Monday, August 23, 2010

Tekniska Skolan American Football Camp


SWEDISH FACT-OF-THE-DAY:
Christer Fuglesang was the first Swede to enter space.

Thanks to the persistence of Johan Hammarqvist, you can now follow this link to the NorreSkåne article that came out last Saturday on my stay in Skåne:

Today Ryan and I had our final run at introducing American football to a group of school children. We were asked to meet with two groups of 25 students each for approximately 90 minutes per group.

We showed them how to put on pads and then ran them through some basic agility, blocking, tackling, pass receiving and kicking drills.

Eva Tegård
Teacher at Tekniska Skolan

Eva informed us that at one time she had been Lucas Grip's teacher. . . how did she survive that school year???

This was all happening because Eva contacted Jonas Grip about our introducing the great American game to students in a school specializing in International Studies.

Of course, we looked at it as a great recruiting tool for the Hurricane's new Junior program since all of these students were 16 or 17 years old.

Team Picture of our first group

Hanna Lundström

She took to tackling like a Swede takes to lingonberry jam.

Hanna was a definite star in our first session.

Team Picture of our second group

After the two groups were finished, Ryan and I strolled to the nearby Heritage Park Café to discuss the players we had just worked out.

Suddenly, fika appeared like manna from heaven.

Imagine that!

We agreed that there were about eight good athletes that showed great promise and temperment for our game.

Now we need to get them back to a Junior practice.

It was then back to Icelandia to tend to my ailing wife, a touch of a stomach virus I believe. I also used our time together to gather one entire suitcase full of clothes and shoes that I ran over to the local Salvation Army Thrift Shop drop-off point at our ICA supermarket parking lot.

Laurie getting rid of clothes and shoes, she must really be sick.
TACK SÅ MYCKET DINNER

In the evening, we invited some special people to join us for dinner at the Infinity Restaurang & Pizzeria in Hässleholm.

Although we have met so many wonderful people in the last six months in Skane, these people had gone way beyond what was necessary by inviting us into their homes several times to share their dinner table and their families. They all made us feel so welcome and at home.

Big Linus Nilsson and Jonas Grip

The Meat and Potatoes Twins
Frank Hilgers and Shawn Cordeiro

The Godfather had some
very nice things to say

I will always remember our drive to Göteborg to pick up all those boxes of football equipment.

The people of Table 1

Johan, Mariana, Christian, Elin, Uffe, Ulrica, Rasmus, Jonas, Linus, Helena and Mats

The people of Table 2

Johan, Thérése, Frank, Shawn, Katarina, Ryan, Laurie, Lucas and Sarah

Christian Boesgaard
International Man of Mystery

Uffe and Elin

Their "Taco Fridays" were the things of legend!

Johan Persson flashing
Tyringe gang signs at Ryan

Everybody seemed to have a good time

The food was excellent, but the friendships and fond memories were even better.

Tuesday will be a big packing day for us as we prepare to depart Hässleholm on Wednesday, Laurie for the flight home to Camarillo and me for the south of France and the start of my Camino on Friday.

TACK SA MYCKET my friends!!!

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