Two Games, Two Wins

A grueling day of football on any level. Not one game, but two were played. One might ask, why would anyone do that? Well, it is football after all.

In the first game, the East finally beat the West in the All Star game for the first time in 5 years. Fueled by the hard pressing running attack of the Outlaws and the Red Scorpions play style, the East was able to completely man handle the West for four quarters.

Elegant sweep blocking and quick draw plays made the offense go like a maelstrom. On a reverse, I made quick work of the defense on the running side of the play, blocking three defensive players allowing our running back to score from 25 yards out. The final score of the game was 19-0.

In the second game, the Gull Fighters took on the Dream Team. With both teams consisting mostly of older players well into their 40's and 50's, the play was both rough and unbridled. Many of these guys can still play but to the extent that the one game a year allows.

Of course, being in the same age range, means that I feel the pains like they do, except that of course, several of us who are still playing in the league are quite fit.

Our dream team ran out to a 19-0 lead at half with two flubbed point after attempts. It didnt get much better with the Gull fighters finally scoring four minutes into the fourth quarter. After they scored again three minutes later on an interception, we got serious again and scored a final touchdown making the score 25-12.

For those of you who have played the game, try this once. Play two games back to back (2 hour rest during stadium relocation) and then let me know how you feel. IT WAS A GOOD DAY FOR FOOTBALL!!!

Mid Week Reportt

I am happy to say that the season is finally winding down and that the winter recovery time will begin, although it will be likely short thanks to the fact that I am looking at a February start to my next season. For those of you who missed my games in Tokyo, you will find me Playing in Auburn Washington next season if I can manage to stay healthy. At this point, I am going to take a month or so to swim a bit and get myself up to spec to start lifting a bit again. But of course, that wont start until the end of this weekend's games:

2007 JPFF All Star Game
12/23 at 9:30 am
Kawasaki Satadium

2007 Old Boy Association Game
12/23 at 1pm
Yokohama Stadium

Between these two games, I will likely be absolutely exhausted and likely to take Christmas eve off to recover.

Outlaws Win 7-0

In a game which was played under cold windy conditions at Kawasaki Stadium, the Tokorozawa Outlaws powered to a final score of 7-0. The game was pretty much one sided for the first half, with Tokorozawa managing to keep the opponents bottled up in their side of the field until mid way through the second quarter. After giving up a long pass to put the All-Stars on the 35 yard line, the Outlaws defense once again got stingy stuffing the All-Stars at the line of scrimmage on two consecutive plays. With the all stars needing 8 yards for a first down, they went with a play instead of a field goal and wound up getting stuffed once again.

The game continued much in this fashion until an All-Star fumble on their own 35 yard line gave the Outlaws a much needed break. After an incomplete pass on the first down of the drive, Tokorozawa pounded the ball 6 consecutive plays off tackle scoring the only touchdown of the game with 2:28 remaining in the fourth quarter. with the game seemingly over at that point, the ensuing kickoff went out of bounds. On the re-kick, the all-Stars moved right up to their own 45 yard line and quickly rattled off 12 yards on the first play from scrimmage. With everyone getting a bit edgy, the Outlaws buckled down and stuff the drive with four consecutive hard hits on the All-Star running backs.

As for me, I am sore today and it was a fun game but it definitely was not one of my best games. December is a rough month to play football in and I still have two games to go. See you guys next week. Video of the game to come later this week.

Last Team Practice

Well, this will be my last practice report for 2007. The season is ending with only games and a year end party left to participate in.

The schedule is as follows for the rest of the season

12/16 Outlaws vs JPFF All-Star Team (Made up of 3 teams)
12/23 JPFF Kansai All-Star Game
12/23 Old-Timers Game at Yokohama (Old Guys vs Young Guns)

Thats about the end of it. Two games in one day on the 23rd. Luckily they are both all-star type games and I shouldnt be too tired as the first game will be 8 minute quarters.

As for this last practice, I am sore and it was a good intense practice even though there were several members of the team who had other commitments. Of course those in attendance were fully committed to performing the tasks at hand and with the 65 degree sunny weather, worked up a good sweat.

Then it was off to Yaki-niku (Korean Barbeque) for lunch and good beer and food for those in attendance. Not a bad way to close out a final practice. Now it is back to training and getting ready for these last few games.

Mid Week Post

It has been a week full of push ups and squats and other exercises designed to get me ready for the up coming games. I really need to get out and run. Especially after this last week's practice. For a change, I was throwing the ball rather than snapping it, and I found that after a dozen or so throws that I could still throw.

But my passes were anything but crisp. The timing was off on several of them and I wanted to bury my head in the sand by the mid point of practice. Although it was fun, if I really expect anything more to come of the quarterbacking skills I have, I really need to get my speed up and throw a lot more. While the steps are there, I really am glad I did not have to perform any hand offs as I probably would have tripped over my own feet.

But on to this week's practice and hopefully another beautiful day to practice on. It was 65 last week, just warm enough to work up a good sweat and nice with no wind so it was not a typical December day.

Team practice

I always loved to play football in the fall as does most other people who play the game. The days are usually cooler and one does not get as hot when practicing. Today was one such day. With a balmy 65-70 degrees and sunny, the practice could have been one of the best there was all season. But unfortunately, many members of the team didnt bother showing up.

But those of us who did show up had a fun session of mostly pass routes, and then machine gun drills which I volunteered to be the runner for all of the drills. This allowed me to get a lot of hitting in a short period of time. Of course the whole practice was like that with us running our sprints back to back. We all worked up quite the sweat and were mostly happy with the practice overall.

One more practice next week and then back to the games in back to back weeks. It will be interesting but we are now counting down to the end of season...(21 days and counting!)

On the scene

Today is a photography day for me. I am shooting two of the playoff games for the JPFF and will be out at Kawasaki stadium all day. But this is not a bad thing. Luckily I will play my last two games of the season there.

We always talk about a football field being lousy or good in the states, but here in Japan, just having one is a god send. Unfortunately, most of the places I have played over the years were no more than a field converted into a football field for the game. Many more times, we have played on Rugby grounds with field goal posts that were too close and that were actually a throw back to playing in the NFL in the 1950's and 1960's and hazardous to the players.

Kawasaki stadium wasa baseball stadium not long ago. They converted it into one of the few, quite possibly the only football stadium in the country. The astroturf is bad and does not allow the feet to slide at all. But it is a ground and it isnt a rugby pitch that is all dirt. The stadium seats about 3-5000 people and has home and away stands. All this told, it is a nice place to play for the guys playing semi-pro and college ball over here.

So I wont complain and I will go shoot the games and await my turn to play on the field. It will come soon enough.