Los Tigres contra Los Bufalos

This past Sunday I went to San Marcos to play a game of flag football with my good friends and teammates from the Ave Maria Knights. I had previously met with a couple of the guys and we had talked about playing sometime soon. So, we finally got a chance to play. I was really impressed with their organization, because I had told them to find the guys to play and I would just show up. They found 14 players! However, only 7 of them had I played with at Ave Maria. We had a blast but I still had to teach them a few more rules of the game of football. We would have been much better as a team in the past had we played more flag football and simply learned the game better. Eventually I had to give each team a name because they understood Tigres (Tigers) or Bufalos (Buffaloes) better than offense or defense. I was QB for both teams and they got confused a lot about what side of the ball they were supposed to be on.

This was the first touchdown of the game. Iran, the guy with his hand up, probably knew the game better then anyone else.

We tried a reverse, but it actually didn't work out too well. Too bad Greg wasn't here to show them how to run the Banshee to perfection. This guy is Edwin. He helped organize the players for the game.

Kickoff. It wasn't hard to find a good kicker. This kind of practice would have been good in the past, because in the games I played with the Knights the kickoffs, punts and returns were all very confusing to the team.

Everyone is laughing and having fun.

They were all pretty good at pulling flags. This was a kickoff return.

This was a confusing play. The guys called the play in the huddle, and I thought it was going to be a double reverse. But it ending being something else. Notice how I am trying to hand to the ball off to the guy in the black shirt.
Later on we tried a "Hook & Ladder" or "Hitch & Pitch" but that didn't work out very well either.

This is a good action shot. I'm glad Stef was there to snap all these pictures. The guy in the pink cap is a fast runner but not the best receiver. I tried working with him a lot in the past. His name in Bobby and they guy chasing him is Ludwing. I played with them both at Ave Maria.

My good friend Cesar (with the cell phone on his hip) was there watching us play. His oldest son (leaning against the was to his right) played with us too. In the photo I am telling Cesar that he should play with us because of his big guns.



These guys are a huge reason I love Nicaragua.


Photos from 7/10/2011

Surf's Up!

Last week I got my first opportunity to be a Nicaraguan tour guide, kind-of. My Jacksonville friend and old roommate, Davis Miller, and his cousin, Michael, came to visit Stef and me, and we had the responsibility to show them around the country. They mainly came to surf, which was fine with me. So we picked them up at the airport, rented a SUV, and took off on our week-long vacation. That's right, we rented a vehicle and I got to drive for the first time on the crazy streets of Managua. We stood at the rental company's desk contemplating what type of insurance we needed. The smart and obvious choice would have been full coverage, but the cheap side of me won the others over to save money with only liability. Luckily we got out of Managua alive, but it got a little hairy when Davis wanted to buy some $5 Ray Bans from a guy at a big intersection and the guy had to run through the intersection to finish the sale because Davis was bargaining so long. Thus began an entire week of laughs. 

We spent the first night in El Crucero, and the guys got to visit with the kids in the orphanage. Davis and Michael had their hands full as the children immediately climbed all over them as soon as they walked in the door. 

The next morning we woke up early and drove toward the beaches making sure to stop and see a few sights on the way. We saw the lagoon at Catarina and the beautiful city of Granada. Davis was driving in Granada and drove us right through the main market. Needless to say it was very slow going and we couldn't get out of the traffic. Once we got out, we visited the cathedral and the main square. 

After Granada we were in a hurry to get to the beach so we hit 100 a few times on the Pan American Highway. Luckily that's kilometers per hour (kph). I won't mention who originally thought it was mph. In San Juan del Sur we settled in to our fancy hotel right on the beach for a whopping $6 a night, rented some surfboards for $10 a day, and hit the Pacific Ocean. We spend the next 5 days surfing as much as we could. Luckily we had a 4x4 because a few of the beaches were pretty remote. Sometimes the mud splashed over the hood. By the end of the trip our vehicle was a different color and at night we couldn't tell if the headlights were on or not.

On one occasion Davis had a slight malfunction with his board. It was probably the biggest wave day we had yet, and Davis ended up coming back in with two boards! A wave had landed perfected on his board as he ditched it to snap it in half.



After just the first day of surfing I was tired, which means after 5 days I was dead. But it was totally worth it and we had a blast with lots of laughs the entire time.

On the way back to El Crucero, we stopped at the volcano Masaya. It is still active and spewing sulfer constantly. At one point Davis, Michael and I must have gotten a bad whiff of the smoke because we couldn't stop coughing. We had to walk away. It's funny though, the parking lot at the crater makes you park facing out just in case of an eruption!

A Knight Reunion

A little over a week ago I got to visit some of my Nicaraguan football teammates in San Marcos. It was great to see them again and catch up in each other’s lives. I had previously told them that I was in Nicaragua so we had been planning a reunion since I arrived. At the time only two guys were free to meet, but I am planning another trip over there this Sunday to organize a flag football game. I hope we can spread the word, and that it doesn't rain in order to have a good turn-out. This is the first time I've brought my cleats to Nicaragua and I'd like to put them to good use. 

Stef got the opportunity to visit with them and see the Ave Maria campus as well. Enrollment during the summer semester is very low so the campus seemed like a ghost town. I also met with the Mr. Heier, the Dean of Students, and discussed the potential "sports" position at Ave Maria, but I got the impression that things aren't looking too good. It seems that the little economic issues in the States reach the little third world countries too. I'm sure I'll contact the university again before I leave. 

We'll be back in Florida in a week. Hasta pronto.