Sat.-Mon., March 19-21, 2022
It's been awhile since I've posted but for credible reasons.
First, I was on the road from Camarillo to São Paulo, Brazil via Santiago de Chile to work as the Linebackers Coach at the . . .
. . . Brasil Onças Week
National Team Camp
Secondly, once at our team hotel, I found that the wifi was too weak to upload pictures to the blog.
Finally, the Onças Camp was so action packed with practices, meetings and lots of great American football discussions in-between and great meals that I simply did not have the time or desire to write.
Thus my apologies for the delays in posting to our three blog mega-followers, Paul Sabolic, Mike D'Antuono and Julien Urgenti.
Every overseas American football adventure traditionally starts with breakfast at . . .
. . . Cronies in Camarillo
This one would be no different.
It would be a long journey.
I was flying on two LATAM airlines flights with the first leg taking me from LAX to Santiago de Chile. While this flight was scheduled to depart at 4:25 p.m. on Saturday, LATAM sent me an email saying that I should arrive at the airport FOUR hours before my flight left.
I thought that it must be because of the need to show proof of vaccination and a current negative COVID-19 test before being allowed to check-in.
Laurie drove me down to LAX and got me there by the required 12:25 p.m. target time.
I was traveling a little heavier than I usually would for a one week trip. Normally I would have simply travelled with a carry-on bag and a backpack but my ticket included the allowance of a 23 kilo bag to be stored in the plane's cargo bay.
So I took advantage of the situation and packed a bag with 45 football game pants to give to the people in charge of the Brazilian Federation of American Football to distribute to needy teams.
I needed help to get my three bags from the parking structure to the ticket counter.
What I needed was one of these
I could not find one anywhere that was randomly discarded in the parking structure so I had to rent one for $8.00!
Let the airport greed/money grab begin.
On a side note, when I arrived in São Paulo this same cart was FREE.
First stop, the modern airport
in Santiago de Chile
After the ten hour and 30 minute flight from Los Angeles, I had a five hour and 25 minute layover before flying to São Paulo.
Chile indeed
A map of Chile which a LONG
strip of land along South America's
western coast
Talk about airport greed!
At this airport a cheeseburger, fries and a soft drink cost an incredible $10,200!
Oh wait, those aren't U.S. Dollars, they are Chilean pesos. That meal would cost about $13.21 USD.
I passed as it was now about 7:30 a.m. on Sunday.
This was more to my liking but
it was a Starbucks which I do not
frequent overseas
This was my dining choice
The bill for a bottle of water with gas,
a double cafe cortado and a delicious
croissant was a mere $7,190 Chilean pesos
That translates into $9.31 USD, not too bad at an airport.
I still had a lot of time to kill before my Sunday 12:20 p.m. flight to São Paulo, Brazil so I roamed through the airport.
I strongly considered buying this
traditional Chilean outfit for Laurie
There was the LATMA plane that
would whisk me away to Brazil
Easter Island is part of Chile
This reminded me of
Laurie and her love of hearts
Grandson Jacob loves McDonalds
and claims that there is one in EVERY city
I don't know about that, but they do have one in the Santiago de Chile airport.
More thoughts about Laurie
Finally, it was time for the final leg
of my LONG journey
This would be a four hour flight that included . . .
. . . NO LEG ROOM!
The view of the Andes was spectacular!
I was joined by Onças DB
Gustavo "Guga" Goedert at
the São Paulo airport
Guga was the first of many wonderful people that I would meet this week.
From the time my plane landed to the time we arrived at the team hotel took another four hours due to the delays in the passport check lines, a long wait at the baggage carousel, and the extremely long wait for an Uber to arrive. There was also dense traffic which is the norm in South America's largest city, with a population 21,090,792 souls in the greater São Paulo metropolitan area.
We finally made it to the Onças headquarters, the Hotel Del Verde in the rural, mountainous São Paulo suburb of Itapoecerica da Serra just in time for the team dinner.
The Onças looked SHARP
in their team shirts
As a reminder, Onças is Portuguese for jaguars, the prideful symbol of this huge, amazing country.
Why do they speak Portuguese and not Spanish in Brazil or Brasil as the locals spell it, you ask?
On June 7, 1494, the governments of Spain and Portugal agreed to the Treaty of Tordesillas which divided their spheres off influence in the New World of the Americas between the two superpowers of the day.
The treaty created a north-south longitudinal Line of Demarcation about 345 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands.
All of the yet to be discovered land east of this arbitrary line would belong to Portugal, the land to the west was Spain's to exploit.
As it turned out, what is currently Brazil was about the only land east of the Line of Demarcation while the rest of South America, Central America and the American Southwest went to Spain.
Portugal learned a hard lesson in dividing up the New World only two years after Columbus' first journey and long before anybody actually new how vast the Americas really are.
Thus, Brazilians speak Portuguese.
After Sunday night's dinner, we held our first team meeting where Head Coach Brian Guzman set the tone for the week.
The main goal for the week was to evaluate the players with an eye on the final roster for the World Championship Tournament to be held in Germany in the Summer of 2023.
The fact that COVID-19 had caused no American football to be played in Brazil the past two years was an issue as to what level of conditioning the players were in after such a long layoff.
Monday, March 21, 2022
This would be the first of many busy days that started with a 6:30 a.m. coaches meeting.
After the meeting, it was time to give the 45 pants I brought to the Brazilian Federation representatives.
William and Kris were excited
to receive these donations from
Agoura and Westlake High Schools
Their goal is to now get them to teams in economically depressed areas of Brazil to help the game grow.
That is good friend Bart Iaccarino of the Europe Warriors/Barcelona Dragons photo bombing over William's shoulder.
The team assembling for the
morning's activity, TESTING!
The view to the right of the
Hotel Del Verde entrance
And the view to the left
We were indeed in a jungle area. I mentioned my concerns about being attacked by an onça on one of my walks but was told not to worry as they are found only much farther north of here in the Amazon forest.
I was also told that I should instead be concerned about cobras, anacondas and aggressive Howler monkeys.
No problem.
This was our Defensive roster
for today's round of combine
style tests
Loading on the team bus
for the round of tests
Our hotel was located in a mini-valley with a long, steep driveway. Loaded with players and coaches, this veteran of Brazilian transportation had some real struggles reaching the top of the hill several times each day.
Explaining the round of tests
This natural turf field would be the
site of all but two of our practices
Four of our six LBs at the camp
Left to Right: Joao Holyfield, Jefferson Martins, Luis Polastri and Giovanni Pichetti.
Igor Mota who had an OUTSTANDING camp would not arrive until late today.
I'm not sure where Spanish LB Alex Posito who was on both of our Europe Warriors' teams and now plays for the Barcelona Dragons was when we took this photo. He was here with Bart Iaccarino to get in some much wanted work before the fast approaching start of the European League of Football season.
Vertical Jump was the first test
with some funky technique parameters
What do you think?
Measuring the length from
each player's hip joint to the
sole of his foot
I did indeed photo bomb my own picture in the mirror to the right.
40 yard dash
LB Giovanni Pichetti is up,
take off anytime you want
after the whistle
Shuttle Run testing
one of our OL
LB Jefferson Martins
during his Shuttle Run
Joao "Holy" Holyfield's
Shuttle Run
Due to the damp conditions causing the slip, he was given another chance to improve his time.
LB Alex Posito trying his
luck on the Shuttle Run
HC Brian Guzman addressing
the team after the battery of
tests were concluded
Bart, Alex and I opted to walk back to the hotel, mostly downhill, to explore the quaint city of Itapecerica da Serra.
They have a lot of interesting
murals randomly throughout the city
Here's another
Who doesn't love a colorful
fruit stand
Oh my!
My theory is that the grittier a place looks, the better the flavors of the food they offer. We just had to come back here to eat later this week.
Our hotel's entrance atop the hill,
walking down this path was enjoyable
We did hear noises walking
down the driveway but were
neither threatened nor intimidated
The artificial grass field used for
our afternoon workout
Warming Up the Troops
A spirited team period ended a
competitive practice
The evening would be filled with video reviews with the coaches and players and a ton of great football talks after the meetings late into the night.
My first impression was that the LBs were a dedicated group who listened to my advice and showed that they were all extremely coachable.
What more could a coach ask for?
Meanwhile, back in Camarillo, California . . .
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Little Miss Mary had her name
up in LIGHTS!
Her brother Jacob was honored as well a few weeks ago with this same honor.
Laurie and I are so proud of them and of the good things that their cousin Kevin is doing in school in Las Vegas.
We'll have more Onças Week news in the next post. ENJOY.
