Super Bowl Sunday; Countdown to takeoff (-6 days)

It's Super Bowl Sunday; America's biggest created holiday since Thanksgiving. The sands of the football viewing year slide all too quickly through the hourglass that was the 2010 season. REAL teams are playing this year. They represent the old-school game. Cold weather. Running game. Outside football in the elements in which it was meant to be played. Hard hitting. Great defense.

In years gone by, I would have to wait till the absolute dead of the Southwest Oklahoma summer to get to witness the game of football.

Not this year.

In five days, Lord willing, I will board a plane that will take me from OKC, through Chicago and Madrid, to Vienna, Austria. I will fly for indeterminate hours (crammed into a small seat, I'm sure), and exist in the control of an airport/airline/security checkpoint/bag of peanuts world. At the end of this transcontinental rainbow, the "pot of gold" is that I get to walk out on a practice field and experience a football season only weeks (instead of months) after the last one. This is a feeling that can be rivaled by few experiences.

To explain how I look at coaching, this is my story to help the reader understand. Years ago, I was driving my son, Johnathan (about 10 or 11 years old at the time), to an Altus summer football camp. As we approached the stadium, I randomly asked him what he might want to be when he grew up. His prompt answer was "to be a coach. I retorted in mock surprise that wouldn't he want to do something that made more money? His immediate answer: "But when I was coaching, I would feel rich."

So that's it. No amount of money can purchase the feelings that come with this crazy life. I will try to put the range of emotions and feelings into words at a later date. For now, just suffice it to say that I get to feel rich sooner 50% sooner than usual.

The Kornmesser Rangers (formerly the LA Titans) are an American Football Club vying to play our way into the highest division of the Austrian Football League. Some of the best American football is played in Austria. Since the 1980s, the game of American football has been spreading to the "futbol" crazy continent of Europe. NFL Europe had a great effect on the popularity of the game and it is gaining SLOWLY on it's distant ancestor. The fact that our practice facility is on artificial turf is exciting, the fact that it is lined for soccer is current reality.

The players are Europeans (mostly citizens of the country in which the league is located). They play for the love of the game.

Only.

No pay.

They buy their own equipment. They hold jobs and are students. They serve in the Army. No signing bonuses. No re-negotiating multi-anything contracts. Practices are in the evening, after work and school. The club is part of the community and has sponsors (Kornmesser fine jewlery). There are dozens of teams and various levels of competition. American (i.e. "imports") can play for pay and expenses. Only a limited number of imports are allowed on the team and less are allowed on the field at one time. In the final analysis. It's football and I'm going there to coach it as well as I can. Because it's important to my players. And because the players are important to the family that is a team. And isn't that what life is about? Doing your part for the family and depending on your family to do theirs. When things are going good. When things become problematic. Team=family.

The team has been first class in ALL our dealings. A small salary (in Euros), lodging, car, gas, furnishings, bills, insurance, phone, flights for my wife Susan and I, and best of all, a life experience in a picturesque land with an amazing people and culture. Sure, there's the whole foreign language barrier (German vs Southwest Oklahoman-American), but at least the team practices are in "English". I fully intend to learn as much German as I can (really, ya'll). I also plan to try to deal with the metric system that the US resisted and ignored so vehemently.

Saturday, I shopped for things to take with me. It's pretty much warm-up suits and warm coaching stuff (practices get to -5 degrees centigrade). I hope I don't need suits, sport coats, non-coaching shoes, button up shirts, dress pants, etc. I don't ski but I bought some hiking boots. Friday, I load up my suitcase and leave my home for past 32 years.

Without my wife of 31 years.

The upcoming month of our separation will be the longer by 3 weeks that we have EVER been apart. She will come visit on Spring Break and live when school is out. We will return after the season after the season (in mid-July) Along with everything else about this experience, it is going to be a challenge.

I will be writing about my trip and my first impressions of my new team when possible. If you are still reading by now, you may want to check back on the latest. Thanks for your time.

lh