Two More Weeks of Football

So the Gold Diggers U19 and Senior team advanced to the Junior Bowl and Mermaid Bowl. A fantastic Saturday for the Gold Diggers to say the least. I'll get more into the details of all that after I talk about all the neat stuff I did leading up to those games.

On Wednesday I went into Copenhagen to watch the time trials for the 2011 UCI Road Race World Championships. The time trials took place in Copenhagen, and the actual race took place out where the Gold Diggers practice. The time trails were not the most interesting thing ever, as it was just a dude riding by every 5 minutes, but I pretty much expected that. It was a gorgeous day, and I doubt I would ever have the opportunity to see that again.

Thursday, I worked another after school football thing, and this time they came to the field. They were older kids, maybe 14ish I would say. It was just funny to see how many of them are just horrified to hit someone or get hit. I remember in high school as a freshman, the first day we got all our pads, after a practice, we all put them on and organized our own game, just because we wanted to hit each other. The coaches weren't to happy about it, but I just think it's funny how excited we all were, and most of the kids here are like screw this. I also haven't commented, but the kids just cannot seem to figure out how the crazy football equipment works. Putting on the equipment takes a solid 15-20 minutes for us to make sure the kids have the shoulder pads on the right way, how to strap them up (is it really hard to figure out that the thing that looks like a belt needs to go through the thing that looks like a buckle?). I understand the difficulty with the helmet, as it is awkward to put on, and we don't have an abundance of extra equipment, and I feel bad helping the kids adjust the chinstrap, because I don't know how tight or lose it is, and I think they expect that since I play, I know exactly how to adjust everyone else's equipment. I just realized how much would go into being a youth coach. After all that, I had my practices with the U19 and Senior team, and went home to sleep.

Friday was an off day and I don't recall doing anything too exciting. I went to the gym and cleaned and that was the highlight of my day I guess. I was busy getting pumped for a football filled Saturday.

The day finally came, and it would be the last game of the season for some teams. Luckily, it was the Gold Diggers day. The seniors came out blazing and diced up the Rebels defense putting up 52 points with some great offensive plays. The Rebels lone score came midway through the 4th quarter after some questionable calls against the defense kept a drive going and gave them valuable yards. I was out of my pads at the beginning of the 4th quarter, so it was hard to watch them go down the field and score. All in all though, I feel, without seeing the film, that our DL played a solid game. The Rebels came with a good game plan to slow me down, and I'd say our ends picked up the slack and played some good football. Hopefully the film agrees with me because it's always hard to get a real feel for how others are doing when you are playing.

I rushed to the showers immediately after our game, with no time to celebrate in order to make it to the U19 game on time. I rode with Carlos and we arrived just as the team was beginning their stretching, great timing. The kids were amped up and ready to rock. The game started tightly, but once the Gold Diggers scored, it was just the opening of the can of whoop ass that would be broken out the rest of the night. The defense shut down their triple option offense, and our ground game was rocking, as the youngsters followed up the seniors with an equally impressive 47-6 victory. The story of the game came with about 4 minutes left in the 4th quarter. The start time of our game was 5:30, and the sun goes down around 7:30. The Tomahawks agreed to this game time, and their beautiful turf field is equipped with lights. However, I guess someone wasn't prepared for the inevitable nightfall, and the lights were never turned on. We took a very-convenient-for-the-opposition 45 minute break while the lights were figured out. The officials didn't know how to handle it, as there is no rule for handling a situation where the home team doesn't realize the lights need to be on. Now I really have no idea what was going on, or if it was strategic operation by a team with less players, and tons of which were getting fatigued and going down with injuries. My favorite thing about the situation, was that when the game finally started, we scored on a good run the very first play of the game. It was a stupid situation that should have been avoided, but our guys stayed positive and ready to go.

After that game, I got some food with the Senior coaches and called it a night since I had to be up early to work the Cycling World Championships. I arrived at Holte around 8, and got to working the VIP tent. It was pretty easy stuff, we just had to check to make sure people were wearing the correct wristband. The thing I found odd is that while it was all fenced off and looked fancy, there were no signs or anything at the entrance saying what it is, or that today was blue bracelets, so a lot of people were just trying to walk in, and we had to explain it was a VIP thing. If there was any big skirmish, we just sent them to a table right by, and they would handle it. Nothing too big. I watched them go by a few times, and left at 1, and took a quick nap before heading out to Sanne's for a big eel dinner. Yep, I ate some eel. Joined by Johan and his wife, and Kim after the Razorbacks-Towers game, we feasted on the ell, potatoes and some cauliflower. It was pretty good, different for sure, but I ate it, and ate a lot. We had cookies and cakes, and just a great time.

Now, its time to prepare for the Razorbacks with the older guys, and the Towers with the younger. We are both familiar with the opponents, but it will come down to who prepares themselves better. I think we have a distinct advantage there. Hopefully, we get 100% commitment from out guys these last weeks and we can come out on top!