Tuesday, October 16, 2024
After a few days of Pop Warner football scheduling turmoil, the Gold Coast Youth Football League's Junior American Conference playoff bracket is finally set.
Before sharing the playoff pairings with you, a little background is needed.
Back in August, the GCYFL held a seeding scrimmage to sort out the relative strengths of the 25 teams enrolled in this year's Junior division. Besides seeing how the clubs performed during this day of mini-scrimmages, each team was rated based on the years of coaching experience by each coach, number of seasons each team roster member had played and been a starter.
At the conclusion of tabulating all of this information, the GCYFL placed their perceived ten strongest clubs in the National Conference and the other 15 teams in the American Conference.
The National Conference announced an eight team playoff bracket with their two clubs not in their playoffs being dropped down to the American Conference playoffs as the #3 and #4 seeds. Additionally, these seedings give the two relegated National Conference squads First Round Byes.
The two National Conference teams that earned these seedings and byes are the #3 North Oxnard Warriors (0-8) and the #4 seeded Fillmore Raiders (0-8).
The Warriors scored 34 points this season while giving up 215.
As for the Raiders, they only scored 6 points in their eight games while allowing their opponents to rack up 155 points.
Gold Coast Youth Football League
Junior American Conference Playoffs
Saturday, October 19, 2024 Schedule
#9 Camarillo Stingers Grey (4-3) at
#8 Camarillo Stingers Blue (5-2)
#10 Oxnard Knights (4-3) at
#7 Saugus Spartans White (5-2)
#11 Calabasas Rams Gold (3-4) at
#6 Santa Clarita Wildcats White (5-2)
#12 Simi Valley Bulldogs Orange (2-5) at
#5 Santa Clarita Aztecs (6-1)
Byes:
#1 North Valley Bears (7-0)
#2 Simi Valley Bulldogs Black (6-1)
#3 North Oxnard Warriors (0-8 in JNC)
#4 Fillmore Raiders (0-8 in JNC)
The saga of the Camarillo Stingers Blue and Grey teams status as Road Warriors continued as first, they play each other in the First Round of the playoffs and secondly, they can't play the game at Camarillo H.S. because of a previously, long ago scheduled soccer camp at the high school's stadium on Saturday.
If you recall, during the regular season, our Blue team only played one of their seven games at Camarillo H.S. while the Grey squad only played two of their seven games at Carl Thompson Field. That is a combined three home games out of 14 for the two Stingers Junior elevens.
Fittingly, I guess, the two teams will now meet at 6:00 p.m. this coming Saturday at Pacifica H.S. in Oxnard, thus neutralizing both teams' hard earned away field advantages.
It must further be noted that these two Stingers Junior teams have practiced at Mission Oaks Park sharing the outfield space of a softball field with our Blue team in left field and the Greys in right field.
As the Blues were hard at work tonight,
the Greys were practicing in the distance
Emphasis tonight was on the Offense
Post-practice Huddles
Blues on the left and Greys on the right
The potential for practice paranoia was definitely in the air.
It kind of reminded me of our pre-season workouts in 1964 when our St. Francis H.S. Golden Knights were preparing to play the La Cañada H.S. Spartans in the season's opener.
The two high school's are still simply divided by a chain link fence. The St. Francis campus buildings sit on a hill with a commanding view of the La Cañada game and practice fields.
As we learned on our recent trip to the Antietam, Gettysburg and Manassas/Bull Run Battlefields, holding the high ground is great both in war and football as it turns out.
St. Francis H.S. won that game 60 years ago played at La Cañada H.S., 26-0, defending the high ground indeed!
On a side note, I scored the only TD of my career in that game when I pounced of an errant QB-Center exchange that rolled into the End Zone on a Goal Line situation at about the one foot line.
Ironically, I was the Center who botched the snap in the first place. Go figure.
The 2025 Italian Football League
will have 12 teams
In 2024, there were nine clubs in the IFL and all of them are back this year.
The three new IFL teams this year are the Ferrara Aquile, Bergamo Lions and Modena Vipers.
The IFL's Second Division was
also announced today
It is good to see our old club, the Catania Elephants, playing 11-man football again after years playing in the IFL's Division III that uses nine-man football rules. When I coached the Elephants in 2008 and 2009 we were in Division I competing 11-on-11.
The IFL is still a tad low on numbers in these post-Covid days. When I came to Varese to coach the Skorpions in 2018, there were ten teams in DI, 24 clubs in DII and 38 squads in DIII for a healthy total of 72 organizations fielding American football teams in Italy a mere seven seasons ago.
In 2025 we are looking at the 26 teams in DI and DII listed above plus an unknown at this time. In 2024, there were but 21 DIII teams. Should the DIII number stay about the same, then we are looking at 47 teams playing American football in Italy in 2025, a loss 25 clubs since 2018.
Not a good trend.
While the South American IFAF World Championship Qualifying Tournament fell apart last week, the European Qualifying Tournament is in full swing.
Team Sweden nipped Team Great Britain
to get one step closer to their goal
Now Team Great Britain hosts
Team Germany with winning a MUST!
Maybe Team Great Britain needs to revert
to some Old School tackling techniques
These were the types of techniques that were prevalent in the 1960s if you played against either Los Angeles Poly H.S. or Los Angeles Valley College teams of that era.
I wonder if there was a common thread?
Rams Fandom meets Dia de los Muertos
Lovely.
On Thursday, Jacob and his Las Colinas
Mustangs will be back in action with
a road game at the Camarillo Academy
of Progressive Education (CAPE)
BEAT THE COMETS!
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