The Arizona-Washington Game

Another Saturday morning, another GREAT day for college football!

First up was a check of the high school scoreboard back in southern California. I'm happy to announce that the Rio Mesa Spartans varsity team improved to 3-2 on the season by edging Dos Pueblos 21-7.

Riccardo Conticello's Cabrillo squad lost a close one, 7-0, to Santa Ynez to drop to 1-4 on the year.

Meanwhile, back in Puyallup. . .

Frosty Westering with his grandson

Jason Johnson

Saturday started with a real treat for me as Pacific Lutheran University was playing in Minnesota against Gustavus Adolphus. Jason's grandpa Frosty was the long time Head Football Coach at PLU and is a member of the College Football Hall-of-Fame. He and his wife Donna came over to watch the PLU game on streaming video at the Johnson home.

Jason is SO VERY proud of Frosty and I have been a fan of Frosty's since reading his book about five years ago. What great and positive people to be around!!!

Unfortunately, PLU record dropped to 1-3 as they lost Saturday 34-33.

In other scores of games of interest to the Catania Elephants yesterday we have:

Brandon Bennett's Willamette (5-1) 62 - Lewis and Clark 24

Matt Epperson's Hardin-Simmons (2-4) 13 - East Texas Baptist 10

Denver Wade's Wabash (5-0) 31 - Washington University of Missouri 12

Larry Atkinson's Nebraska-Omaha (5-2) 31 - Washburn 21

Taber LeMarr's San Diego (3-2) 48 - Valparaiso 0

Now it was on to the BIG ONE. . .

University of Arizona (3-1)

at

University of Washington (2-3)

A.K.A.

Jason Johnson

vs.

George Contreras

Last year we drove down to Tucson with Jason and Christie to see this game. Today we would once again sit together as proud alumni of our schools as they squared off in a key PAC-10 game at Husky Stadium.

Mark Johnson

We have been good friends with Mark since 1968! He lives about a five minute walk from Husky Stadium with his wife Susie and daughters Sophie and Mallory. They hosted a great pre-game and post-game affair in their new home on the Montlake Cut seen behind him.

The view East from the Johnson's backyard.

The view West from the Johnson's backyard.

It's Fall in the Pacific Northwest and the colors were AWESOME!

A child playing with leaves

on the UW campus.

The UW Quad

Miller Hall on the left

Miller houses the Department of Education where Laurie worked as a secretary 40 years ago.

UW's Frosh Pond

One of the Montlake Bridge's Towers

If tall ships are going through the Montlake Cut, people in these towers raise the bridge.

We walked acroos the bridge on our way to meet some of Jason's Arizona buddies on our way to the game.

Harry Husky with Laurie outside of

Husky Stadium

The Jim Owens Statue

Thanks again J.O.!

Hec Edmundson Pavilion to the left

It was a chilly 7:20 p.m. kickoff for the game but we were ready!

Jason and Christie in Wildcat Red and Blue

Laurie and I countered with Husky Purple and Gold!

Cool hat Laurie.

Football is a strange game sometimes and this would be one of the weirdest I've ever witnessed.

Let's start with some final game statistics;

Total Plays: Arizona 83-47

First Downs: Arizona 26-14

Net Yards Gained: Arizona 461-256

Time of Possession: Arizona 39:19 -20:41

Points Scored: WASHINGTON 36-33!!!

How is this possible you ask? Well it was interesting indeed!

Bottom line, at the end of the third quarter Arizona was winning 27-21. The Wildcat's kicker, Alex Zendejas, would add two Field Goals of 29 and 24 yards to up the Arizona lead to 33-21 with only 4:22 left in the contest and, truth be told, MANY people wearing Purple and Gold opted to leave the stadium at this point in time.

NOT US!

At the 2:55 mark, Husky QB Jake Locker hit WR Kavario Middleton on a 25 yard TD strike, Erik Folk added the PAT and the score was now Arizona 33- Washington 28.

The Wildcats put their "Hands Team" on the field anticipating a Husky onside kick but the UW opted to kick it deep and pray the defense could come up big.

DID THEY EVER!!!

The Play of the Night

So Arizona has been killing the Dawgs all night with a simple wide receiver screen and the UW seemingly has no answer to how to defend it.

It was exactly at the 2:37 mark that Arizona QB Nick Foles threw yet another of these Bubble Screens. Above you see Foles' pass that has just ricocheted off the left foot of Wildcat WR Delashaun Dean into. . .

. . . the arms of Husky LB Mason Foster!!!

Foster returned it 37 yards for a Husky TD, Locker hit WR Jermaine Kearse for the two-point PAT and VOILA, it was Huskies 36 - Wildcats 33!!!!!

The Wildcats had one last chance but DB Desmond Trufant picked off a Wildcat pass to seal the improbable comeback victory!

Husky Defensive Coordinator Nick Holt with an ecstatic UW Head Coach Steve Sarkisian after the game

"What just happened out there?"

A bottle of "Il Bastardo" Italian red wine back at Mark and Susie's home helped us analyze the evening's events.

We had a great time seeing everyone and the game's ending was just sensational if you were wearing Purple and Gold.

Thanks again to Jason and Christie for hosting us in Puyallup on Friday and to Mark and Susie for doing the same on Saturday and Sunday. Great friends usually equal great memories, this weekend was proof.

On a serious note, it was great listening to Jason during the game as the action unfolded. He truly has a great football mind with a very clear vision of the game in general and offense in particular. Because of his multitude of talents, he has many different ways to go when or if he finally decides to settle into some form of a more traditional career path. Coaching college football would be a fine choice for him someday in my opinion.

Puyallup, Washington

We flew up to Seattle early Friday morning out of Burbank's Bob Hope Airport to spend the weekend seeing friends and attending the University of Arizona Wildcats at the University of Washington Huskies football game.

This is now becoming an annual event which gives us a chance to visit with two our our favorite people, Christie and Jason Johnson. If you are new to the blog, Jason and Christie were our housemates in Sicily during the 2008 Italian football season while Jason was quarterbacking the Elephants to the playoffs.

Of course, any trip to Seattle also means a great visit with our dear friends Mark, Susie, Sophie and Mallory Johnson. Thet are not related to Jason and Christie if you were wondering.

This trip would be a little different because instead of our normal game plan of spending the whole weekend in Seattle at Mark and Susie's home, we would instead spend the Friday night at Jason's parents home in Puyallup about 45 minutes south of Seattle before being handed off to Mark and Susie Saturday night after the game at Husky Stadium.

With Jason and Christie at the Ram Restaurant in Tacoma for lunch.

The Ram has a strict Anti-Gun Policy!

Puyallup's Good Samaritan Hospital

Puyallup is world renowned for two things.

First, it is the only city in America, if not the world, that has two P's, two L's and two U's in its name.

Secondly, it is the birthplace of Lori Wrout, one of Rio Mesa H.S.'s best teachers. She was born at Good Samaritan which gives the hospital "Historic Landmark" status.

We drove past the Puyalup Fairgrounds and were pleasantly surprised.

KARMA!!!

The Fairgrounds were hosting a Scandinavian Heritage Festival. The Swedish flag is the blue and yellow one on the far right.

I wonder if everybody in Hässleholm will dress like this handsome couple?

Laurie was ready to start her first foray into shopping for her trip to Sweden.

My newest Scandinavian friend Bengt

VERY cool hat!

Christie wearing her authentic, traditional Dirndl

More on this later.

Swedish Cuisine to be sampled

Unfortunately, no XXL

I will need to learn local cooking techniques while I'm in Sweden.

The Puyallup Fairgrounds was also hosting an Oktoberfest!

Now the Dirndl makes sense!

Dueling Outfits

Christie's Burberry purse trumped the white stockings. . . maybe.

There were so many people of Germanic Heritage dressed in their traditional outfits in the Biergarten.

Enjoying the traditional Puyallup Oktoberfest Beer Gloves

An Oompah Band is a MUST!

Your hair should always match your stockings

We just HAD to enter this Tournament!

Hammerschlagen Action

The rules are simple, who can pound a nail flush into a log with the butt end of a hammer the fastest. You get one attempt at a time as the hammer rotates around the log between six or seven players.

It was not as easy as it looked and was great fun!

So ended our first day in Puyallup, Washington.

Dos Pueblos Game

Our last non-league game saw us drive north about an hour to beautiful Santa Barbara to play Dos Pueblos in a rare Freshman/JV doubleheader.

Great reaction to the Chargers' Sweep play

The Sweep killed us last week against St. Francis so we worked hard on containment this week and it REALLY paid off. Our cornerback, strong safety and outside linebacker groups played inspired defense indeed!

Coach Michael Contreras coaching up his Free Safety

The defense stepped up big forcing Dos Pueblos into an INCREDIBLE EIGHT "Three and Outs" and ninth series where Dos Pueblos punted after their fourth play.

Unfortunately, this effort was wasted as we still lost 12-7. Dos Pueblos put together one good drive in the first half for a TD and then returned a punt to the 5 yard line to set up a short scoring drive in the fourth quarter.

We had a GREAT week of practice and it showed in our overall performance but we still have a long way to go.

We return to action next Thursday against the Hueneme Vikings at home in our Pacific View League opener.

In the JV night game, the Spartans cruised to a 52-0 victory (32-0 at the end of the first quarter!) to increase their record to 5-0 on the campaign.

WAY TO GO GUYS!!!

Sweden "HERE WE COME!"

It's official, I have been offered and accepted the position of Head Coach with the Hässleholm Hurricanes of the Sweden's American Football League for the 2010 season. The Swedish Spring/Summer season will put Laurie and me in Scandanavia from March through September.

Hässleholm, population 17,050, is located in southern Sweden about 85 miles north of Copenhagen, Denmark and 320 miles south of Stockholm, Sweden.

Our colors are Forrest Green and Black

The 2009 Hässleholm Hurricanes

In 2009, Sweden had 32 teams playing American football. The top six teams played in the Super Serien. Then there were five teams in Division I. Finally, the other 21 teams played in Division II which was subdivided into four geographic divisions. Thanks to "Peter from Stockholm" for correcting me on my earlier post, now amended, as to the structure of Swedish football.

In 2009 the Hurricanes played in Division II's Södra (Southern) Division. The Hurricanes were founded in 2006 and experienced their best season ever in 2009, so we have a lot to live up to. The challenge to improve on last season's success is very appealing indeed!

Final 2009 Standings for the Södra Division

Lugi Vikings 9-1

Hässleholm Hurricanes 7-3

Limhamm Griffins 5-5

Carlshamn Oakleaves 5-5

Oskarshamn Dockers 2-8

Carlskrona Seahawks 2-8

INTERESTED? Here are a series of links to help get you as FIRED UP as we are!

2009 Hässleholm Hurricane Offensive Highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gND4yHs0Sk

The Swedish Tourism Board with a map of southern Sweden included:

http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/Regions--Cities/Southern-Sweden/

The Community of Hässleholm's website is:

http://www.hassleholm.se/1933

The Hässleholm Hurricanes website can be found at:

http://www.hässleholm-hurricanes.se/

The Swedish American Football League website can be found at:

http://amerikanskfotboll.com/div-1.html#Div%20IIS

Click on this website for an article on the 2009 Swedish Super Serien Super Bowl game:

http://www.thelocal.se/14422/20080918/

Well, now it is off to Borders to buy the necessary books about Scandanavia in general and Sweden in particular. A "Swedish for Dummies" book is in order as well!

Adjö for now!

That is goodbye in Swedish.

Just Another Football Weekend

Our latest football weekend started on a VERY alarming note when my mother called me on the way to Rio Mesa Friday afternoon to tell me that she just heard a report on her TV news station that massive mudslides in Sicily had perhaps killed several people.

My first move was to send out a mass e-mail to the Catania Elephants about everyone's safety, families and friends of course included.

Fortunately all of the Elephants, their families and friends are indeed safe as near as I have found out!

Some of the Devastation

As it turned out the mudslides happened in the Messina area about a one hour drive north of Catania. The mudslides were due to an incredible NINE inches of rain in only a THREE HOUR period combined with buildings constructed without permits.

The Death Toll is up to 21 people

According to this morning's Los Angeles Times report, another 30 people are still listed as missing.

For videos of the mudslides from the Italian media click on this link:

http://video.corriere.it/?vxSiteId=404a0ad6-6216-4e10-abfe-f4f6959487fd&vxChannel=Dall%20Italia&vxClipId=2524_4f9bf9ae-b103-11de-b562-00144f02aabc&vxBitrate=300

Friday evening arriving at St. Francis H.S.

for the J.V. and Varsity doubleheader

with Rio Mesa H.S.

As I posted on a previous post, I graduated from St. Francis in 1965. It was fun to return to the campus which has seen so many beautiful upgrades in the last 44 years including these sculptures in the quad of St. Francis, the Patron Saint of animals, with a wolf.

The program included a great article by John Zant about the class of 1964 and our 12-1 season that saw the Golden Knights win their first of two back-to-back C.I.F. AAA Football Championships. It brought back a flood of good memories. John was a very fast wingback on that 1963 team and was a long time sports writer for the Santa Barbara News Press.

J.V. action

Both teams were 3-0 entering this game and St. Francis handed us one of our only two setbacks last year when these kids were playing on the schools respective Freshman teams.

Final Score: Rio Mesa 28 - St. Francis 7

The J.V. Spartans are now 4-0!

I also got a chance to renew an acquaintance with Pete Fagan who graduated from St. Francis in 1966. Pete and his wife were also watching the J.V. game fron the top level of this classroom building. We were the equivalent of about seven stories above the field from this vantage point. It was good to see him again after all of these years.

Jack Friedman was our Head Football Coach

when I played at S.F

Varsity Action

A loooong night for Rio Mesa as the Golden Kinights dominated the game and won easily 41-0. St. Francis is now 4-0 and Rio Mesa drops to 2-2.

The Mural of St. Francis

Located above the stairway of the school's oldest cllassroom building, it was always one of my favorite spots on the campus.

Sunday, Laurie and Mike supporting

Scott Fujita and the New Orleans Saints

Vanessa approving of Mike's slippers

We spent the afternoon at Mike and Vanessa's and rooted the 4-0 Saints to a 24-10 victory over the New York Jets. We had a wonderful time and they were terrific hosts.

Other Football Results of Import to the Catania Elephants

Riccardo Conticello's Cabrillo H.S. (1-3) team defeated Santa Maria 28-21.

My Washington Huskies (2-3) lost to Notre Dame 37-30 in overtime.

Brandon Bennett's #18 ranked Willamette (4-1) team beat Whitworth 42-13.

Matt Epperson's Hardin-Simmons Cowboys (1-4) lost to Mary Hardin-Baylor 23-7.

Taber LeMarr's San Diego Torrero team (2-2) lost to Butler 25-24.

Larry Atkinson's Nebraska-Omaha squad (4-2) beat Emporia State 34-14.

Denver Wade's #12 ranked Wabash Little Giants (4-0) swamped Allegheny 37-3.

St. Francis Game

This week's Rio Mesa Freshman football game saw us board a Pullman as we called it in Catania, i.e., a rented recliner bus with air conditioning and closed circuit TVs that allowed us to play an NFL Films DVD to get our players in the mood for the contest. After a smooth one hour drive we arrived in La Cañada-Flintridge for our game with the 2-1 St. Francis Golden Knights.

This game had a little extra significance for me since I graduated from St. Francis way back in 1965. It would be the first time I've returned to my alma mater to coach a team.

With Terry Terrazone before the game

We played on Jack Friedman Field named after the coach that Terry and I both played for in our S.F. days. Terry was the Best Man at our wedding in 1971. A St. Francis lifer, he was the Head Football Coach at S.F. for quite some time and now serves as the school's Athletic Director.

Pre-game Warm-ups

The opening Kickoff

Among the many improvements seen here to St. Francis since I graduated are the two three story buildings (more on this later), an all-weather track and a Field Turf field.

Third and Five

Unfortunately we faced a lot of these situations in the game which is not good at any level of football. We have struggled on offense for three straight weeks now and the loss of our starting fullback who stayed home with the flu today added to our tailback leaving the game in the first quarter with a foot injury did not help.

Mike Mendez, our backup fullback, played very well running for a lot of tough yardage between the tackles. Unfortunately he was our only offense as we failed to complete a pass and turned the ball over three times.

Defensively our only spark came from an interception by linebacker Jacob Salas who returned it about 30 yards.

FINAL SCORE

St. Francis (3-1) 41 - Rio Mesa (1-3) 0

This has been a rough three weeks for us but there are no magic answers. We will continue to coach up the fundamentals as we prepare for our trip north to Goleta to play our last non-league game against the Dos Pueblos Chargers.

FRESHMAN MOMENTS: There were three this day.

When we arrived at St. Francis, one of our kids looked across the way and marveled at what a wonderful school it must be, after all, they have a six story building! I didn't have the heart to tell him that they were really two separate three story buildings.

We of course needed to use the rest room after our long bus trip but Terry warned us that the men's bathroom was having a plumbing issue and smelled to high heaven (it is a Catholic school after all). He did not lie! The aroma was indeed overpowering and we were told to use the adjoining women's rest room. It was then that one of our player's in a rather mild voice announced that to his surprise "They sell tampons in here!". I explained to him again that it is a WOMEN'S rest room.

Finally, I submit to you "The Mystery of the Missing Shoe". In the locker room at Rio Mesa before we left, one of our players proudly showed me "the brand spanking new turf shoes" that had just arrived for him via an Internet purchase. Our players stowed all of their gear under the bus but when we arrived at St. Francis several players shoes had gotten moved around. After about ten minutes all shoe order was restored except for the owner of "the new brand spanking new turf shoes".

One "brand spanking new turf shoe" was missing. He remembered placing both of "the brand spanking new turf shoes" in his helmet and then placing his helmet inside of his shoulder pads before loading them on the bus. We combed the bus, the drop-off area and even called back to Rio Mesa to see if it was left in the area where we had loaded the bus.

It was a negative on all front.

We told him that the tennis shoes he was wearing would be just fine on Field Turf. He was resigned to his fate but called his Dad to tell him of his predicament. Having a supportive Dad is always a good thing and our player reported that his father would try to buy him some new shoes on the way down to the game.

Finally, it was time to don the pads and go out for our warm-u

I happen to be watching our player in question put on his shoulder pads and game jersey and as he tries to strenuously insert his left arm into his sleeve I am suddenly transported back mentally to the Westlake Community Hospital in 1974 for the birth of our first son, And

Why you ask?

Because as he pushes harder and harder with his arm the tip of "a brand spanking new turf shoe" first crowns and then is fully delivered to a now proud player. The Mystery is solved and we can now start the game at peace with the world.

The Dad was called before he had a chance to buy another pair of cleats.

ONLY IN THE WORLD OF

FRESHMAN FOOTBALL!