Sunday, June 12, 2011

Global Football Updates - Moorpark, California to Hässleholm, Sweden


School is out and Summer football is now in full swing. The Rio Mesa Spartans drove to Moorpark High School on Saturday to open their Summer campaign in the Ventura County Passing and Hogs Tournaments. Fourteen schools were in the Passing Tournament while eleven schools entered multiple Hogs (linemen only, 5 Hogs/team) teams in an event that includes Rock Tossing, Sled Driving, Heavy Bag Carry, a football toting Relay Race, Bench Pressing and Power Cleaning.

The backs, receivers, defensive backs and linebackers were set to play five 40 minute 7-on-7 passing games against team from Westlake, Royal, Agoura, Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park High Schools.

Rio Mesa Moms

Awesome! They set up a refreshment table for the boys that provided delicious basics for the boys throughout the day, liquids, bananas and a ton of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Some of the sandwiches were even cut in triangles.

With the crust still on.

Just plain AWESOME!

Bombs Away

Senior QB Trent Thornton going deep here against Westlake. We had solid performances out of our two Senior QBs, Christian McNair being the #1 QB at the end of Spring Ball. The two of them alternated series in this tournament and both played better than I expected. Still, we have a long way to go before we play San Marcos in our season opener on September 9th.

I'm Open!

Tanner Wrout is easily our top team leader. He had a great day catching a lot of passes.

Christian McNair at QB

7 on 7 allows us to work on all sorts of sets and motions as you see here. The good part of this is that defensively, our kids learn to recognize sets quickly and make the proper adjustments to shifts and motions.

It was a great learning day for us to be sure.

Tanner Wrout on Defense

Tanner plays Middle Linebacker in our 3-5-3 Stack in addition to his duties as a returning 1,200+ yards running back.

Juwan Beard vs. Thousand Oaks

In the middle of this picture playing our Falcon/Strong Safety position, Juwan was the surprise of the day by far. He was all over the field making plays, knocking down passes and actually making a few interceptions.

You could see his confidence growing steadily as the day progressed.

Get-Off!!!

Things happen quickly as the QB has only 3.50 seconds from the snap to get rid of he ball. 3.51 seconds or longer is considered a QB sack.

The Hogs Tug-of-War

We only entered one Hogs team this year and here they are in action in the glamour event of the day, the Tug-of-War. All of the events described earlier in the Hogs Tournament are finished by the end of the fourth round of passing games. It is then time for everything to come to a halt and have about 1,000 athletes, coaches, parents, girlfriends and fans gather to watch this final, single elimination spectacle.

It is awesome to watch as the crowd goes wild in a semi-gladiatorial sort of way. Good times indeed!

You can see the Ventura County Star's article on the Hogs Tournament that includes a great video on the Tug-of-War by going to:

Post Tournament Debriefing

After a long day of football, you still need to talk about the days events. What better place to do it than The Hat, a great pastrami restaurant in neighboring Simi Valley.

Mike Contreras displays the inner workings
of The Hat's signature Pastrami Sandwich

Chili Cheese Fries

A side dish must and, yes, I am expanding like the universe.

I did have a Diet Coke though.

So Much Pastrami, So Little Time

I finished eating the sandwich and this is how much pastrami fell out. Another roll please.

EUROBALL UPDATES


2011 Division I Södra Standings
The top two teams at the end of the regular season will play in the 2011 SAFF Division I Playoffs along with the top two teams from each of the other three Division I Conferences.

Kristianstad Predators (6-1)
Ystad Rockets (5-2)

Limhamn Griffins (3-2)
Lugi Vikings (3-2)
Ekeby Greys (0-5)
Hässleholm Hurricanes (0-5)

Week 8 Results
Kristianstad 21 - Hässleholm 20
Limhamn 21 - Ystad 14
BYES: Ekeby and Lugi

Week 9 Games
Saturday, June 18th
Kristianstad (6-1) at Ekeby (0-5)
Ystad (5-2) at Lugi (3-2)
BYES: Hässleholm (0-5) and Limhamn (3-2)


SAAF Division I Södra Notes: One point, one measly point, that was the difference between joy and tragedy for our beloved 'Canes (0-5). Now it must be remembered that in Week 1 Hässleholm traveled to Kristianstad to open the season and got spanked by Division I Södra's newest club, the Predators (6-1), by a score of 50-0. The improvement and grit displayed by the Hurricanes to lose the rematch 21-20 at home was remarkable to say the least. Still, the Green and Black continue their search for their initial victory in 2011.

One point.

As for Ryan Bolland's Division leading Predators, a win is a win. The mark of a championship squad to me has always been the ability to find a way to win, even if you are being outplayed. His squad did that against the Hurricanes on this day. For more on the Kristianstad-Hässleholm game, go to:
http://translate.google.se/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=sv&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nsk.se%2Farticle%2F20110612%2FSPORT%2F706129926%2F1127%2F-%2Fhurricanes-skakade-serieledarna

Ystad followed their big win over Kristianstad last weekend by laying a huge egg in losing to Limhamn 21-14 today.

Both Division leading squads have three games left in the regular season.

The 6-1 Kristianstad Predators' remaining schedule looks like this:
June 18th at Ekeby (0-5)
August 13th Lugi (3-2)
August 27th at Limhamn (3-2)

For the 5-2 Ystad Rockets, their last three games are:
June 18th at Lugi (3-2)
August 7th Ekeby (0-5)
August 13th at Hässleholm (0-5)

I would have to say that the schedule favors the Rockets, but the 50 day, June 18 to August 13, Summer Break between games for the Predators will give them plenty of time to heal up. Injuries have been a contributing factor in the decline of Kristianstad's performance the last two games.

If either Lugi or Limhamn were to win out, then things get very interesting for the two playoff spots.

It was confirmed over the past week that should Kritianstad and Ystad finish the regular season in a tie, the Predators would be the #1 seed into the playoffs. Since they split their two games, the tie breaker is indeed head to head aggregate score as I thought. Kristianstad would earn the #1 seed if they finished tied with the Rockets due to outscoring Ystad 20-13 on the field. We will have to do some research on three team tiebreakers under Swedish guidelines.

Are you listening Italian Football League, an on the field tie breaker.

Serbian Football League Notes: Congratulations to longtime EuroBall and fedora loving QB Stan Bedwell. He led his undefeated Kragujevac Wild Boars (7-0 league, 9-0 overall) to a 55-21 regular season ending victory over the Pancevo Panthers (5-2, 8-3). This was the Wild Boars third straight undefeated Serbian regular season.

Norwegian Football League Notes: QB Scott Boer, who we met last year when he played for Denmark's Kronborg Knights, led his Våleregna Trolls (6-1) to a 54-23 win over the Nidaros Domers over the weekend. The win moves the Trolls into a first place tie with the idle Oslo Vikings in the five team Division I of the Norwegian American Football Federation. The Trolls handed the Vikings their only loss 28-21 a week ago.

Italian Football League Notes: No games this weekend, the four team playoffs start in two weeks.

2011 IFL Semi-Final Playoff Games
Saturday, June 25th
#4 Reggio Emilia (5-4) at #1 Bologna Warriors (9-0)

Sunday, June 26th
#3 Catania (6-3) at #2 Parma (7-2)

4 comments:

Johan said...

A longer text about the game will be published in tomorrows paper and also on the web. Hopefully the webversion is with a slideshow of about 8 photos.

The Canes dominated the field, controlling the clock but it was the Predators that came up with the big plays. The tying TD and subsequent PAT to win the game came off a 75 yard interception return. The first score to make it 0-6 came off a 60 yard TD-pass.

David said...

If I'd known you were looking for someplace for your linemen to engage in Power Cleaning, I would have had you bring them over to take on my bedroom.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to tell you that Limhamn leads the series over ystad right now. If Limhamn beats the predators by less then 7 they are the number 2 seed and if they beat them by more they are the number 1 ;) it's not over yet

Johan said...

http://www.nsk.se/article/20110612/SPORT/706129926/1127/-/hurricanes-skakade-serieledarna