It was neat being back in London again, this time for a football game instead of leisure travel. The field was pretty terrible-- it had to be the worst field I have ever played on. It was only 90 yards and hard as a rock. I think everyone's knees and arms were scraped from the ground.
Before the game, we found rocks and even glass on the field. The Blitz had to walk the field and pick up all the stuff. Pretty great start for a semi final of an international tournament. It was a warm day as well, but we came out energized and ready to go. We started off to a quick 7-0 lead, but the Blitz appeared to be charging back. After a couple of the tough stands by the defense, including a Blitz fumble on the 1 yard line, the Gold Diggers still head a 7-0 lead after one quarter. The Blitz scored their first TD on a passing play in the second quarter, but we blocked the PAT, still giving us the lead. A late field goal gave the Blitz the lead they would never lose, as they went on to win 23-7. The defense showed some real toughness, playing a total of 72 plays, mostly banged up, on the hottest day we've had so far. It was a tough loss for all, but we now narrowed our focus down to one thing--the Danish National League. I went out with a couple guys for a low key night and caught an English breakfast Sunday morning (2 fried eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, beans and some OJ----since you may have been wondering Jimi), and we left Sunday afternoon for home.The U19 had their last week of practice before the summer break starts, preparing for their second matchup with the Cadets. After beating them 30-0 (forfeit in the first quarter) the first game of the year, it was a bit hard for some of the guys to find motivation. we jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the first quarter, but they scored on a long pass to make it 28-8, and you could tell some of our guys were frustrated. They scored again, catching our whole defense basically off guard on a quick snap QB sneak play for a 25 yard run, and you could tell this just drove some of the guys crazy. We took a 55-14 lead into half, scored 14 points, and ended the game due to the mercy rule. There was some frustration from some players after the game as well. Also, we made the players who didn't turn in their Jersey on time clean the field, and apparently the punishment didn't sit well with some of them, as we had the coaches, and one very helping family, along with the same 2-3 guys that help out every week, help take down the tower we film from. It's amazing to me that they made a mistake and are frustrated with being punished, something as simple as cleaning up a field, but I guess it's a different mindset.
Also, we have an attendance policy with the team. It is mainly about discipline and playing the people who are at practice getting better, because they deserve to play. As coaches, we have not been doing the best of job enforcing this, but we put our money where our mouth is and rewarding those who come to practice regularly, and left the guys thinking about their practice attendance for the summer break. I absolutely loved it, because I feel that once you stop coming to practice, you are satisfied with where you are. When you are satisfied with where you are, there is someone out there working hard to get better and will catch up to you. No matter how good you are at something, you can always be better, whether its one small detail or just focusing on doing everything right. I understand its different here too, with the guys having exams, jobs, and a long travel time to get to practice, rather than high school back home, where you spend a day at school then go to practice, but there are guys on our team that manage to do everything right and show up all the time, and I love it. On that note too, as coaches on the U19 level, we are trying to prepare them for the Senior Team. While we do want to win now, in the big picture, we are trying to make the club better as a whole, so when we may lose some guys on the senior level, the younger guys are ready to step in. Hopefully they use the summer break to really evaluate how much they are putting in the necessary work to reach their goals, long term and short term.
So that's enough about the U19 drama, I guess. The seniors bounced back and beat the Rebels 48-20. As stated before, the Rebels have a dangerous American QB/WR, who, luckily for us d-linemen, played receiver all game. I don't think the DBs enjoyed it too much, but they have a better chance of chasing him around then we do. Our offense was rolling and our defense did their part. We were pretty limited with some banged up guys, as I assume they were as well. Their RB was missing, so they really didn't attempt to run the ball. They had some short crossers working, but eventually just chucked it out to the American who caught everything, then required 3 guys to bring him down. I was pretty tired after the game, but I would have been 10 times more exhausted had he been running around playing QB. We now have a week off before game week against the Towers. It is a HUGE game as we have a bit of a rivalry with those guys. They come in with only one loss, coming in a nail biter to the Triangle Razorbacks in Jutland. I'm not sure what kind of numbers we will have, as we have some banged up guys and the summer break is right around the corner, but I'm definitely pumped for my first Danish game that has some meaning to it. I know our DL guys are ready to go, as we are running and doing some drills on a couple of our days off. This game means so much to everyone, so I'm looking forward to an intense week of practice. It's also our last game until the beginning of August, where we open up with the Towers again. These bye weeks are kind of odd for me, because I'm not used to them, but I like them. It gets me real jittery to get back out and play football, and I'm just looking forward to practice next week.
Alrighty, hope summer is great back home and the crazy heat hasn't been too bad for everyone!
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