmen football game

Here come the the Golden Knights!

The S.F.H.S. Frosh team was 1-0 on the season after a 40-32 win over the Dominguez H.S. Dons 40-32 last week.

They would be taking on the Mira Costa H.S. Mustangs (0-0) today.

Mustangs driving for a score

St. Francis trying to catch up

I only stayed until the end of the First Quarter as I needed to get back to Camarillo to watch Jacob's Pop Warner practice at 5:30 p.m.

The Mustangs were ahead 12-7 at that point and never looked back taking home their first victory of the season by a final margin of 40-21.

Tribute to Jack Friedman who

was our Head Coach in the 1960s

The 49th edition of the

Rio Mesa vs. Camarillo

Black and Blue Bowl on Friday

Where else would I be on a Friday night in August?

The Rio Mesa H.S. Spartans entered the game at 1-0 after beating the Saugus H.S. Centurions 48-6 last week.

The Camarillo H.S. Scorpions (0-1) lost their season opener 35-7 to the Ventura H.S. Cougars.

Rio Mesa Offensive Line Coach

Daniel Lemos getting his charges

warmed up before the game

Rio Mesa opened the game with

a perfect pooch kickoff

Well, almost perfect as that pointy ball

bounced back to the Scorpion that

first mishandled the kick

Rio Mesa Legends Brian FitzGerald

and Noel Alaniz were IN THE HOUSE!

The War in the Trenches

was a good one as the game progressed

BOMBS AWAY!

A great crowd was on hand

Rio Mesa Goal Line Power

Camarillo's turn at the Goal Line

GREAT penetration by the

Rio Mesa Defense

Excellent Gang Tacking at the

Goal Line by the Spartans

It was a WILD one but Rio Mesa

prevailed 48-35

Rio Mesa (2-0) travels up to Santa Barbara next Friday to play the San Marcos Royals (2-0) in their Channel League opener.

Camarillo (0-2) will be on the road to take on the Saugus Centurions (0-2) in a non-league game next weekend.

The European League of Football

only has two more weekends

of regular season football

Of interest in this tournament

is Team Sweden's game against

defending European Champion

Team Finland

Why you ask?

Because the daughter of Frank Hilgers,

a DT on our 2010 Hässleholm Hurricanes

team, is on team Sweden

In the Swedish League, Sara plays for the Göteborg Marvels.

 

This photo appeared in the Thousand

Oaks Acorn newspaper on Friday

It was taken while I was addressing the 2023 Thousand Oaks H.S. Lancers during the pre-game meeting of last week's T.O. vs. Santa Barbara H.S. game.

Standing along the wall are members of the T.O.H.S. 1973 Marmonte League Championship team. We were all celebrating that magical season the we shared half a century ago.

It's been FIFTY YEARS . . .

Truer than true!