[ki6ds]

I got home late last night with my grandson Tyler after a whirlwind trip to Kansas for the 1st Annual Mid America Melee. Oh my gosh, what a wonderful time we both had. This was by far the best time that I have ever had with my grandson. I would not take anything for the time that we had together. It was special. I was so proud of him.

If you are a new coach, I cannot impress upon you enough how important it is for you to go to one of these tournaments. The learning that can and will take place is unbelievable. We had 8 brand new coaches and 4 who had some experience at the game. Let me say right now that Geno is at a whole different level than the rest of the guys I saw play, and Flynt is not too far behind him.

I remembered electric football from the 50's when I last played it, and it is not even close to the same game. I saw Flynt take the opening kickoff at the 20 and mount a 15 play drive down to the 19 where he missed a 26 yd. field goal to turn over the ball. It was amazing to see Flynt run what I found out later is the Butch Carter offense that Flynt learned at the Miggle convention last winter. I have never seen Coach Carter run it, but I don't see how it could be done much better than Flynt did it. Geno's defense would bend, but it would not break, giving up 3 - 7 yards at a time. #43 for Flynt got open every single time it seemed. I could not believe the player execution on both sides of the line that I was seeing.

Then, Geno got the ball and in 4 plays, Lennie Dawson hit Stephone Paige with a 50 yard pass that Paige caught at the 5 and walked into the endzone untouched. It was a blown coverage, and Geno was like a shark, jumping right on it, seizing the opportunity and taking full advantage. Geno's offense is run and pass oriented, and you never know which he is going to do. His qb is fantastic, being able to scramble out of the pocket and get away from the blitzing defenders every time.

Tyler and I had to leave at halftime to go catch our flight back to California, and it killed both of us. We left with a big smile on our faces though, because we had more fun that it is legal to have!!. Met a ton of great people. Wolf, Joe (Wolf's 6 year old son who knows how to play the game), Dave Foster, Carl Coley and Jennifer from Oklahoma, James Sledd, Jeff and Chris from Denver, Jared, Geno, Flynt, it just doesn't get any better than these guys. Taking part in the strong man and fastest man competition (by the way a base tweaked by Geno went over 2 inches farther than second place, and he also tweaked the winning base in the fastest man competition although it now belongs to me.) Geno tweaks bases for $5 and I saw with my own eyes how he destroyed bases tweaked by some of the top names in the business (don't ask, not mentioning names) but you would know them instantly. Watching the passing skills and field goal skills competition. Seeing Wolf hit all of his kicks, and then announcing that he was entered only to qualify for Nationals, and that he was not competing for the medal. Tyler won the medal by coming in second. Wolf is a class guy!!

The rules for this tournament were fun to play by. Easy to learn and all the guys were super helpful with questions. 99% of the passing was done by either direct passing with the TTQ, or Geno's TDQ, or passing sticks by the newbies. It was interesting that Tyler started to use his TDQ after his 2nd game and he was aware of the advantages that it gives. I never did try it.

The tournament had 12 entries so we had 3 pools of 4 teams, each team playing every other team in its pool to see the teams. The pool games were 2 possessions each and ties determined by yardage. It was a good way to do it. The top 4 teams got a bye in the first round. Flynt was the #1 seed, Geno #2, James the #3 and Tyler beat me 21 - 14 to grab the #4 seed. The 8 team tournament games were regulation 20 play per half games with 3 time outs and additional plays for each team per half. Any base touch counted as a tackle. Used the time clock for setting up and for kickoffs. Geno, Flynt and I were the only ones who had men that could beat the clock to the endzone. Again, all bases tweaked by Geno.

One comment I heard over and over was, "Man, I gotta get me some bases, gotta get some bases." I honestly believe that the reason Tyler and I were able to be so competitive in this group is because I bought a full team of 44 bases from Geno and split them in to two 22 man teams for Tyler and I . We even had tryouts and a draft which was a huge amount of fun.

Playing the game for real against experienced coaches taught me that you MUST know every player that you play. You have to know which way he is going to go when the buzzer turns on. That is why I only used 12 players. I subbed for my quarterback but other than that, it was ironman time. It helped me because I had an idea of what was going to happen with my team. But there were many occasions that I forgot and paid the price against a good coach.

I am going to write an article about the tournament for the Tweak but wanted to give some impressions to those of you who could not make it. You missed a ton of fun. Geno, Flynt, James, Jared and Wolf were wonderful hosts. The hotel was perfect. Clean, nice people to deal with, and reasonable. Geno, you pulled off a winner!! Tyler asked if we can go back next year!! That says it all. Thanks, Doug