Thursday, March 27, 2014

Eric Marty and the Small World of EuroBall


Wednesday night was the last of the Ventura County Football Association's annual Wednesday Night Football Clinics.

Our speaker last night was the Offensive Coordinator at Moorpark College, Eric Marty.

With Moorpark College
Coach Eric Marty

Eric being our clinic speaker was yet another example of the small world that is America football in Europe.

In 2009 when I was coaching Sicily's Catania Elephants in the Serie A Italian Football League, Eric was the QB of the Bolzano Giants.

Our teams met for a game in Catania on April 25th of that very difficult season for those of us wearing the Mt. Etna molten lava red and black uniforms. The Giants were 4-1 coming into that game while our beloved Elephants were struggling in every way possible as we kicked off with an 0-4 record.

Predictably, the Giants cruised to a 54-9 victory on that day, helped in no small part by their defense scoring and incredible four consecutive TDs off of Elephant miscues.

Flashing forward to the 2012 IFL season, Eric was now the QB of the Catania squad and them to a 10-2 record and a spot in the IFL's Super Bowl held in Varese that Laurie and I witnessed. Eric was asked to also play Free Safety and kick PATs that night. Unfortunately for our favorite Sicilan eleven, the Parma Panthers proved to be the better team that night in winning the National Championship in a typical Italian defensive struggle by a final count of 63-41.

Besides being a good guy, Eric is also a tremendous QB coach who gave a splendid talk that left all of us in attendance very happy with what he taught us.

Small world indeed . . .

Reading Is FUNdamental

Louis Zamperini
Now and Then

The incredible, real life story of former Torrance H.S., U.S.C. and American 1936 Olympic track star Louis Zamperini's amazing World War II survival after the crashing of his B-24 bomber in the Pacific Ocean, nearly 50 days adrift in a raft circled constantly by sharks and finally the hardships endured in a brutal prison camp. 

A truly excellent read.

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