Saturday, November 26, 2016

An American Football Clinic, an Asturian Lunch and an Osos Rivas Junior Game


Saturday, 26, November, 2016:

Lots of wonderful American football news and doings on another rainy day in greater Madrid.

First up were two pieces of good news from games played late Friday night Madrid time . . .

The Huskies won both the Apple Cup
and the PAC-12 North title on Friday

Next up is the PAC-12 Championship Game against either Colorado or USC next Friday night at the San Francisco 49ers home, Levis Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

Our son Mike and I will be in attendance at the game thanks to the machinations of our lifelong friend, Mark Johnson.

I believe that a win at this game should put us in the four team National Championship Tournament.

Go Huskies GO! 

Solid victory for the Knights,
one of the Osos Rivas feeder clubs

The Royal Oaks Knights, coached by Osos Rivas WR par excellence Marco Chomón, bounced back from a loss by tasting the sweet nectar of victory in a game with the Alcorcón Smilodons (Sabercats) in a mud bowl.

The final score was, I believe, 47-0 with most of the scoring coming in the first half as the Knights took the high road against their outmanned opponents.

On Saturday, we were off to our second scheduled football coaches clinic to instruct any and all coaches from any clubs in Madrid about our great game.

For the second time, only coaches and players from the Osos Rivas and our three feeder clubs attended. This is good for our program and a wasted opportunity to learn and improve for other clubs.

The two clinics that were held in November were the brainchild of Marco Chomón as well. With his podcast show about American sports, coaching the Royal Oaks Knights, playing WR for the Osos Rivas and organizing football clinics, I think it is safe to say that Marco is a high energy guy.

My speaking topic was
"Building and Leading an
American Football Youth Program"

Once again the clinic was hosted at
this state-of-the-art university building

The only bad part about this venue
is that Real Madrid is connected
to this otherwise magnificent university

Osos Rivas Coach Jos del Valle
gave a great talk on LB fundamentals

The clinic finished at about 2:00 p.m. so four of us decided to go to a nearby restaurant that specializes in food from the Asturias region of Spain for lunch.

As usual with coach's meals after football clinics, we ate well!

I ordered the Cachopo

It consisted of two LARGE, thin veal steaks stuffed sandwich style with Asturias cheeses and ham which are then breaded and fried. The marinated red peppers were a bonus.

". . . and so good for me too!"

Of course, the Cachopo was served only after the four of us (I was dining with Ricardo Martín, Jesús Sánchez and Marco Chomón) had shared a few of pintxos of Asturian delicacies and the mandatory Asturias apple sidra.

Once fully sated, we were off to today's Osos Rivas Junior home game.

We were hosting the
Tres Cantos Jabatos

Midway through the
Second Quarter

We arrived fashionably late as our Spanish/Asturian meal lasted the typical two hours to find our Juniors leading only 8-0 thanks to a First Quarter TD and a Safety.

We also noted that the Jabatos only had 11 players suited out for today's nine-man game.

One of my bullet points in my clinic talk today was to leave outmanned opponents finishing a game with dignity by not trying to run up the score and breaking the spirits of your opponents to the point where their program is dropped mid-season.

Let's see if our staff listened . . .

Jabatos on Offense

On a wet field, the Jabatos opted to stay in their Shotgun formations. This would be a huge mistake as they had several botched long snaps.

The Osos staff quickly realized the potential problem and ran all of their plays with the QB under Center with no snap issues throughout the contest.

Advantage: Osos Coaching Staff

 The Osos defense ran to the ball
well all day

The Fourth Down Jabatos Punt
was almost returned . . .

. . . to the HOUSE!

Unfortunately, a block in the back
penalty erased the potential score

A combination of continued bad Tres Cantos long snaps and turnovers resulting in great Osos field position and explosive plays, in part due to a tiring Jabatos roster, led to three quick TDs in the last four minutes of the Second Quarter.

At the Half Time Break

Laurie arrived at Half Time
and took this picture of me in
the stands trying to find the Snack Bar

Warming up for the Third Quarter

Tres Cantos with bad field
position yet again

Better stances this week by
our two down linemen

HIT THE HOLE!

 Our back-up QB leading the
way in the Second Half

TD OSOS!

This score on our first possession of the Third Quarter made it 36-0 Osos and automatically started the Mercy Rule in Spain. It would be a running clock the rest of the way.

 Helping young Alex our novice
scoreboard operator

The backups were all in and
having fun

The Jabatos were still playing hard
but their mistakes kept killing them

This Osos is a blur!

Victory was ours, but more importantly, I thought that our coaches and players played with honor and dignity in the way they treated their opponents keeping the plays simple and playing all of the back-ups during the last two periods.

It was a good day to be an Oso.

VICTORY!

Listening to Head Coach Carlos
del Amo's post-game comments

 Today's Final Score

I was very proud of our coaches and players today and the way that they conducted themselves.

Meanwhile, back home at
La Casa Grande with Laurie

I was still full from lunch but she was hungry, so we walked up the street one block to the La Almazara Tapas Bar to share a few glasses of vino tinto from the La Rioja region and a large plate of delicious grilled vegetables.

Of course, I only ate them to be sociable with my bride.

All in all, another GREAT day to be in España!

The only thing that I needed to worry about as we went to bed was who the Huskies opponents would be in the PAC-12 Championship Game next Friday.

If Colorado (9-2) beats Utah (8-3) in a game starting at 1:30 a.m. Sunday Madrid time, it would be the Buffaloes. If a good Utah team won, then we would face USC (9-3) who handed the Huskies our only loss and had beaten Notre Dame 45-27 before we went to bed.

We'll find out who we play first thing upon awakening on Sunday.

What a great day for . . .
AMERICAN FOOTBALL!

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