Sunday, April 12, 2009

The Strange Case of the New American Quarterback


As you may recall, we lost our QB, Luke Tracy, for the season with a separated shoulder and had to play our last game against the Bologna Warriors with our WR Taber LeMarr playing as our emergency QB.

Easter week was our first BYE week which gave us some time to come up with a good replacement and have time to give him a crash course in our offense before our game against the Reggio Emilia Hogs next Sunday.

The problem was that Laurie and I were in Germany and Austria while Davide was searching for a QB.  We communicated and agreed on a highly recommended QB out of a Division III school.  In 2006 he had passed for over 2,900 yards in leading his team to an 8-2 record and a share of their conference title.  During the 2006 season he had thrown five TD passes in a game twice and threw for 477 yards and four TDs in another game!  His exploits had earned him both first team all-conference honors as well as his team's MVP award.  Have we ever lucked out in a tough situation!

He arrived in Catania on Friday with his father at about 4:00 p.m. and met with Davide until 6:00 p.m. going over the playbook.  Gustavo, our team liason, checked on them at 8:00 p.m. to see if they needed anything and they said they were OK but tired after a 30 hour trip that was complicated by a missed connection in Chicago.

At 10:00 p.m., Gustavo picked us up at the airport as we returned from Munich.  I wanted to go meet the new QB but after Gus told us about their travel problems we decided to wait until the morning to connect.

Laurie and I hit the market at 9:00 a.m. when they opened to buy supplies for a good Easter dinner for us, Paul and our new QB and his father.

We had a staff meeting scheduled for noon and a practice at 3:00 p.m.  I called the QB's apartment at about 10:30 a.m. to tell him we would pick him up 11:30 a.m. to drive to the meeting.  No answer.  I called twice more, still no answer.

We drove over to the apartment and rang their loud doorbell, no answer.  We thought that maybe they were walking around Aci Trezza checking out the QB's new home town for the next few months.  No luck.

We waited for two hours outside of his apartment, thank goodness for Mythos Coffee Bar!  Nobody showed.

Finally at 1:30 p.m., Davide showed up with the spare key to the apartment to find only a hand written note on the table that said:

"Had family emergency & had to get back home to states. Trully sorry for any trouble. Thank you"

Time for an old Sicilian saying:

"If you were not smiling you would be crying."

After just spending three hours at the Dachau Concentration Camp Friday, I knew that in the grand scheme of things life could actually be a whole lot worse than this.  Time to be a Positologist!

We had a good defensive practice and probably shared the first team bonding moment we've had this season as every tried to rally.

Personally, I think the ONLY answer to the situation is a Toga Party at Club Zo with Renato as DJ, I'll bring the Augustiner beer!

After practice at the Etoile d'Or

As Giulio always says, and I FULLY agree, food IS the answer!

With Falcon Renato and Free Safety Christian

A little chocolate and mandorla granite plus a brioche made me feel MUCH better after an aranchino ball and a cafe.

An old American saying:

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!


THE PLOT THICKENS!!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, I throw and run like someone twice my age, but I am still available.

George said...

You ARE on our short list.