Friday, November 16, 2012

The Lyon Sports Scene


Let us take a look at the greater Lyon sports scene . . .

Falcons Agree to Terms
With Third American QB

#10 John van den Raadt
QB Azusa Pacific University and
the Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons

We have had a string of bad luck in trying to find an import QB to lead us to the Promised Land so far this season.

Our first two import QBs would eventually have to back out of their original commitments to us due to very understandable, unforeseen personal issues that arose after signing with us.

Many of the QBs that we contacted were not available to join us because they were currently coaching high school or college teams back in the USA.

Thus, our team leaders decided that the best course of action would be to play the three games before the holiday break with our French QBs and then add an import QB for our final five games starting in early February.

The weekend before our season opener, our new starting QB decided to go one-on-one with a chainsaw with predictable results, 25 stitches in his non-throwing arm.

Our next option was to activate our QB coach to the starting QB position. He is an experienced player who last season did a great job as the team's Head Coach and certainly has a wealth of knowledge about the game. He looked very good at Tuesday's practice.

On Thursday he was a no-go with a sore back.

We then went with our B team QB to start against Les Gones. Having seen him in action in B games, I have a lot of faith in him. He did a good job leading us in the 21-7 win over the Lyon Les Gones on Sunday.

Now the streets of Lyon are abuzz with the talk of the latest import QB signing by the Falcons, John van den Raadt of Azusa Pacific University in California. 

As a Senior at APU in 2011, John led the team to a 9-3 record.  

During his college career with the Cougars, he passed for 6,639 yards and 48 TDs. Additionally, he ran for another 2,696 yards and 35 TDs.

John was named the NAIA Independent Offensive Player of the Year in both 2010 and 2011.

He is currently doing missionary work somewhere in Africa.

Here are two links to an article and a video on John: 



The Falcons Senior Team
Season Opener

As reported earlier, the Falcons traveled to the village of Heyrieux to play the Lyon Les Gones on their home turf.

 Falcon Braintrust before the game 

The pastoral setting of the
Les Gones' game field

SS Fred "Papy" Bastiand

A pre-game cafe is a must! I had one myself.

 Mandatory pre-game license check

 The Les Gones cheerleaders
were fired up!

This play ended in a fumble,
so I put my camera away

This fumble led to a quick Les Gones TD and a 7-0 lead but the Falcons, in the white jerseys, would go on to win 21-7. 

Senior B team game at Valence

Our B team got killed by
the Sharks 57-0 

Our B team lost to the Annecy Avalances this past Sunday 29-0 at the same time that our Senior A team was playing. Many of the key B team players played for the A team on this day. Reports said that the B squad played hard despite their depleted roster.

The B team's game in Grenoble against the Diables Bleu this coming Sunday was cancelled because the home team could not secure a field for the game.

Our B team had two of their eight games scheduled in Grenoble, the Centaurs game was cancelled due to snow and now this with the Diables Bleu.

Boules and/or Petanque

This intriguing game is a near national pastime in France.

Played by young and old alike

Get the metal ball as close
as possible to the yellow ball

TOTAL CONCENTRATION!

 Smoking is not mandatory
but highly recommended

 Mean wrist flip

 Nice way to spend
an Autumn afternoon

Colomiers at LOU
Rugby Game

Nice Vertical Leap!
LOU in Black

Scrum Intensity

Be Nice . . .

 Pass Interference???
LOU won 24-6

 Scouting the St.-Cergues Bulldogs
at Chambéry Aigles game

The day that our B team game at Grenoble against the Centaurs was cancelled, I joined two players for a road trip to Chambéry to watch a game between the Aigles and the St.-Cergues Bulldogs.

We are scheduled to play both of these teams before the holiday break in our season.

Nice setting in Chambéry

Bulldogs Passing 

My Kind of Ref!

 Are you looking at me?

A Bulldog Filling the A Gap

Hey, I said, ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME!!!

The Bulldogs, in white, won 12-6.

2 comments:

David said...

I think your kind of ref must be glad you don't see a lot of hurry-up offense in Europe.

George said...

As always David, insightful analysis is the sign of a great journalist!