Football Americano (Nica Style)

This past Saturday the Ave Maria Knights had there first football game of the season. We have been practicing on and off for about 3 weeks now. What I mean by "off" is that you never know who's going to show up each day for practice. So, I believe that we have only had about 4-5 solid practices in those 3 weeks. Nevertheless, Saturday arrives and I am really excited yet nervous, because I have no idea what to expect. I don't know anything about our competition or my own team for that matter. About 20 guys show up (some from around San Marcos and a few from the university), we load up into a microbus which doesn't have enough room for us all, and drive 30 minutes to Managua for the game. There are a total of 4 teams in our league, including us, and the first two are playing when we arrive at 1:30 in the afternoon. I am only able to watch a little bit of the game, because I am busy telling everyone what position they will play, going over a few plays, and practicing snaps with my new center. Of course, these are all things that should have been taken care of weeks ago, but we are doing them one hour before our first game. As the first game starts winding down, we begin our warm-ups. We can see our opponents on the other side of the field doing the same with about 40-50 guys, and all in unison as they count every stretch. We, on the other hand, seem more like the three stooges times six, because we can't count in rhythm, much less do jumping jacks together. I couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time. "We are going to get creamed," I thought. But I tried to keep my spirits high.

It came time for the coin toss, so myself and two other smaller guys from my team walked out to midfield. We were met by the 6 largest guys from the other side. We shook hands, won the toss, deferred to the second half, and returned to our sideline. We sent 11 guys on the field to kick-off, but we still didn't know who was going to kick. But since everyone here in Nicaragua plays soccer, it wasn't hard to find someone to do it. Luckily for us, he kicked a line shot. It hit of the shoulder of a guy from the other team, and we recovered the ball. First and ten, Knights!! I was quarterback and I had 25 seconds to explain to my team the play we were going to run, and I had to do it in Spanish. The first few plays were meant to be pass plays, but I was mostly running for my life. The offensive line didn't do the best job of blocking. I finally got a little time to throw and hit my best receiver (which is really just 1 of 2 that I trust to actually catch the ball) on a corner route for about a 30 yard gain. Now we were in the red zone! The next play we gained another 15 yards for "roughing the passer." Yes, that means I got killed. So, we had first and goal from about the 5 yard line. I just wanted us to run the ball and punch it in the end-zone, but running didn't work at all. So, I tried to pass and had no time. So finally on 4th down, I decided to run it myself. On the snap I took off to the right, had some room, there was only one guy to beat at the 2, he was a little smaller so I thought I could just run him over, but he went low and tripped me up. I fell over him around the one. And that was the closest we got the whole game to the end-zone. Actually, we had two other opportunities. One on a reverse where the receiver was wide open downfield but he slipped and missed the ball, and the other on more roughing the passer penalties that took us close to the end-zone. But, with the amount of guys we had and the lack of practice, the guys just weren't able to block late in the game. So, we got beat 21-0.

Another funny note. There was one guy on the team (#9) that for some reason I thought he spoke English. It wasn't until the 3rd quarter that I realized the truth. Normally, I'd explain the play in the huddle in Spanish, but once we got into formation I'd tell some of the other guys what to do in English. This particular time I told the team we were going to run to the right. I was going to hand the ball to #9. However, once we lined up I noticed that the defense had over-loaded the right side. Therefore, I told #9 that we were going to run to the left. I said it about 3 or 4 times and he kept nodding his head in agreement. Well, I snapped the ball and took off to the left and no one came with me. Needless to say, I got drilled again. The morning after the game my body had no desire to get out of bed. I hope that our next game this Sunday turns out a little better. I'm hoping for a better offensive line and more guys to throw the ball to. I am very busy recruiting this week.