X's and O's

Football is a funny game - played with 22 players -- 11 of them on Offense (the O's) and 11 on Defense (the X's).  That's at least how you draw up football plays -- with X's on Defense and O's on Offense.  I don't know when X's and O's got to be a universal term, and why the Offense got to be the circles, but I do know that it has been such a fun challenge putting the Catania Offensive System in place with Davide (our head coach)... in making our O's go where the X's can't stop them!

The reason I bring this up is that I just got off an hour and a half phone call with my new Catania Teammate, Matthew Epperson, and got to share (for the first time) my own football theories of X and O and how our offensive gameplan fits together.  Let me just tell you -- it was awesome!

Which reminds me of a great Mitch Hedberg joke about the letter X:

It's as if X didn't have enough to do so they had to make stuff up.  Hey X, you won't start a lot of words, but you will have a co-starring role in Tic-Tac-Toe.  And you will be equated with Hugs and Kisses.  And you will make writing Christmas easier.  And you will mark the SPOT.  There!  You happy, you freaking X?

Coaching is in my blood.  My grandfather, Frosty Westering, is the 9th Winningest (yes, that's the correct grammar) Coach in the History of College Football.  He coached for 35 years, racking up 305 victories and 4 national championships at Pacific Lutheran University.  His son, Scott, was the offensive coordinator for the final 20 seasons and is now the head coach at PLU.  My other Uncle, Gary Spani, was captain of the Kansas City Chiefs and finished his time in the NFL with 999 career tackles.  And on top of all of that, my dad might be the best 3rd grade basketball coach EVER... leading the Puyallup Skyhawks to multiple championships!  And it seems that no matter how hard I try to ignore this lineage, it always keeps pulling me back in.  I guess that's why it felt so good to talk X's and O's tonight with Matt - who knows where this might lead?  (If you said Italy, you might be correct!)

Offensively, Catania this season will be a spread attack, similar to that run by the University of Hawaii or Texas Tech... spread the field, and throw the ball!  I hear we do have a good running back, though, so we will definitely mix things up too.  A lot will depend on what I see when I get over there, both in what our guys can handle and what defenses throw at us.

KEY LESSON:  It's not always the X's and the O's on paper that determine success, its WHO is the X and WHO is the O.  

(that felt good too -- from now on this blog is gonna be motivational!  Alright!)

The most fun thing in all of this preparation is making it all fit together.  It's one thing to say, "I like this play" or "I think this might work" -- it's another to put a package together that is CONSISTANT and EASY TO LEARN.  That is why Davide and I have been working for the last 3 months to put it all together... can't wait to get over there and start meeting my O's!  (and X's too!  Maybe we can even play Tic-Tac-Toe...)

~ J. Twice