Coaching for Pizza: What a Beautiful Day for an American Football UPSET!

Saturday, March 29, 2023

Today would turn out to be a surprisingly topsy-turvy, joyous affair. Who knew?

After all, it was . . .

. . . our final Game Day of the

2025 Serie A season

Offensive Line Coach Alvaro Palacio

posted this photo of what it

means to be a Mariner

We would need to summon each and every one of these positive traits today to compete with the Osos Rivas, a team that our Mariners had met ten previous times over the years in Gijón's Hipódromo Las Mestas stadium.

The Osos had won all ten of those meetings.

Having had the Mercy Rule invoked in each of our last four games, including a 38-0 drubbing by the Osos in Madrid, added to that ten game losing streak at home against them did not make for good odds at the Las Vegas sports books that were taking bets on our game.

All that being said, we still had a game to play,

LET'S COMPETE!

Serie A

Second Place in the Western Conference

4 Wins - 3 Losses

Serie A

Fifth Place in the Western Conference

1 Win - 6 Losses

Our team was asked to arrive at the field at 1:00 p.m. to help set up the field before the scheduled 4:00 p.m. Kickoff.

When I arrived, the game field was anything but empty.

What the heck was going on?

The local Covadonga Sports Club

was holding a large Youth rugby

extravaganza on the game field

Lots of male and female youngsters . . .

. . . having Fun in the Sun!

Team President Kike and our

new Down Marker that arrived

just in time for the game

Would it bring us good luck?

With Osos Offensive Lineman Mario

In 2016, I was hired to coach for a two month period by the Osos Rivas.

My job, during just their pre-season, was twofold.

First, I was there to Coach the Coaches.

I was also given the opportunity to coach Offensive Line fundamentals to both the Osos' Junior and Senior teams, an assignment that brought great joy to my heart.

With Osos Offensive Lineman Mario

as a 14 year old Junior in 2016

I know that a coach should not have favorites, but truth be told we often do.

Mario was my favorite Junior Offensive Lineman that season.

He showed great promise, was coachable, worked hard and had a winning attitude.

What was not to like about this

young man nine years ago

It was wonderful to see him again

today after all of these years

Las Mestas has a certain

pastoral feeling to it

It is a Hipódromo after all.

In Greek, hippo means horse.

Annually, Las Mestas hosts huge equestrian events.

Not today.

Warming up begins with the Specialists

Then the entire team goes through

their paces under HC Nacho's tutelage

Time to PLAY BALL!

As a Coaching Staff, we had decided earlier in the week to GO FOR IT!

Today, the Mariners were pulling out all stops.

We started the game . . .

. . . with an Onside Kick . . .

. . . a SUCCESSFUL Onside Kick!

DB Pablo with the clutch Onside Kick Recovery to steal away an Osos possession and give the Mariners much needed momentum.

Our kicker, the irrepressible Calde, was the one who talked us into it during the week.

We would try two more of them in this game but failed to recover them. Still, the message of our bold, go-get-'em approach had a positive effect on the Mariners and seemed to unnerve the Osos.

The Mariners would draw first blood on this initial possession of the game with a Spencer Moore to Casta 14 yard TD pass. We faked the PAT kick but our pass was caught just out of bounds.

Casta after his TD grab

We led 6-0 right off the bat. AWESOME!

We also tried a fake Punt later in the game that drew a Defensive Pass Interference call that kept a Gijón drive alive.

WR/CB Geoff Green had a HUGE game!

Geoff again . . .

. . . on a successful WR Screen

Casta getting to the Edge

In a radical change from our typical Mariners Defensive performances this season, the Osos four First Half possessions ended as follows:

Fourth Down stop

Punt

Interception by ballhawking CB Walter

Punt

At the Intermission, it was still Mariners 6 - Osos 0!

Calde's punting today was

FANTASTICO!

QB Spencer Moore showed lots of

courage today in leading our attack

In the Third Quarter, CB Geoff recovered a fumble to end the Osos first drive.

The next Rivas possession was fueled by a well executed reverse and then a 19 yard QB scramble for a TD. The PAT kick was true and, for the first time, the Osos led 7-6.

It would also be the last time that they had more points than the beloved home team.

On the next Mariners drive, Spencer Moore found his flatmate Geoff Green as they connected on a 51 yard TD pass play. Spencer then completed a two-point pass to WR Ruben. The Mariners had the lead again, 14-7.

"Are you guys all going to the

post-game dinner celebration?

The Mariners Defense came up with another fabulous Fourth Down stop on the subsequent Osos drive.

That stop led to a truly wonderful catch and run from QB Spencer to WR Ruben that covered 60 yards for a Gijón TD. It was Spencer's third TD pass of the game. Geoff caught the two-point PAT pass and the Mariners led 22-7 as the Third Quarter came to a close.

FOURTH QUARTER!

The two clubs exchanged Punts before our old nemesis reared its ugly head -- the long pass.

The Osos completed a 47 yard TD bomb and a successful two-point pass play to shrink our lead to 22-15.

The Osos tried an Onside Kick against our Hands Team. It was a poorly executed kick that came nowhere near going the required ten yards needed.

The Mariners marched the ball on the ground eating up both yardage and clock. We were going to ice the game away with another score.

Until we fumbled at the one yard line.

The Osos combined better Offensive execution with a couple of truly untimely Mariners penalties to give all of us apoplexy.

Simple advice, we need

ONE MORE STOP!

OH MY GOD!

We did it! We stopped the Osos Offense on our own two yard line on THE LAST PLAY OF THE GAME!!!

Pandemonium Reigned at Las Mestas as

the Mariners defeated the Osos for the

first time in 11 tries at the Hipódromo

Gijón (2-6) edges Rivas (4-4)

It was a GREAT win for the Mariners!

I was so happy and proud for all our Mariners' Family.

Often, friends have asked me about our team's performance this year and I have said the same thing each time. We have great people on the Mariners who give great effort as well. Because of these two highly positive traits, more than anything, I've felt bad that we have not been able to achieve more competitive games in the last month. This is another reason for the exhilaration with today's result.

The effort by all three phases of our team today, Special Teams, Defense and Offense, made the first seven weeks of this campaign almost irrelevant.

It wasn't an easy win, but that made it all the more memorable.

The feeling in the locker room was a positive one of "We are going to be 1-0 for the next nine months!"

LET THE CELEBRATING BEGIN!

Moha was IN THE HOUSE!

1-2-3 PUBLICO!

Spencer and Geoff

"I only have four things to say

to you from my game notes . . ."

. . . draw your own conclusions

A Team of Champions Today!

The Offensive and Defensive Lines

With LB Coach Iván Canto

and FS Iván Bravo

Both contributed greatly to the win today.

With nine of our crazed Defenders

WR/K/P Calde is one of those grizzled

veterans that draws huge respect

RB Casta is a WARRIOR!

On to the post game dinner . . .

Casta is also a sharp dresser

We all met at the Tierra Astur located

just 100 meters from our apartment

Why do we continue to coach after all of these many seasons, 58 now in total if truth be told.

It is about people like Angel seen here on the left, closest to you.

A Defensive Tackle, three months ago when I first arrived in Gijón, Angel was a big but poorly skilled player. His dedication, work ethic, coach-ability and attendance at practice for the past 12 weeks had turned into a starter today who played amazingly well.

I get choked up just thinking about him.

There were several others on the roster this season who also made huge individual strides like Angel did.

That's why I still coach.