Team Name: Allgau Comets 5-1
Lance's Web Site Check it out! He has alot of Videos
http://lanceburns.wordpress.com/
Ok I know I’ve been slacking here and this is way over due but I figured I’d get back on the posts. I’ll do a brief post going over the past few weeks. After getting back from the US I had a game that Saturday which went very well for us! We won 49-0 and played well, so that was nice to get back to a game and get the W with the guys. So now we are 4-1 and have 3 games left and the goal is to win out to be in first place at the end of this whole thing.
Sean (Shayna’s Dad) made a trip out and did a little traveling with Shayna that week and then made it to the game in Regensburg, and I put his pictures up that came out great on the site for everyone to see. After the game I went with them to Salzburg Austria and took a bike tour about The Sounds of Music. The movie was filmed there so we got to take a tour around the area and see what they used for the movie and where it was shot, as well as see the beautiful city. So that was a lot of fun and really cool to see and I was glad Sean got to make it out and see the area and Kempten before he headed back.
The day Sean headed back to the states Shayna and I got on a plane that night and headed to Rome. We set up a couple tours during our 3 full days we had in Rome which were awesome and we got to see pretty much everything we had thought of and learned a lot about the historical city. There is just so much history there that dates back over 2,000 years ago and it’s amazing to think about. I mean I don’t remember to too much from my history classes back in middle school and high school but some of the stuff was coming to life for sure, which was real cool. Our first day we took the Angles and Demons tour that brings you to the places the book talks about and the big scenes happen. So it was awesome to get that point of view which is a little more contradictory to the Vatican and the Church. (Yes it is not all true but comes mostly from true and then it gets made into a book haha) But some places didn’t like us being there for sure, one Priest kicked us out after 15 minutes and another Church had the statue from the book covered. But we got to see some real cool things, so that was good.
We got to spend the night at the Trevi Fountain, got a couple crapes and a bottle of wine and just hung out checking out the fountain. There were a lot of people there and the atmosphere was real cool, but it was a beautiful structure and then it was all light up so it was even cooler. The next day we just walked around checking things out on our own and then had lunch at this amazing restaurant. It was truly a traditional Italian place and the food was great, we had a few funny stories from there but it would be too long to type so we can talk about those when I get home. To say the least we had a great experience there and again the food was unreal! That night we headed down the Vatican and hung out. No we didn’t bring wine down there we didn’t think that would be a good idea. But it was a nice place to relax and check out the sites of the Vatican.
Our last full day was our big tour, 8 hours and it was pretty much the tour of Rome. Some of the sites we already saw but now we got to get the history lesson on them which we wanted so that worked out well. It started out with what I knew was going to be my favorite part; the tour of Ancient Rome. Talk about a breathtaking place, just looking at what this place was and meant to the world was unreal. I was surprised to see how intact a lot of things were, I mean yeah there were things you couldn’t tell what it belonged to but there were some things that were definitely identifiable and to think 2,000 years and many wars that’s amazing. Then we got to the Coliseum which in its own right is unreal, and considered one of the Wonders of the World. But I could go on and on about the tour and what we saw so I have pictures up that you can look at, but I will say it’s an amazing place and definitely a place to visit if possible.
Our trip was a blast and I was glad we got to get to Rome, It was probably the only place I really wanted to go before I came out to Germany, I knew I would travel but this was one place I had to make sure I got to see and I’m glad I did. Now it’s time to get ready for these last few games and a small surprise trip for Shayna but SHHHH she doesn’t know yet. Hope all is well and I also hope you made it through this long post! Talk to you soon.
I made it back to Kempten and we have our entire luggage! Seeing everyone at the wedding was awesome and we had a blast. But now it’s back to reality… haha well my kind of reality which is pretty much easy. Trying to catch up on some sleep and get my body back into it, we have practice today and getting ready for our game Saturday. Again great to see everyone, and I’ll talk with you guys soon, I just wanted to let you know we got in safe after about 18hours of travel with the layovers and delays : /.. But we made it none the less.
Paris was a Blast, lots to see amazing food and a great city. We had a great time and got to meets some really cool people as well, one of Brian’s friends moved to Paris 6 months ago and he took us around for the 3 full days we were there. I put up the pictures so if you get sick of looking at the Eiffel Tower then I’m sorry, I have even more pictures of it I didn’t put up haha but it was beautiful and impressive so I just couldn’t help myself. Crepes and chocolate croissants are one of a kind over there and you all know me and sweets so I was loving it!! We got to see all the main attractions as well as some local French stuff that made the trip, I had the best chocolate I’ve ever had in my life and some great wine and food. I’m not a huge red wine drinker but Paris began to change me.
But I’m making my way home Thursday so I don’t want to spend too much time typing about it so I can talk to you all when I get back for the wedding. I will see you all soon and check out the pictures!!
Well I guess I have to write a post when we lose too, not really exactly what I wanted to do haha but I will. We were in a battle for sure tough game but we didn’t play our best game at all and still had a chance to win. The final score was 21-16 and we had the ball with 5 seconds to go at the 5 yard line, but I guess it just wasn’t our day, we had a great play call and an open WR but he stepped out of bounds right before he caught the ball, which I know from experience as a WR can happen very easily especially when you’re down that close to the end zone. You can get lost with your space easily when you’re looking back at the QB. We were down 2 scores with about 3:40 to play and went down and scored they got the onsides kick; the defense held them and we got the ball back with 1:33 left. We went down and made some plays and had a chance to win with 5 seconds to play. But the game shouldn’t of came down to that, we didn’t execute very well in the first half, had some chances and then a bad play here or there stopped us in our tracks. We also had a TD called back at the start of the 4th quarter that would have put us up at the time on a tough call by the officials but that’s why you can’t let the officials dictate the game, which was our own fault. They were a solid team for sure but I do think we are a better team and we’ll have a chance to show that when we play again the last game of the year, and If everything plays our and we both win out will be for the league championship. It’s always tough to play on the road in this league and keep everyone focused after a long bus ride and being in a different place then we’re used to so that’s something we still have to work on for our next away games, but now we know we can be beat and have to come to practice and play every game now.
Next stop is Paris for 4 days and then taking a trip back to the States for Jason and Jenn’s Wedding the following week, can’t wait to see you all soon!
The next day after Dachau me Shayna, Lance, and Brian all packed in one of our teammate’s car and took a trip up to Berlin. After fitting all 5 of us in a car not so big for the 7.5 hour trip was nice to finally get out and walk around a bit. Berlin was interesting for sure; it’s a huge city with about 4 million people. It’s not the cleanest place like most of the cities I’ve visited so far but definitely a unique one. There is graffiti EVERYWHERE and we were told that graffiti was actually started in Berlin. There is a big hippy population that dates all the way back to the split between East and West Berlin.
It was real cool to see original pieces of the Wall that is still standing, and there is a large portion of the wall still up that is called the East Side Gallery which is the wall that is painted by artist. It’s what I have a lot of pictures of. The murals are all things that have to do with the split or what East Berlin was like before the wall came down in 1989.
There is a lot of history in Berlin obviously like most places here in Europe but the cool thing is most of the stuff is newer because it was all destroyed in the War. We also got to see some cool memorials and I took pictures of almost everything. Having Goga our teammate take us around was a huge help because of the subways and all that stuff to get from place to place, would have been very hard.
What I will say I witnessed in Berlin I will probably never witness in my life again. It was the biggest Karaoke event ever! No word of a lie I want to say there were over 3,000 people at the place, and anyone can walk up and sing, you just have to sign up. There were some good performances and boy there were some terrible ones haha but all the people there no one would boo and yell or anything. People would just clap or sing along but it was a cool thing to watch, I put up a few videos and a whole bunch of pictures so check them out, but Berlin was awesome and a lot of fun for sure. Talk to you all soon.
Alright So I know I’ve been slacking here but I’ve been busy and also just lazy haha. So last week Shayna and I went to Dachau which is the site of the very first concentration camp in 1933 and was the trial place and training place for all camps to follow. There was an S.S. training facility attached to the camp that was originally set up to imprison any political persons who would pose a threat to Hitler, and all S.S. personnel were trained to run the other concentration camps. I put up all the pictures I had from the trip and boy was is a powerful trip, there was a lot to learn for sure and just to be in a place with that much history was unreal. As you get ready to enter the gate you feel a bit of a weight come over you as you remember and think about all that was done here. Our Tour guide was awesome and extremely informative, and did a great job keeping us involved and not getting to down with the heaviness of the situation.
Although Dachau was the original and first concentration camp they say it was not used in the Nazi’s “final solution” to exterminate all the Jews in these camps. That was done in the camps that were off German soil, this was to keep the German people in the dark to what was really going on.
The part that struck me the most was the after 1945 information after the war was over and with some of the memorials they built. One story in particular is the monument with all the symbols and colors to pay tribute to all that were incarcerated in the camp. The committee that came together to construct these monuments were all survivors of the camp, and in 1965 when the monument was built 20 years after the fact the committee left off 3 colors who would represent 3 types of people who were in the camp with them. Apparently they felt they we not worthy enough to be recognized for their time spent in this horrible camp. But to think after all this time there is still a split amongst the people who were held in the camp.
There are obviously harder things to see, and still after being there I don’t understand and really comprehend how much damage was done, the estimated number is about 35,000 people were killed in Dachau and that doesn’t include the people that in the eyes of the S.S. weren’t counted because they didn’t believe they were worth the tally. When walking down the crematorium and the gas chamber were things you will not forget and the feeling that comes across you is one of a kind. To look at the original ovens that was run 24-7 and see what it looked like, then to walk into an original and once working gas chamber, and to think what was done in that very area is crazy. I will for sure recommend checking out the pictures and as always they don’t really do the place justice and the feeling you get walking around in such a horrific place, but it is still worth seeing some of the things.
Well 3 games down and we have 3 wins so we’re doing something right! We played the Starnberg Argonauts and we won 42-3, the defense has been playing lights out only letting up 9 points in 3 games and the offense has been doing alright too scoring 103 points in 3 games which leads the league by a lot. It was a close game for a bit only 14-3 at the half, it started raining in the 2nd quarter and then lightning so when we went into half we had a bit of a delay. I was shocked first off when at half time it started hailing, and second of all 900-1,000 people were still in the stands waiting for us to start playing again. Our stadium has a roof over the seats which helps, but still to not have anyone leave during the rain delay was awesome to see.
It took us a bit to settle in at the start but once we let the game come to us things started to roll. I stated the game off with an interception on the first drive which obviously wasn’t good, the pass was a little high and went off our WR hands and was tipped while the defense guy dove and made the catch. Not the way we wanted to start but hey things can’t go great all the time. Like I said we settled in and then scored 42 un-answered points, I threw 3 TD passes and ran in another one so I hope I made up for it. This was the first game we got a chance to really attack down the field so it was nice to get to let the ball go on a few deep balls.
So all in all a good game and now we get a chance to relax before our next game which is the biggest one yet against a team that’s been talking a lot of trash since before the season started. So this should be a fun game and time to see what we’re made of going to play on the road again which is never easy. But we have some time to hang out before that and we are taking a trip to Berlin at the end of this week and then Paris middle of June and Rome the beginning of July so should be a fun time coming up for sure. Hope all is well at home.. Let’s go Comets and it was a great win!!
Shayna made it to Germany! After a long day at the airport with flight cancelations and changes she finally got on a direct flight that brought her here 2 hours early! So it all worked out very well and made for an easy trip ounce she got in the air. We’ll be showing her ropes and the town for the next couple days so she can get a feel for what this area is all about. Hopefully we can set up a few trips and a couple big trips as well on my days off. We’re getting ready for our next game and then we have 2 weeks with no game so a win is something we need to have or these 2 weeks won’t be fun! But I wanted to let you know Shayna made it and everything is going great here!
Well a win is a win where I come from, we pulled out a tough W 12-6. We scored on our opening drive but the snap on the extra point wasn’t good so we didn’t get the kick off. As an offense we dominated the middle of the field but had to kick 2 field goals in the red zone. The team we played was a physical team and we matched them for sure. They are a big run heavy team and the D stepped up big for us in our lack of scoring TD’s. They scored there only TD with under 2 min to play in the game so they played great. I ran the ball pretty well probably had around 125yard rushing and our TD. I threw the ball alright although I did throw my first pick but everything else was pretty good. Still trying to settle into the whole being a QB thing ha ha but I’m having fun doing it. The big thing for us was going to one of the better teams in our league and getting a win on the road. Playing away was tough for our team last year we went 2-6 for our away games and those were all of our loses so that was a plus to come away with the win.
So Scott is taking off tomorrow and ending his trip : /, he had a lot of fun and got to see some cool stuff so I think he was happy with the time here. Shayna is coming in on Wednesday so that will be awesome; it will be finally good to see her. All is well over here another win so we’ll take it. Hope everyone is doing well and I will talk to you soon
Soo Today was a pretty sweet day for sure. Dr. Huber who is our team Doctor and a great guy took me and Scott out on a little trip around the area so Scott could see what Allgau is all about. We went down around Kempten and on the autobahn in his Porsche (going about 150mph) I guess it’s like no big deal over here but it was pretty fast… and don’t worry he was being cautions because we were in the car. But we went on about a 5 and a half hour trip around Austria and into Switzerland Alps, then back into Germany, we loaded a ferry and crossed the Constance river, into another part of Germany and then to probably one of the most amazing places I’ve ever seen. But before we get there we saw a Stork up in a nest (which I’m told is extremely rare) but I guess it was our lucky day and we also saw this bird that was explained to us as the equal of our Bald Eagle so that was pretty cool and rare as well, not to mention the views we had of all three countries with the mountains and valleys, all pretty amazing stuff.
The best part was the end of our trip when he took us too his friends hotel on the top or a mountain (which the friend owns) don’t ask how it just is haha but the place was unreal! The views were incredible and the food was delicious, and the drive up was something else. Talk about small windy roads but it was a cool drive up. I took pictures and a video but let me tell you it doesn’t even come close to doing the place justice. We were up top of the mountain and got to look back to where Kempten was as well as into Austria from the other side, just amazing. It was real cool to drive around and see what the area has to offer and I can definitely see why this is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Southern Germany and Bavaria in general is truly a picturesque place. Being so close to the mountains were I’m staying really makes for some amazing views there are so many hills and rolling landscape it just make everything look crazy. All in all it was a great little trip and Doc was so awesome to bring us around and show us everything, Scott said he had a great time and said it might be the best days of his life so weather that’s true or not I’ll say it was a win for him lol. Hope you enjoy the pictures and I wish you all could see if for yourself it was truly something amazing.
Game one in the books!! 49-0 I said 55 after the game because before we took a knee we had a run play that went for a TD but they called him out at the 2 and they put it up on the score board by mistake, but either way solid victory. The guys all played hard and obviously pretty well, we definitely had some first game jitters (or at least I know I did). We had 2 turnovers in the first quarter and I had a fumble: / but then we settled down and started making some plays. The defense played great with the shutout and forced 4 turnovers, not too bad. I had 2 TD passes and a few good runs and one long catch down to the 1 yard line. It was definitely a bit weird played QB but a lot of fun, and something I’ll be getting used to and getting better each game. We had over 1,000 people at the game which was awesome, for American Football in Europe that’s awesome. The Soccer team that is around the area and had a good team gets around 400-500 people on average to their games so for us to get over 1,000 playing American Football is huge. Scott was there and took some pictures on my camera and videos on Lances so I put up the entrance of us coming out which was awesome! They had to shut off the flame on the right because of the wind and let me tell you running out of it, it was bringing some heat with just one. Well we finally started the season and now its game week again and this team should be a good test to see where we are at, they are one of the better teams in the league so we will see! I’ll get the pictures up soon and I hope everyone had a great mothers day!
Game week is almost over we have one practice left then game day on Sunday! Scott made it and is safe and sound here in Germany. Glad to have him here and looking forward to show him around and get a feel of Kempten and Germany. We have a lot of hype around this game and everyone is looking forward to it, hopefully we don’t get to excited and keep our emotions in check as we get ready and then play the game. Should be fun to finally get the pads back on for real and play a game, the team is looking good and focused so I’m excited to see what we can do. This one is going to be short and sweet and I’ll let you know how the game goes, hopefully I’ll have some pictures to put up from the game for you all to see and maybe we can somehow get the game up on a website for you to see. Wish me luck, I can’t wait to play!!
So to say the least we had an interesting weekend but a good one. Saturday I went back up to Nuremburg to watch them play another team in our league which was good to see, and get a feel for what we have coming up this Sunday!! Can’t wait to get the first one under my belt, it’s been a little while but its still football so I’ll be ready… Then we got back from the game and went right to our Rookie initiation. I can’t tell you everything that happened but it was fun for the most part, and yes us 3 Americans had to be initiated too. I put up the video of our last prank I guess you can call it, it’s a video of Brian but me and Lance went through it too and to say the least we got out with an easy one.
Sunday was cool, me, coach, and Lance went to Innsbruck Austria for a AFL1 game with the 2 top teams in Austria the Swarco Raiders and the Danube Dragons. The ride to Innsbruck was awesome, it took us right through the Alps so that was cool and then the stadium is big and right next to the mountains so it was a beautiful place. I’ll put up one of the videos of the game so you can check it out. The Raiders are owned by the Lady who in the president or founder not sure for Swarco Traffic Management Company that also owns Swarovski Crystal. So the team has a lot of money and some great facilities. But it was cool to get down there and see some of the best football in Europe.
Thursday night we got invited to one of the Clubs in Kempten to see the Ying Yang Twins and for you who know who they are yes they are still alive and yes we asked that same question when we got the invite haha but it was actually pretty good, much better than I thought it would be. I posted up a few pictures from that to check out.
Game week this week so can’t wait, Scotts coming in this week, so everything is coming together and should be a good time. I’ll keep you guys posted and hopefully we’ll get to post the games on a site and if we can I’ll give you guys like link to check out the games. Talk to you soon.
Hey everyone I hope you all had a great holiday, we we’re taken care of over here so don’t worry about that! Saturday we went to one of the Presidents Anja’s house and had a barbeque or should I say in German “Grillen” well I don’t know how to spell it but that’s how you say it haha. The food was great, a lot of different sausages, wrapped in bacon with cheese filling I don’t know amazing stuff and very good, steak, chicken, turkey the works so that was great. Sunday we went to Coach Klughs house and had another barbeque hung out there and got to relax for the day. His wife is from Serbia and when she came back from her visit home, she brought some homemade brandy, Very interesting stuff but it was a fun afternoon/night to say the least. And for you who were at the Leonard’s for Easter I got to chime in on Skype and see everyone although the connection wasn’t great this time, it was awesome to be there with all of you. Then we had another day off on Monday because apparently in Europe any time you have a holiday on a Sunday you get Monday off go figure huh, anything to get out of a work day I guess.
Then today was my birthday and again was a good time. Mom this one’s for you; we went out to dinner to a restaurant that one of the players parents own and is a great place here in Kempten, and wait for it wait for it….. It is a Mexican restaurant! The food was awesome. Then we toped it off with a few tequila shots (had too) and they did something that I want to recommend to my lovely mother back home and anyone else to likes tequila. It was a darker tequila but I would think you can do it with any of them, they served the shot with an orange slice instead of a lime and on the orange slice was a sprinkle of cinnamon, and when I tell you it was brilliant I’m not lying, it works real well, so that is my recommendation for the night.
After dinner we went over to the pool hall and got to hang out there and shoot some pool which was perfect for me, the 4 of us Americans and then some guys on the team came by so it was a good time. Maybe it was because it was my birthday (I think not) but my team won and I finished off the two series winning shots to end the night. Hope all is well and I will talk to you all soon!
Today Lance, Case, Brian and I went to Neuschwanstein, the castle of Konig (King) Ludwig II of Bavaria. For everyone back home it’s pretty much the castle Sleeping Beauty was made after, or at least that’s what the legend is. They wouldn’t let us take pictures inside the Castle which sucked but I have a whole bunch from the outside and views from the castle, which are unreal! The Castle is located in the middle of the mountains so the views are crazy and the pictures really don’t do it justice and how impressive this place is. There was a smaller castle that was being built for the king’s son nearby which I have pictures of the outside, but we didn’t choose to take a tour of that one.
This particular castle started being built in 1869 and was in construction until 1886 when the King was found dead in a river (sad story I know) He had 3 other castles being constructed at the same time but all were stopped when he was found dead. This particular one only had 16 rooms finished in 17 years! And when you go inside you understand why the detail and wood work is incredible, they had 14 sculptors just working on the kings room along. Not to mention all the art work done on the ceiling and walls.
They had a bridge we got to walk on and get some amazing pictures as well, but I really can’t stress how impressive this whole place is, and what really gets me and well all of us is how the heck did they build this thing in the middle of the mountain??!! Beats me but either way it was fun going over and see it, I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Everything is going great on my end, hanging around playing some ball and seeing the sites can’t really beat that! Hope all is well back home, I know I haven’t posted in a week or so but things are slowing down and so I don’t have too much to write about haha, once the season comes I feel I’ll be able to post pretty often. Keep me updated with things back home!
We went to Nuremburg this weekend which was a cool place for sure. As most of you know I’m not the biggest and smartest history buff (well let’s just say school things in general haha)but to go and see a few things in Nuremburg; all the history that is there was awesome. For starters the game we went to is played right in the middle of this big I guess you can call it stadium that Hitler used for his big rallies. As I was told Nuremburg obviously has the trails but it was Hitler’s political home. So we were right in his rally grounds which was crazy to say the least, in the pictures you see the steps where he had his platform and I guess all those stairs on the sides which were a lot, were for all his generals and political heads stood during the rally’s that they brought out all there missiles or stuff like that to put on display for his people to see. We were told about 15 years ago they blew up all the statues and symbols that they had on the corners like the big falcons.
Then we went into the city and got to walk around there checked out a couple churches and see the old city. The city was real cool, we had some fun checking everything out, and there were a lot of people down town walking around so it made for a fun environment. The Churches were amazing again, very different than the one in Kempten (which I found out is 360 years old), but impressive to say the least. All made of stone and the size is incredible so big and tall inside. I’m not sure when the ones in Nuremburg were built but I will say they aren’t new! Then we had to get the world famous Nuremburg Bratwurst which were delicious! After talking with Coach Klugh who was a history teacher back in the states, all he talks about is how much stuff is within a few hour drive from us and the history that is there. So I hope we get to take a few more day trips before the season gets going and I’ll keep you posted, Nuremburg was a lot of fun and I’m real happy I got a see such a historical place.
Today we had our team pictures and then the 5 of us went to Joe the president’s house for a barbeque which was a lot of fun. It is awesome how much they care, I can’t tell you guys enough how much they want to take care of us and help us out. What they put in to the team and us really makes us feel welcome and give us that home feel. They tell us how excited they are having us and that they like the feeling they have with all of us, so they are ready for the season too. Let’s get these games started already!!
Just saying a quick hello, things have been going well around here just another week of practice and all that fun stuff. We are going to Nuremberg on Saturday to watch a game of a team were playing early in the season. So the plan is to get up there early to walk around and be a tourist haha for a while before the game, then we have our team pictures on Sunday for the game day program. Everything will be pretty low key until we get the season underway but I’ll try to keep putting up pictures (hope you've been seeing the ones i've added to Kempten and Football) and writing some post, hope everything is great back home miss you guys.
Just got back into Kempten after our 3 day camp, yeah I know it’s not camp like back in the states but for us it was a great weekend and we got a lot of great work done. We had 5 practices in 3 days and ended with an inter squad scrimmage. It was real cool to just be able to hang out with all the guys for the weekend and get to know some of the guys I haven’t been able to hang out with yet. We had a “team building” meeting Friday night and Saturday night just having each guy talk about what football means the them and what it means to be a Comet, and it was real interesting to hear what they had to say, granted about half of them spoke in German because they were a bit nervous to use their English, So one of the assistant coaches helped translate for us. For the guys here it truly boils down to the Team and how they like how football is like no other sport and has to have a strong “Unit” instead of one or two players, as well as the relationships that are made on and off the field. To hear these guys say that was awesome for us and you can see it, the team is real close and it’s only going to help us and continue to grow. Ok so enough with the serious talk haha but it was fun, we also walked down about 5 minutes the lake that I had pictures of and took an ice bath after practice jumping into the cold water! But it was cool and worth the few minutes of pain haha. We also played this bowling type game Saturday night, its 9 pins but it was hard! Camp was fun and now we’re getting ready for our first game May 8th, we’re trying to get another scrimmage before then so we’ll see… It was a very successful weekend and a lot of fun not to mention got a see part of another country so that was cool too!
We started camp today with a good practice in Kempten and then hoped on a bus and headed to Austria where we are having the rest of camp and our second practice of the day. The place is great I mean as great as you can with 4 to a room, brings me back to my college days I know they were sooo long ago. The practice fields are real nice and the place we are staying to also clean with great views… We drove past a big lake on the way here about 15 minutes away from our camp site that boarders 3 countries German, Austria and Switzerland. Can somebody say skiing this summer!! And I guess a few guys on the team go to a lake about 10 minutes outside of Kempten so I might have to check out what that’s all about. We also had a small media day on Thursday which was the 3 American players with the coaches and presidents for the newspaper, so we will see how that comes out a few pictures and interview with the president. I’m trying to get some of the pictures from Sandra the First Lady as she took some pictures while we were doing our thing for the newspaper so hopefully that works. Just wanted to throw up a quick update and a few pictures hope all is well back home, talk to you all soon.
We had our scrimmage today, and we definitely did a little better than we thought we would. The team we played was from Ravensberg which was a cool city in itself. I wish I had my camera just for the drive the city was still in the mid-evil times with how the structures were and the look of the buildings. They are a team in the Middle conference in our same division, so we will not see them during the regular season. They were coming out of their team’s camp which we are getting ready to go into so we were thinking they might have the upper hand, and we wanted to see our guys in action before camp so we have tape on everyone. After only 8 practices we came out and played pretty well, we ran the ball extremely well and had a few big plays through the air. The scrimmage was set up like a scrimmage back in the states, more situational, each team gets 10 plays from different starting points on the field and an automatic punt; as well as a red zone period and 2 minute segment. We were definitely the better team there and it showed, so it was a great booster for the team going into the rest of practices and getting ready for the season beginning in May. It was exciting to put the full pads on and get out there and run around again, I haven’t had the nervous feeling in my stomach in a long time so that was cool. For my first small test as QB and showing my teammates we can play and to get ready for a great season! So it was a good day for sure and a lot of good thing we can build on with also showing us what we need to work on. Camp should be fun which starts Friday, and we also get our third American Brian who is arriving on Wednesday.
We just had our first Monday like it will be during the season and it was a long day! We woke up and started grading the film from the scrimmage until about 3 and went down for lunch, then came back to go over and set up practice for the day, then went out to practice at 7 til 9. So my first real taste of coaching but I’ll have to get used to it. Hope all is well!
We just had the first lady’s birthday party (Sandra Joe’s wife) at the Lobby, nice and low key hanging out, had dinner and a few beers. Then Coach Todd decided it was a good idea to head out and find a place we’ve never been too and have a drink… well we found two places that were right next to each other we walked into one and walked right out it was weird lol, hard to explain but the vibe was weird and the place was weird so we went next door and no one was in there so we sat at the bar and had 1 drink. then decided to head out and find another place because that didn’t go as planned. we drove by a place Coach Brian told Coach Todd was terrible so obviously we decided to go in, why not. there were a good amount of people in the place so we made our way to the bar and told the bartender to pick a shot for us to take. (seemed like a good idea at the time) so she came back with some stuff off the shelf and said it was strong and as we said to pour one for herself too she refused (should of known from that) but we continue on and Lance and I take the shot while Coach Todd tried a small sip seeing what is was. No lie for the next 20 minutes my mouth was on fire! Lance got the hick-ups instantly and his eyes were watering. No word of a lie it had to be the worst shot I’ve ever taken, we came to the conclusion it takes like hot peppers and wood mixed into one, now I have no idea why anyone would ever want to drink this with their own idea or ask for this drink but I will say. That might be the last time I let someone else pick my drink in Germany! One of our German Coaches said they were for sure messing with us and he said that had to be the worst stuff around in this area. All in all though it was a fun time I learned a valuable lesson!!
Finally went by and checked out the Church right in the city center, place is beautiful! It’s amazing how much detail is put into these places, and Kempten is one of the oldest cities in Germany so to think how long the church has been there and the work that was put in is real cool. I took some pictures and a video too but neither do it justice, it’s definitely one of those things you have to see in person. And I know for you people who have traveled before or took trips to Italy and saw things over there it might not be that cool, but this was my first time in a place like this, and I must say it was impressive; and something you should come and see in person!! (Just saying)
Lance and I have been walking around for most of the day, getting ourselves lost in Kempten checking everything out, and the city isn’t that big so we can always find our way back but it was pretty cool just to get out and walk with no particular place to go. So now we are hang out at the café shop again and going to head over to the Lobby where our presidents wife Sandra is have a birthday gathering so we’ll be there for a bit and then head back and get ready for the scrimmage tomorrow! Finally get to play a bit so that should be fun.
The past few days haven’t been too eventfully at least not like Munich was… But it had been very relaxing and I’ll take that! We’re just getting ready for our scrimmage coming up Sunday, so that’s been taking up most of our time. Coach Brian’s wife came to visit; she lives in Austria, about a 6 hour train ride so he was happy all week… I just got the official word the other day that Scott booked his ticket to come visit so I’m pumped about that!! He’ll come in the 5th and stay till the 16th, so he’ll be here for my first game, and then Shayna is flying in on the 17th so May is turning out to be a fun month! I’ll have some visitors and football games are starting up. Hopefully they’ll be able to get some good pictures to post up and a few videos. Practice has been good still a bit chilly but nothing to crazy, the weather has been great the past 2 days so we are all hoping it stays!
Today me and Lance grabbed lunch at the Lobby and our president Joe ended up coming by, so he and his wife sat and ate with us which was cool. They are great people and really want us to have everything we need so they were asking all sorts of questions and telling us they will take care of it all. But it’s awesome to see how into everything they are, and how excited they are for the season. Our 3rd American, and camp is right around the corner so those are the next big things going on here … keep me posted with anything I’m missing back home!
Well to say Munich was an interesting night would be putting it lightly but it was a good time, We had alot of fun Friday and Saturday celebrating 3 of our teammates birthdays. We didn’t end up making it to the scrimmage in Italy, with the travel to the city we wouldn’t have made it back in time for the train, so we stayed back. We left for Munich at 7pm and got back home at 9am… Apparently they only have so many trains running at the wee hours of the morning so we caught the 6:50 train back to Kempten. We had Dinner at a cool spot near the city which had about 40 Bars/Clubs all within 2 streets of each other just lined up so that was a sight to see itself.
Lance and I had our first experience in Kempten without Brian our coach and translator so that was a fun time. We went to lunch at the Lobby as usual but Salvo doesn’t speak English, he’s Italian and came to Germany some years back. So we just trusted that the special will be good and ordered that, which was actually delicious, and Salvo made himself a plate and ate with us, which was really cool. He tried hard to speak and learn English with us so we told him to invest in Rosetta stone, but he had to have the waitress come by and translate what he wanted to say because he doesn’t know many words. But to us it was awesome because he really wants to learn English and for him to take his time and sit with us for lunch was an awesome gesture.
This week we’re gearing up for our scrimmage, so it should be a fun week of practice and then we get the chance to get out on the field and run through some of our stuff against a different team. I’m getting excited for the season and then a few people are setting up some trips out to Germany which is awesome to hear!
Sitting the Café again catching up on the emails and posts…. We are supposed to get the internet on Monday so we will have to see about that! But we’ve been making it work so no worries. The Plan for this weekend is to take a trip to Italy and watch a scrimmage of the team we play th second game of the season, so that should be cool. Then we’re heading into Munich for Lances Birthday, a few guys on the team are going to take us in which should be a good time. Practice yesterday went well; it was a bit cold out there but all in all not too bad… As an offense we’re getting better each time out and I’m feeling more and more comfortable out there which is better. We have a scrimmage coming up next Saturday so that should let us know where we are and what we have to work on.
I put up the pictures of our jerseys which are pretty sick if you ask me, I like them a lot. But they are TIGHT!! We took and Video of Lance putting it on with pads and without pads. Once he puts its up on his computer I’m going to steel it so you guys can see it, it’s real funny! We’re getting another player from the US which is going to help the team for sure. He’s a LB type player and he contacted Coach Brian and said he wanted to play for us, and he would come over and play for free. So we obviously said hell yes haha . So he’ll be joining us at the end of the month.
One of the crazy things you don’t think of but as I’m sitting here at the Café and the radios on, they don’t have any edited music, so everything is as if it’s off CD which is different but cool at the same time. The foods been surprisingly good; we went to the market and stocked up. Food shopping is somewhat cheap compared to home. We got a full cart load of stuff and being the first time we went we needed some odds and ends type things and everything came out to 25 Euros each so not too bad. Hope all is well at home.. Fiftty!! (Bavarian slang for saying bye)
Sunday was awesome, I got to just hang out and relax for the day. We went to Coach Klugh’s house to use the internet; we are waiting for the guy to install the wireless at our apartment. We are thinking it should be done Monday next week. The service people take forever to go to the houses. Nothing we can do so i guess we'll have to live with it. But I finally had the opportunity to use Skype and catch up with my Mom and Shayna which was great. After relaxing all day we came back and put a movie on the projector I guess being in a football house has it perks!
Today meaning Monday (not sure when I’ll get to put the post up) we got a workout in and then went to the Bank and handled all that stuff (I know you wanted to know that Mom!) Then I had to give in and get a sub from Subway for a mid day snack before practice. I know I know I’m in Germany and I can have Subway any time, but it was just too convenient. I also made a quick stop into one of the many bakeries in the city, so I took a few pictures to make you all a bit jealous!
We had our first practice with pads and to say it wasn’t a little weird running around with shoulder pads on would be lying but it was a lot of fun. Everything went pretty well, obviously a lot to work for myself getting back into it but definitely a step in the right direction. Hope everything is awesome back home, and Thank you for all the comments! This is what I was hoping for. Once I have internet at the house I’ll be able to stay more involved and leave some responses, at least that’s my plan so we’ll see how it plays out!
That means “what’s up” or “Hello how are you” in slang for people here in Kempten and Bavaria. Last night Lance and I went into town with some of the guys to one of the clubs; it was a good time. But man I’m going to have to get used to how things work here in Germany because no one goes out until 12pm-1am and the clubs don’t close till 5am. To say the least I was home at 2:30 haha. I guess I’ll have to build my tolerance up…Today we had our first real practice and it went well. I had my first experience as a player coach and it was a lot of fun, something I will have to get used to but the WR’s were ready to learn and picked up on a good amount of things I wanted to get accomplished. I can really see the guys being excited to have Lance and I on the team, guys are asking us to come to practice early to go over drills and playbook stuff which is awesome! Everyone is getting ready to have our first scrimmage at the end of the month, should be fun!...After dinner at the Chaplin (where we get our dinner meal taken care of) me, Brian and Lance went to the Lobby (where we get lunch taken care of) to have a few drink and hang out. Salvo the owner came by and sat with us for most of the night which was cool, he says he wants to go to the states but he has to wait until he can speak better English; he can only say a few words but he keeps asking me and Lance how to say things which is funny. Everyone in Germany has been awesome and is very accepting, at the Lobby and the Chaplin you won’t leave without getting something given to you, drinks, shots, food to try, it’s a cool environment for sure.
They got our phone situation taken care of so I have phone now and they put 20 Euros a month on it. I think texting is like 10 or 20cents going out, calls are a bit more expensive per min but I receive calls and text for free!! Just cost for me to call out and text out. I’m not sure the rates for the US to call here but if you want feel free to send a text or call, the number is 0176-59590187. Well at least that’s what is says on the card lol so we will see what happens with whoever tries. If it doesn’t work send me a message and let me know please. I’ve been backed up on e-mails because I haven’t been able to get online beside at Coach Klugh’s house, the internet should be up sometime this week which will help a lot… And will people start leaving me some comments please!! haha that’s why we have this site so I communicate with you and you guys can communicate with me!! Talk to you all soon, Guten Tak!! (good day)
We had our first practice and it went pretty well for day 1 but I will have to get used to practicing at 7 at night! It is definitely different when you hear the coach talk in two different languages during practice, but cool at the same time. Everyone is really interested in learning and bettering themselves as players which is awesome to see from someone in my position. After practice myself and Lance (the other import player) had about 5 guys come up to us and ask when we were going to the gym so they can come along! It was awesome to see for sure… We went out to eat after practice for our President Joe’s birthday at the place where we get dinner provided for use each night, the food was very tasty or should I say “Super” here in Germany. I’m learning a little each day, the guys on the team and our coach Brian has been helping us out. I can’t stress to everyone especially you Mom how much support we’ve received by everyone in the Comets organization. At dinner the president and his wife with some friends are making sure we have everything, making sure everything is ok, that we’re comfortable, and letting us know they are there for us for anything. And they have been impressed with how much German Lance and I have been learning in a short time. The main thing you need to know is “Ligh-tons Vassa” (not the correct spelling) I spelled it the way it’s said because this language is crazy! but that means regular water, because if not and you say vassa which is water you get carbonated water, no good in my book! Everything is going great and I’m having a great time! Hope all is well back home
Made it to Kempten!! The 6 hour Flight wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, although my TV didn’t work!!! No worries though I had a movie on my I Phone Shayna downloaded for me which worked out awesome. The apartment is great (I’ll put pictures or a video up soon) Lance the other American player has played in Italy and Poland and said by far this is the best accommodations he’s seen, which makes me feel good. When we got to the apartment we were greeted by the Team President’s (there are 3 of them) and a few past players came by to join for dinner and drinks. Here in Kempten it is “Carnival” which has been described as Mardi Gras to the States, so to say they were already having a good time before we showed up would be an understatement! But it made for a great night and a lot of laughs… The President is a great guy who is all about a Family atmosphere and taking care of use as players, and make us as comfortable as possible; we felt it from the minute we walked in…. Starting practice on Thursday, excited to play and see what that brings. This is going to be a great place to live for the next 7 months and I’m excited to see what come next!!
I want to say thank you for my amazing and generous family! For everyone who came by today to celebrate a few birthdays and to see me before this trip; it was awesome to see everyone before I take off. I’ll try to keep everyone as informed as I can and don’t wait on me to send out e-mails, feel free to send a few this way as well! You all know me and chances are I’ll forget , I won’t have my awesome mother keeping me updated. I'll let you know when I finally get settled in.Thanks again it truly means a lot, and know it’s time to BALL OUT!!
Little Irish Girl sing Eminem infront of 3,000 people!
Thanking the Fans for there Support