Good-Bye to Mike and Vanessa

Up bright and early again today as we had to catch the 6:24 a.m. train to Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport for Mike and Vanessa to start their journey back to California by flying to London.

Weary Travelers

At Hässleholm Central Station

Father and Son near Höör

We only had a few more hours together which made the fundamental problem of coaching in Europe, i.e., separartion from family, really rise to the surface.

The Kastrup Airport's Café Globetrotter

It seemed like an apt place for a last cup of coffee together today.

After seeing them through the Security Gate, I decided to go into Copenhagen and do a little sightseeing.

Symbolic of Oskarshamn's Season

I found this statue in the courtyard of Sankt Peders Church just as the skies unloaded a huge downpour.

It is June 7th for goodness sake!

Sankt Peders' Bell Tower

Copenhagen's Cathedral of Our Lady

A great place to escape the weather.

St. Andrew and his X cross

More family separation anxiety

Cool Wings on the Gammeltorv

Two women talking on the phone circa 1900

"Here Stood the Town's Kag
(whipping post) until 1780"

Those were the days . . .

It is legal to smoke at

Copenhagen's train station

Meanwhile, back in Hässleholm

It was the end of the school year, a day for parties, celebrations and crazy student antics. This group approached my with a scavenger hunt type list of things to find.

They wanted me to show them my underwear, if it was white, they would take a picture of my chonies and marked it off the list.

Unfortunately for them, I had blue ones on today.

Nice outfits and lots of whistles were the orders of the day

Captain America graduated as well today

Basically, Swedes are always looking for a chance to have a good time.

A Google translation of today's NorreSkåne article that was not on their website of Johan Hammarqvist's article about Saturday's forfeit.

Hurricanes Blown on the Match

Hässleholm Hurricanes went on Saturday missed the chance to take his second victory in Division 1. Oskarshamn Dockers left in the morning, walk over and that means that the team being thrown out of the game season series in accordance with Association rules. This in turn raises the in Hässleholm, Kristianstad C4 Lions and Carlshamn Oakleaves playing in the same series pool Oskarshamn and thus losing two matches. Oskarshamn four games against teams from the second series of the pool will be deleted.

Hurricanes coach George Contreras was naturally disappointed at the news from Oskarshamn.

"We had contact with them during the week and tried to persuade them to come but at 10 o'clock on match days they called and told that they would not come. It is sad for the sport and it is sad for our audience.

Hurricanes beat instead of the series match content to train and play an internal game in which players are thrown into positions where they do not usually play. A funny thing but not like playing the game correctly noted Contreras.

According to the game schedule would be met Hässleholm Oskarshamn in the first game after the summer break. When the match is not going to be the Hurricanes have been tempted to see if you can meet either a team from Denmark and one team from any of the other division one-game series that has free weekend of 7-8 August.

"We are looking at the possibility because we really want to play" said George Contreras.

The Second Installment of

The Emmigrant Series

The Karl Oskar Nilssons, a Swedish family that emmigrates to Minnesota in 1850, has now found their Homestead and continues their epic journey in the New World. This is a really well written book, I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Nature Walk, C4 and a Quiet BBQ

HAPPY SWEDISH FLAG DAY

During World War I, some Swedes began to privately celebrate the Swedish Flag Day on June 6, which is the anniversary of the day that Gustav Vasa was chosen the first Swedish king in 1523 and also of the day that one of Sweden's constitutions was signed in 1809. Flag Day became an official national day in 1983 and a public holiday on 1983.

NATURE WALK

Sunday was another incredibly beautiful day in Skåne! We had decided last night on the way home from Simon and Jessica's BBQ to get up early for a nature walk into the nearby Magle Våtmark wetlands.

We meandered through farmlands

We saw this young lady out for a ride

Magle Våtmark's Swan Lake?

Queen Anne's Lace

Be sure to check out the shape of the hedge in the background.

A typical Skåne farmhouse

That reminds me,

Laurie arrives in Copenhagen this FRIDAY!!!

Timing is everything.

Laurie leaves for Sweden on Thursday and Bob Rich, the son of our old friends Jon and Janet Rich, arrives in Camarillo from Salem, Oregon on Tuesday while he attends summer school at California Lutheran University.

Bob, who has just started teaching at a small high school, has decided that he can afford to pick up a slew of credits at CLU since he will be getting free housing from us in exchange for taking over our house sitting duties. I'm sure that living in near the beach southern California for a few months will be a pleasant change of pace after living in Oregon all of his life.

CARLSHAMN AT KRISTIANSTAD

After our rewarding nature walk, Mike and I were off for another train ride, this time to Kristianstad to watch the C4 Lions play our next opponent, the Carlshamn Oakleaves.

At least we thought we were taking the train.

When we bought our tickets, we were informed that they were working on the tracks again this weekend so we would have to ride the bus to Kristianstad. We would now certainly not arrive in time for the kickoff.

You better behave on this bus!!!

If not, the bus driver may zap you with his high-tech Swedish device. Fortunately, it was set at zero during our ride!

Steve Chopp at QB for the Oakleaves?

Please note that he is wearing a lineman's cage face mask and has forearm and upper arm pads on both arms!

We arrived at the stadium with only a few minutes left in the first quarter and Carlshamn trailing 14-0.

C4 Lions Blitzing

The Oakleaves only suited up 16 players today against a very powerful Kristianstad team and trailed 48-0 at the half.

The final gun would see the C4 Lions improve to 4-0 as they romped to a 67-6 victory.

OG Linus Linden, OG Lucas Grip

and TE Hampus Lilja

These three Hurricanes players were part of today's officiating crew in Kristianstad. All three look much more svelte in vertical stripes.

A QUIET BBQ

Johan Persson and Mariana invited us to a very nice BBQ at Johan's mother's house in Tyringe to end the day. Where Saturday night's BBQ was large and action packed, today's was small and laid back, just six of us in attendance.

Johan scored HUGE points by serving us CUBA Cola

Our Hosts, Mariana and Johan

Mariana's "Potato Something" dish was a big hit as was Johan's ability to BBQ pork meat to perfection!

Dessert, it IS Swedish Flag Day afterall

GREAT Tug-of-War with Dexter

After good weather, great weather and even better camaraderie, it was time to stimulate my circulatory system with a rousing series of Tug-of-Wars with Dexter.

I think Dexter won but we had fun competing.

BBQ table for six please

Back Row: Mariana, Mike, Vanessa, me and Johan

Front Row: Dexter, striking a very regal pose indeed!

After the group picture,

Dexter asked me out on a date.

Laurie doesn't get here until Friday so, what the Hell, I said yes!

SAFF WEEK #5 RESULTS

SAFF Division I Södra

WEEK #5 RESULTS:

Hässleholm 1 - Oskarshamn 0, forfeit

Lugi 20 - Ekeby 18

Kristianstad 67 - Carlshamn 6

Ystad 28 - Limhamm 14

SAFF DIVISION I SÖDRA STANDINGS

Kristianstad C4 Lions 4-0

Lugi Vikings 4-1

Ystad Rockets 4-1

Limhamm Griffins 3-1

Hässleholm Hurricanes 2-3

Ekeby Greys 2-3

Carlshamn Oakleaves 0-5

Oskarshamn Dockers 0-5

WEEK #5 GAMES:

Saturday, June 12

Limhamm (3-1) at Ekeby (2-3)

Ystad (4-1) at Lugi (4-1)

Sunday, June 13

Hässleholm (2-3) at Carlshamn (0-5)

Kristianstad (4-0) at Oskarshamn (0-5)

THOSE WACKY SICILIANS!!!

The Pass Happy Catania Elephants

Strike Again!

There are many simple axioms governing American football. One of them is

"DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS!"

The Italian Football League is no different. The Catania Elephants wrapped up the 2010 IFL regular season co-championship Saturday night in another tough defensive battle with Reggio Emilia, barely nosing out the spunky Hogs 75-70!

WEEK #12 RESULTS:

Catania 75 - Reggio Emilia 70

BYES - Ancona, Bergamo, Bologna, Bolzano, Lazio, Milan and Parma

ITALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE

FINAL REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS

Catania Elephants 7-1

Parma Panthers 7-1

Bolzano Giants 5-3

Bergamo Lions 5-3

Milan Rhinos 4-4

Lazio Marines 3-5

Reggio Emilia Hogs 3-5

Bologna Warriors 2-6

Ancona Doves 0-8

IFL SEMI-FINAL GAMES:

Sunday, June 13

#4 seed Bergamo (5-3) at #1 seed Catania (7-1)

In Week #3, Bergamo beat Catania 41-20

#3 seed Bolzano (5-3) at #2 seed Parma (7-1)

In Week #8, Parma beat Bolzano 56-13

IFL SUPER BOWL GAME:

Saturday, June 26

The two Semi-Final Winners will play in this year's Super Bowl in Milan

DAI RAGAZZI!!!

Oskarshamn Game

Swedish American Football Saturday

We awoke to yet another "Beautiful Day to Play American Football!"

Mike was excited to see the Canes in action, I was looking forward to a good effort out of our team and Vanessa was looking forward to a day in the sun.

Mike was in a true Nordic football mood

Now, I have been involved as a player or coach with a grand total of 53 football seasons in America and Europe since 1958. I thought I had seen and experienced all that the game has to offer.

Until today . . .

Sweden's First Ever Suit Case

holds our Black Game Jerseys

I always thought the God Father's first name was Vito.

At 10:00 a.m., I received a call from JGFG telling me that Oskarshamn had just called him to declare that they were forfeitng due to a lack of players.

Now this is an extremely drastic step in Swedish football because it also means that the Dockers season is now finished. They get no second chance to get people healthy. They are also facing a Draconian fine of over 25,000 Krona if they want to rejoin the league next season!

For the Hurricanes, it means that we lose two games since we were scheduled to play at Oskarshamn on August 8th. Thus our ten game regular season is now reduced to only eight contests. There are three Division I teams in other Swedish conferences that have BYES the weekend of August 7-8, the Roslagen Bulldogs, the Västerås Roedeers and the Westerbotten Huskies. We are hoping to schedule a non-league game with one of them to get the kinks out in our first game after the seven week Summer break.

Breaking the bad news to the Canes

It still was a beautiful day and the team was all here, so we decided to get some work accomplished. The first order of business was to take a team photo.

The 2010 Hässleholm Hurricanes

After the team picture, we worked on our Kicking Game which we sorely needed.

Linus Nilsson toasting Henrik Andersson

Hampus Liljenberg beating Linus Linden's tight coverage

After these unusual warm up drills, we decided to have some fun as we had two Captains, starting offensive tackles Linus Nilsson and Christian Olofsson pick teams for a scrimmage that would allow our players to play completely out of position and thus get a better feel for the demands of the game.

Linus' black team was the Hurricanes while Christian's white team opted for Hazzlenuts as a nickname.

Christian Olofsson, now a TE, catches a pass

Frank Hilgers, #66 in black

being tackled on his interception return

Kalle Nordström was dancing with glee over Frank's romp.

Kalle would hit Martin Andrä with a 19 yard TD pass but Linus Nilsson was stopped just short on the two point conversion attempt Hurricanes 6 - Hazzlenuts 0.

The black team's Henrik Engström recoverd a Hazzlenut fumble but his brother Philip Engström quickly recoverd one for the white team.

Balthazar Gyllström recoverd another black team fumble leading to the play of the game.

Hazzlenuts on the move

Mike extending his officiating career in a new continent

Offensive guard, Lucas Grip, took over at QB for the white team, rolled to the left and fired a perfect TD pass on his only pass attempt of the day.

Unfortunately it was to Kalle Nordström, the black team's CB who returned it exactly 100 yards for a black team TD. New black team QB, Filip Sundgren, normally a LB, hit Kalle with a pass for the two point PAT.

Kalle was easily the MVP of the game as his black team won 14-0.

Post Game After Glow

IFK Hässleholm vs. WMA IK

We decided to go to the local 4:00 p.m. soccer game and watch the local Division II squad play.

We needed all of these

alternate game plans today

Hässleholm in Yellow and Black

At the half it was Hässleholm 2 - WMA 1

We were baked by the sun so we left at the half.

Now it was off to Bjärnumto the home of DE Simon Viklund and his girlfriend Jessica for a BBQ for some bonding.

Since Simon is Jonas God Father Grip's boss in the real world, does that also make him the head of a syndicate "Family"?

Martin Andrä talking with Linus Nilsson

Martin is a strong candidate for SAFF's Division I Rookie of the Year Award sponsored by "My Little Pony."

Martin's strong play has even led to a street in Hässleholm being re-named in his honor

Martin even drinks milk at team BBQs!!!

KILL THE PEASANTS!!!

The pegs at either end of the pitch are called "peasants" while the "King" sits alone in the middle in this traditional Swedish game of Kubb.

Teams stand at each end of the field and underhand toss big sticks at the "peasants." Basically, once all of the other team's "peasants" are knocked out, you can finally attack the "King."

It is a little more complicted than this but it is a great BBQ party game with an element of danger as wooden pegs are flying all around you.

Mike, Martin Andrä and Marcus Lundqvist belting out "Carrie"

Martin was still upright as the party's momentum moved indoors to compete in a Play Station Karaoke game.

This is a huge favorite song of most Cubans.

I subbed for Mike on "Walking in Memphis"

JGFG Bringing Down the House

Next year's winner of the

"Swedish Idol" TV show

Let's talk about the Belly Series

"If life gives you lemons, make some lemonade." That pretty much sums up what today was all about.

The Canes are really a whole lot of fun to be around!!!