Game time baby!

Our first game is finally upon us. We will be taking on the Budapest Wolves in a CEFL game. It should be a good game and it will really tell us where we are at. I am nervous and curious to see how we will perform given our limited amount of practice time. To be perfectly honest, we are not ready for this game. None the less, it will be played anyways. The way I have figured it, we have had 14 2 hour practices prior to this game and a scrimmage. That practice time has been split between offense and defense as well. In the states, that would be like playing a game after 1 week of two a days. On top of that, not all of the players and starters have been at every practice.

Even with all of that, I will be disappointed if we don't execute in certain areas and come away with a win. Our limited scouting report is that they should be big, but slow. Conversely we will be small, but fast and athletic. As long as we can protect the QB, I feel as though we should be able to move the ball. Our skill guys are as good as any and they can run by and around anyone. If there is one thing that I learned at SJU, it is that you can get away without having a great front if your skill guys are just better than theirs. Mistakes and plays made on the perimeter turn into touchdowns. Mistakes and plays made between the tackles turn into yards.

Our final import arrived this week. OL/DL Chris Osborne from Elizabeth City State University arrived on Tuesday. He will provide us with an anchor on offense and a big run stuffer and pile mover on defense. From the two practices that I have seen him, I believe that Chris should fit in great and fills a big need for us. In some ways, it may be a blessing in disguise that Zach Sledge ended up getting hurt. Given our depth and skill on the perimeter and our lack of depth on the offensive and defensive front, it is nice to be able to bring someone in who will help us there.

As I am writing this, our American players along with Jim, Joe, and Christoph are traveling to Budapest. The Americans and Christoph are taking a car there, while Jim and Joe are taking the train along with all of the equipment. Myself, Luis, and the rest of the team are leaving at 5:15 am tomorrow and busing up to Stuttgart (a 2 and a half hour ride) and then flying to Budapest. We will land approximately 3 hours before kickoff. It has been a logistical nightmare getting everything organized and ready to go. There have been about 8 different travel plans since I have been here for this game. As I have mentioned before, this is Europe and they do things different. None of this go the day before and stay in a hotel. No, you see that costs money that is not available. Consequently everything must be done as cheaply as possible. The almighty dollar(or Euro here) rules. So if that means that the team must wake up at 4 am and travel on game day, then so be it. Long story short, it is the road trip from hell.

Something that has been surprising for me is my lack of homesickness. I miss certain things about the states, but not so much where I am dying to go back home. When I committed to do this thing, I knew how long it would be. I committed for the long haul and I have the mind set that I am going to be here until July so there is no use longing for things that I can't have. It also helps that I feel purposeful and am doing something that I love. The sights, the smells, and the sounds of the game are absolutely wonderful to be experiencing again. There are just certain things that I just love about this game. The smell of the locker room, the sound of pads cracking against each other, the sight of a perfectly executed play. It doesn't get much better than that.

On top of that, I feel very invested in this teams successes and failures. Both Joe and Jim have given me a lot of rope and allowed me to coach and teach and I am extremely grateful for that. Jim has been very liberal in allowing me to coach the offense and the passing game especially. He said from the beginning that the two of us would work as a team and that input and ideas needs to flow freely between us. So far that has worked well for us and I imagine it will continue to do so.

That is all I have for now. I will report back sometime next week with how the game went. If you want to follow the team more closely, you can go to the team website www.blue-devils.at. Or if you want to read the web page in English and not German, google Hohenems Blue Devils and hit the translate button. It isn't a great translation, but it is better than nothing.

Hope all is well back home. Take care

--Josh