Happy Holidays to all Nor Cal Associations!!!

PLANNING MEETING March 5 – Please mark the date…Our annual planning meeting will be held on Saturday March 5 from 8 am to 5 pm at the Crowne Plaza in Walnut Creek (same place as last year but one day only this year).  If you have any items you would like to discuss please send me an email and let me know the subject as we are currently working on the agenda.  There will also be a short phone meeting in January.

NATIONAL RESULTS – One thing you should know and be proud of is how hard all the teams played and they fought until the end.  Results are as follows:

DIVISION 1:

4^th place JM: Palo Alto – lost two games by one touchdown each. In the first game they came back from a 24-6 half-time deficit to take the lead 30-24 only to lose in the last few minutes 37-30.

4^th place PW:  Solano – won their first game only to lose the next two games by 1 point each including the 3^rd place game where they came back to score with seconds to play…only to watch the extra point bounce off the upright and lost 7-6

4^th place CADET: Oakland – won their first game and played hard in their two loses to finish 4^th.

Vallejo JP did not place but played hard in both their ball games all the way to the end.

DIVISION 2:

3^rd place PW – San Francisco 49’ers lost their first game only to bounce back with two dominating wins to take 3^rd.

3^rd place CADET – San Pablo dominated in their first game and in the game for 3^rd place losing the game in-between while taking 3^rd.

OBSERVATIONS: While Nor Cal did not win any national championships, our Nor Cal D1 champions who participated (Solano and Palo Alto) were not that far from the rest of the national field.  The biggest difference seemed to be experience in two areas!  (1) Some of those teams have had the experience of going to the national championships 2-3 times.  (2) In addition other teams seemed to have experience with tough games and in particular running 2 minute drills.  All 4 of the losses by Palo Alto and Solano came down to the last minute of the game.  The Nor Cal kids played tough the whole time and if they had a break here or there, or even if a close referee call had gone their way, games may have played out differently.  Overall, and I believe I speak for all the Nor Cal officials who saw the games, we were quite proud of the way ALL of our teams played and fought until the end.

The other thing noticed was the great support for Nor Cal teams by other Nor Cal teams.  Vallejo came out in-mass to watch Solano and Palo Alto for their 3^rd place games while Solano and Palo Alto came out on Friday to support the Division 2 teams.  Other Nor Cal teams supported each other all week long, getting to games when they could on their off- days.

In addition we threw the first annual Nor Cal national pool party for the kids organized by Ranon (Thanks from all involved).  Unfortunately I was on a plane and could not attend but from all accounts the evening was a great success and we have reports that everyone got home safely.

Have a great Holiday and we will see you next year!