Mon.-Fri., August 26-30, 2024
With football season now in full swing, the week was all about football related doings.
Monday and Tuesday saw me
working on the Analytics Breakdown
of the Buena vs. Saugus game
I am limiting myself to only working with one team this year.
Helping one of our former players and coaches, Ryan Bolland, who is now Buena's Head Coach was the call for 2024.
Saugus beat Buena, 38-34.
Three more boxes of high quality,
used football gear heading to EuroBall
Thanks to the generous donations of a local Ventura County high school, we were able to send the newly resurrected Sueca Ricers from Valencia, Spain, 12 helmets, 70 jerseys and 106 pants to get their program rolling again.
On Monday night, our wonderful friends from our Varese Skorpions days, Nicolas Principi and Marta Crosta, arrived for a visit.
AWESOME!
We all went out to dinner on Monday
to renew old friendships and tell
many great stories
Marta, Nicolas, Maclaine Griffin
and Ben McEnroe
We visited the Thousand Oaks H.S. practice on Tuesday where Marta and Nicolas would surprise former Skorpion WR Maclaine as he entered the field.
As we chronicled in an earlier post, Maclaine is now the WR Coach at T.O.H.S. Ben McEnroe is the Lancers highly successful Head Coach.
Maclaine and Marta at dinner
after practice
mangia! Mangia!! MANGIA!!!
We bid Marta and Nicolas farewell on Wednesday. It was so much fun seeing them both again.
Meanwhile, at the Camarillo Stingers practices . . .
Jacob going DEEP and tracking
the arc of the pass
He made the catch!
Getting artsy at the end of practice
Jacob got a chance to work at both TE and DE this week to give the staff more flexibility with the team's 20 player roster.
He was excited by the possibilities.
The Mariners signed our second
import player this week
Welcome to Gijón, James!
Besides playing DB for the Mariners, he will also be a punt/kick returner and will occasionally be asked to play WR for us in 2025.
A former player at Livingstone College in North Carolina, James brings two seasons of EuroBall experience with him to Gijón.
In 2022, James played for the Timisoara 89ers in Romania. He spent the 2023 campaign with Poland's Warsaw Mets.
With our DL/OL and DB/WR needs now filled, our Mariners continue to seek our third and final import player, the ever important QB spot.
I found this old football program
while rummaging through our garage
It was from my Senior year at St. Francis High School SIXTY years ago.
We were 13-0 that year as the Golden Knights won their second consecutive Santa Fe League and C.I.F.-Southern Section "AAA" Championships.
Time really does FLY!
We need to bring back both full
length sleeves and stripes to football
A reminder, the 2024 NFL season
is just around the corner
Friday Night Lights
This week I was joined by son Michael for the Thousand Oaks Lancers (0-1) and Ventura Cougars (0-0) game.
The T.O. Cheerleaders and Ventura
Band were ready for . . .
. . . a fine rendition of the National Anthem
The Lancers, in white, first play . . .
. . . was a pass completion
We had a fun time enjoying a pre-game tailgate at the home of Brett and Debbie Phillips that is located a short five block walk from Ventura High School's Michael Larabee Stadium.
Brett and Debbie's son, Tristan, is a Junior at Ventura who plays Linebacker and is highly recruited by colleges all over the DI map.
As for the game, Thousand Oaks (1-1) held off a furious Ventura (0-1) Second Half comeback attempt to win, 20-13.
It's Wildcard Playoff Weekend in
the European League of Football
On Saturday, the #5 seeded Munich Ravens (9-3) visit the #4 seeded Paris Musketeers (10-2).
The weekend's other ELF Wildcard game will be played on Sunday with the #6 seeded Mardrid Bravos (8-4) at the #3 seeded Rhein Fire (11-1).
Utah State proudly sporting their
new Holstein Cow related helmets
To each, his own.
Tacos are there for me
EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR!
Just saying . . .
Reading Is FUNdamental!
An action packed yarn to cap
off my Summer reading
