Thursday, July 14, 2011

Indians 5-1

This past Saturday we once again defended our home field, this time against the Nokia Ghosthunters. Nokia is the team that we played in the first week, while I was still in Hartford. We started the game off on the wrong foot, as the Ghosthunters returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. On the ensuing extra point I hurdled the center and blocked the PAT, I returned it a little ways but got caught so the score remained 6-0. Our offense immediately responded with our use of the wildcat offense. I stepped in at Quarterback, with the help of Nick Jones running effective sweeps, and great blocking all over the field, we marched down the field in just 5 plays. I capped the drive off with a 2 yard run for a touchdown.
Nokia, better known for their cell phones, responded by running the ball down our throats. Our defense simply couldn't deal with the onslaught, as Nokia methodically went down the field to score. Following a successful conversion the score was 13-7. The offense did not have a great amount of success for the rest of the half, but with just 30 seconds remaining Nesi Carpelan heaved the ball down field to Matt Shepherd, who made a great catch and run to put us up 14-13 going into halftime.
The team felt that we played one of the worst halves of football yet this season in this game, and we came out determined to play closer to our level of football. Defensively we switched to a 4-4 defense to stop Nokia's running attack. They never got into our red zone for the rest of the game. Our offense opened the half firing, and easily drove the ball deep into Nokia's red zone. Once there we called in the wildcat offense, and with some great blocking I had an easy time dashing 17 yards into the Nokia endzone to push the score to 21-7.
Defensively we continued to play strong, giving up minimal gains in the run game, knowing that the Ghosthunters did not possess a potent passing attack. In the fourth quarter our offense was on a good drive, and as we got into Ghosthunter territory we once again utilized the wildcat offense. A few plays into the drive I was running to the right hand side, as I jumped through a players arm tackle I landed on my left leg and tried to push off to my right. As I did this I felt my knee twist, and heard a loud pop come from my left knee. I immediately dropped the football and went down yelling and grabbing my injured knee.
The offense finished the drive with another touchdown catch by Matt Shepherd, and the Indians closed out with a 28-13 victory. I've visited with a doctor this week who drew blood out of my knee and explained that I either have damage to my Meniscus or ACL. One issue is that I cannot get an MRI done on my knee due to the metal plate that was inserted into the fibula of my left leg last november. My next scheduled visit is with a doctor on Tuesday, as well as a ultrasound test to try to see into my knee. I've been told that Finland shuts down during the month of July because everyone goes on vacation, it seems that is true of the medicine practice as well.
I put together a highlight reel predominantly of myself from this past game, it can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oePKp0Twg6w&feature=channel_video_title. I added Matt's long touchdown, and an interception by Jukka Lautamatti mostly for the celebrations that follow. My personal stat line was 7 rushes for 63 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 solo tackles along with 6 assisted.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Picture Blog

Matt in Stockholm:

Changing of the guard at the royal palace in Stockholm
Inside Stockholm's Royal Chapel

Views from the farm house in Moss, Norway

Pictures of/from the beach house in Norway


Small town on the coast of Norway

Something dyed the water green, sure the fish loved that.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Game Five: Indians 4-1

This past Sunday we began our second half of the season with a home game against the Helsinki 69ers. Our first game against the 69ers was my first of the season and we won 13-7. Going into the game we were 3-1 and the 69ers were 2-2. The winner of this game would most likely lock down the #2 slot for the playoffs and host the first playoff game.

We began the game on defense and forced an immediate 3 and out. Our offense took the field and picked up two quick first downs. We got stopped short of the first down on 3rd down and decided to go for it on 4th and 1. The 69ers thought we were going to run a quarterback sneak so they brought everyone up to the line of scrimmage and forgot to cover Jukka Lautamatti. Jukka was able to scamper the rest of the way into the endzone for the games first touchdown.

The 69ers responded with a 14 play touchdown drive of their own, our defense did not have much of a solution for what the 69ers were doing, and they were able to move the ball at will during this drive. We were missing players on both sides of the ball due to injuries and vacations. In addition to this our newest import Nick Jones, RB/S, was not able to play because his paperwork from the United Kingdom had not come through yet.

Following the 69ers tying score our offense was able to get a first down, but was stopped on another 4th and 1. The 69ers were once again able to move the ball effectively down the field, but our defense stopped them finally and forced a 23 yard field goal attempt. The attempted kick was blocked, although it was basically kicked into the linemen in front of the kicker and had no legitimate chance of going in.

The following drive I came in on offense for almost the entire series and we started to move the ball pretty well. A nine play drive seemed like it would be a great one when Nesi Carpelan found Jani Keinisalo for a 35 yard touchdown. Unfortunately, this was brought back due to a holding call, and the drive fizzled out from there. We punted to the 69ers and they only had 30 seconds left on the half so they decided to take a knee, and we went into the half 7-7.

I started on offense for the second half and we again moved the ball effectively with a nine-play drive. Unfortunately, it once again ended in a failed 4th and 1 attempt, so the 69ers got the ball once again. Both teams then exchanged punts as no offense was able to find any room, and the 3rd quarter ended with the score still deadlocked at 7.

Early in the 4th quarter the 69ers had good field position and took advantage by throwing the ball down the field behind one of our corner backs for the go ahead touchdown. On the extra point the snap was too high so the holder had to try to run it in himself. He failed, which proved to be a pivotal play in the game.

We responded with an eight-play drive of our own, that was capped off by a pass from Nesi to Jani to tie the game at 13. As our kicker Ari stepped in to take the kick, he said to our holder Matt Shepard, “This is pretty important huh?” Matt responded, “Yeah, if you make this we will probably win the game.” He did make the go ahead kick, and these points ended up being what won us the game.

The 69ers were not able to do much offensively, and we were helped by a big interception by Jani as well. Offensively we tried to run the ball and grind the clock, but this resulted in only one first down for us in our final two drives. The game ended when the 69ers quarterback heaved the ball deep into our territory, and I was able to come down with the interception. After that it only took one kneel down by Nesi to end the game. The game MVP was given to Jani for his efforts on both sides of the ball.

This Saturday we host the Ghosthunters of Nokia, this is the game that I missed in the first half of the season, so it is a new opponent for me. Personal stat line: 15 rushes net 74 yards, 3 solo tackles, 1 assist, 1 interception.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Sweden Trip and Midsummer

This past week we had no game on the weekend, and no practice leading up to the midsummer weekend. Matt and I decided to use our free time the best we could so we jumped onto a cruise ship for a trip to Stockholm. The boat was a lot of fun, and very nice for how cheap it was. It was an overnight trip over to Stockholm from Helsinki. Then we had about eight hours to explore Stockholm before an overnight back to Helsinki. Stockholm was a very cool city, although the weather was pouring rain the entire time we were there. We did see the palace and all of what they call old town, which was very interesting to see.
When we got back we immediately were summoned to the midsummer celebrations at our teammates Tatu's house. This celebration consisted of many backyard games including Molkky, which I think I need to bring back to the states. Other than our daytime celebration we also did many Saunas and trips down to the lake to go swimming. At nighttime we went out to an obscure bar in Orelampe (sp?) This was a lot of fun, but consisted of taxis to and from the bar that ranged from 80-100 Euros, not cheap. Some pictures included here to show us having a good time during midsummer.




I’m writing from Oslo right now where I am meeting up with Tony Torres as well as a few Norwegian friends, ought to be a great week. There will be more to report on the trip by the end of the week. We have our 5th game this Sunday at home against the Helsinki 69ers, an important game for us as we continue to chase 1st place in the league.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Indians Third Win

Our fourth game went much better than the third game. We played at home for the second straight week, against the Kuopio Steelers. We started the game off strong offensively, easily driving down and scoring on our first possession. The touchdown was a great catch by fellow American Matt Shepherd, he was pretty far out of bounds, but luckily for us our side judges were 14 years old and from Kouvola. Unfortunately, the Steelers reciprocated that and knotted the game 7-7.
Our offense moved the ball effectively all game, but we struggled inside our opponents 30 yard line. We scored once in the second quarter to move to 14-7 on a nice pass from Nesi Carpelan to Jani Heinisalo (Picture right), his first of two touchdowns on the game. After the first drive defensively we decided to switch to a 4-4 defense rather than our normal 3-4. Essentially we added a defensive lineman since the Steelers really only ran the ball in an option attack all game.


This new defense did very well, and we didn’t allow the Steelers to score again. I came in on offense a good amount mostly as a running back in the I formation. Thanks to some great blocking by our offensive like and fullback Ville Lindsten. I carried the ball 12 times for 113 yards, unfortunately none of them landed me in the endzone. I also added 6 solo and 4 assisted tackle on the defensive side of the ball.
I also did a few plays as a wildcat quarterback, and on one roll out pass I saw an open receiver about 10 yards in front of me. The ball was complete and it seemed like a great gain. Unfortunately, the player I threw it to was none other than Perttu Kontkanen, our right tackle. For those of you not familiar with the rules, that is not exactly street legal.
As time winded down in the 4th quarter the Steelers continued to try to run the ball, and did so with a little bit of success. When they did try to throw, they showed that they were unable to do so. We made them pay with great interceptions by Tatu Niemi, and Jarno Uitto. Perttu was given our team MVP of the game, and Jani was given the game MVP. That is it for this week, we now enter our midsummer bye week sitting in 2nd place at 3-1.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Ben's Third Week

In week three I am now fully in the groove of what life will be like this summer. We coach the junior team 3 times per week, and we practice four times per week. Usually these are all in the evenings, sometimes as late as 8 pm since the sun doesn’t go down until midnight. During the daytimes Matt and I usually work out at a local gym, and enjoy our homemade Finnish food at Kulma’s Monday-Friday.
This past weekend was a lot of fun besides getting our butts kicked on the football field. Following the game a few teammates came back to our apartment and we showed them ‘beer pong’ (Beirut). This was the first time these Finns had played and we whooped up on them pretty good. Then there was a private party for our team and Indians alumni at a bar. Since the Indians were celebrating the 25th anniversary of the team a lot of alumni came back to celebrate. It was fun and interesting to meet players from the past, and hear about how different the organization used to be.
On Sunday we took a trip down to the city of Kotka, which is on the coast of Finland. Our Qb Nesi has a summer cottage on an island just off the shores of the city, so we went down there for the day. It was beautiful weather, and the island was very nice. We took a ferry over, and once there we enjoyed some backyard games, and riding a four-wheeler through small trails on the island. One of the games reminded me of the game Kubb (a version of which was created by my sister Meghan and hopefully many of you have or will enjoy a game sometime), where players attempted to knock over pieces of wood in order to score points.





Looking forward to the next few weeks as we have another game this Saturday against the Kuopio Steelers. Then the following weekend is midsummer celebrations. This is the all-day, all-weekend party that happens every year on the weekend closest to June 21st. This is because the sun is out for the longest during this day, which I guess in turn means we shouldn’t be sleeping that weekend.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Game Three

Our third game was a disappointing loss to the Vantaa Taft 36-6. The game started off well, we decided to try to surprise them with a little wildcat. I was playing quarterback for the first 5 or 6 plays of the drive, and we were running the ball pretty effectively, and caught them off guard with one pass. We went back to our regular offense and unfortunately failed to move the ball further than our opponents 25 in the drive. On fourth down our quarterback was hit as he was throwing causing a bad pass, which was intercepted and returned to our own 3 yard line.
Taft was able to score in just two plays with such good field position. Our offense was never truly able to move the ball deep into Taft territory for the remainder of the half. Defensively we tried to stop the bleeding, but we still went into the half down 16-0.
Defensively we were able to slow down Taft’s offense, but we couldn’t make the necessary plays on 3rd down in order to get off the field and put our offense in good position. Offensively drives were falling apart, and we were not helped by our four turnovers to their zero turnovers. Our only glimmer of hope was a 10-play 65 yard drive that ended with me running into the end zone from 1 yard out. This made the score 23-6 as we failed to make the extra point.
Taft went on to methodically score 14 more points in the 4th quarter, as we continued to be plagued by turnovers on offense. It was disappointing to see such a lopsided score as the Indians were celebrating this being its 25th season, and there were many alumni in attendance. After the game my teammate Jukka Lautamatti, (picture right) was awarded MVP of the Indians, and I was awarded MVP of the game. My personal stat line was: 45 yards rushing on 8 attempts, 1 td. Passing 2-2 for 41 yards, 5 solo tackles 1 assist, with one tackle for loss. It was interesting to see awards be given out on the field directly after the game. It wasn’t done after our game in Helsinki last week, so perhaps it is a Indians tradition.



Overall there are tons of mistakes for us to learn from if we are going to have a hope of beating this well coached Taft team. It is certainly not impossible though, and we will see them again in our last regular season game July 25th.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Ben's Second Week

I have really been able to settle down during my second week, as I started to get into the groove of coaching and playing. Matt and I usually coach about three times a week for an hour and a half each time. This has been a fun and challenging experience. The kids range from 9-16 and they represent the full spectrum from being brand new to the game, to having played for a number of years.
One day Matt and I went to an elementary school to teach football to a group of about 25 boys. We were very excited to see that seven of these boys came out to practice with the junior teams two days later. Many of these young boys show a lot of promise, and something our junior teams need more than anything is numbers.
On Friday night before our game Matt and I were invited to our head coaches apartment for dinner. His name is Ilpo Temonen he was a long time player for the Indians, now the head coach, and his photo you see below. The meal was fantastic, and we watched video of games from the Indians last season. The following day we had the trip down to Helsinki for our game, and you can read my game summary to hear more about that.

The celebration following the game was a lot of fun, many of the players and coaches went to a bar together and had a great time. The next day Matt and I went to our teammates, Janne Siltanen, lake house for the day. The weather was great as it has been for the past week now, and it was very nice to be in the sun, although the water was still very cold. At the lake house there is a sauna that we used. We were alternating between 5 or 10 minutes in the sauna, to jumping in the cold lake water. On our last trip into the sauna it was quite hot, and we threw a lot of water on the stones to create a bunch of steam. Maybe its because I sweat so much, but once that steam hit my skin I began to feel a burning sensation and really lost my cool. I started yelling that I needed to get out of the sauna immediately, and everyone was laughing at me. No harm done though, perhaps I’m just a little sensitive to getting burned, (For non-family members: I poured a pot of boiling water on my head when I was 5, hospital for nine days, only memory- being in a big silver tub and having someone scrap my skin off with steel wool…) Regardless, it was a great day and I look forward to many more times at Finnish lakes, known as the land of a thousand lakes.
The mosquitos around dusk here (11 pm) have been pretty terrible. They seem to be bigger and badder than anything I was used to in the states. There also does not seem to be any good solution other than just staying indoors, luckily they are not our for many hours during the day. Matt and I are also helping coach at a sports camp this week. We are helping three hours on Tuesday, 1.5 Wednesday, and 1.5 Thursday. This will help us get a little bit of extra food/beer money. These kids are much younger than those on the junior teams, and that has proved to be even more challenging. That’s because these little ones have not yet begun studying English, so it is necessary for us to have a counselor translate constantly. On top of this the counselors don’t know the game of football either, so the general football language is tough on them too.
We have enjoyed some great dinners this week at Satu Yrjanne’s house, she is the sister of the aforementioned Janne Siltanen. This has been a big help, as Matt and I haven’t really been keeping the fridge stocked too well. I have also booked a trip to Oslo for later this month. Looking forward to meeting up with Tony Torres while I’m there, as well as some friends that I met while abroad in Perth, Australia. We have a big game this weekend with the only other undefeated team in the league, Vantaa Taft, and it is our first game at home. The Indians will be celebrating their 25th season at our home game on Saturday. Sorry I have no more pictures, Matt has some and he will be contributing to the blog shortly.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Ben's First Game



The second game of the season for the Kuovola Indians was a victory, 13-7. This was my first game playing as the season opener was during Trinity College graduation, which I felt obligated to attend. The game in Finland has its similarities and its differences from the level of football I had grown accustomed to in the NESCAC. Athletically I would say it is pretty close. Each team has a decent amount of skill players on both sides of the football that are able to make some good plays. Size and strength wise it is apparent that there is not a whole lot of off season weight training, as is to be expected because the majority of players also have full time employment.
            There is not too much game planning leading up to the games, although we did go a week earlier and watch our opponent, The Helsinki 69ers, play against another team. This meant that it was important to make adjustments during the game to try to stop what the opponents are doing. For me being defensive minded this meant adjusting to formations that I had not seen before. The 69ers had a good amount of success running the football against us, and we were getting out flanked by certain formations. We adjusted the alignment of our linebackers, and this got us some success. It was frustrating for me to see a team successfully run the football, as I was a part of division 3’s #1 rushing defense in the country in 2010.
            That being said we were able to keep the 69ers out of the end zone until the middle of the fourth quarter. Our offense was highlighted by some great passes by our quarterback Nesi Carpelan . We were able to pass the ball effectively all game, but we also had our struggles putting the ball into the end zone. Due to some injuries and a thin roster we put our backup quarterback in at wide receiever. His name is Hank, and he is only 16 years young. He scored his first ever touchdown in the senior league on Saturday on a deep pass from Nesi. Our other score was a reception by fellow American Matt Shepherd on a precise double move in the end zone.

            The 69ers had the ball with a few minutes to go and were moving it down the field fairly effectively. As the clock ticked away they began hail-mary passes, and I knocked down the final one as time expired. To the dismay of the Helsinki players no pass interference was called, but there was a lot of arguing in Finnish going on for about five minutes as the referees tried to figure out what to call. It was difficult throughout the game to argue with the referees, as they cannot understand me. What makes it worse is that I see them make incorrect calls and I can do very little about it, that will take some getting used to as I have been in constant communication with referees during the pass two seasons as captain with the Bantams. That is it for my first game, this Saturday June 11 we play the Vantaa Taft, the only other undefeated team in the league.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

My apologies, I am still figuring this whole blogging thing out.

This photo was taken during our bike ride down to practice, the majority of the trees in Finland are tall and skinny like the ones you see in this photo. It is an extremely wooded country, and I was told today that lumber is the countries main export.

This was also during our bike ride on a bridge that passes over our trail.

This is a picture of the sign out front of our apartment, we are still unclear if it is an advertisement for our apartment building, or a car rental service.

This is the entrance to our apartment building, we live on the first floor.

This is where Matt and I get free lunch Monday-Friday. Try saying that five times fast.

This is one of the streets that are reserved for pedestrians and bicyclists only. Shops line both sides of the streets in this part of the city.

Ben's First Week

The first week in Kuovola, Finland has been a very exciting change from life in America. I have already been picking up on some cultural differences, and have also befriended many Finns. I arrived on Wednesday May 25th, after two five-hour flights, one from Boston to Iceland. I then went through the volcanic ash of Iceland to land in Helsinki. Mika Lindholm, the man who runs the Kuovola Indians (my team), picked me up at the airport and drove me the hour and a half up to Kuovola.
We had practice that night, but I watched because my equipment was not ready and I was pretty jetlagged. Afterwards I went to a teammates house and experienced my first sauna. The Finns are the proud founders of the Sauna, even though the damn Swedes try to take credit for it as well. Basically every household, as well as most apartments, has their own personal sauna inside of them. This was unlike any that I had experienced in the states, as the fire heated a group of rocks that would saturate the air when a bit of water was thrown onto them. This Sauna got up to a “very average” 100 degrees Celsius.
The following day I had my first meal at Lounaskahvila, which is the place where I get free lunches Monday through Friday. This has been a great place to experience real Finnish cuisine, and besides the fish it has been very good. After this Matt and I ventured into the downtown area on our bikes. Matt is the other American player that I live with he is a recent graduate of Monmouth College in Illinois. This area is mostly filled with bars and shops, and one interesting part about it is that there are a few blocks where cars are not allowed. These areas are constantly filled with people walking and on bikes.
That night I participated in my first practice in Finland, where we did some simple drills, and light conditioning. I played predominantly outside linebacker at this practice, but it looks like I will be floating from safety and linebacker depending on our opponent, and the down and distance.
On Saturday of that weekend I traveled to Vantaa with our coaching staff to watch our next two opponents play each other. Vantaa is a city on the outskirts of Helsinki, and the Vantaa Taft were playing the Helsinki 69ers. This coming Saturday we play the 69ers in Helsinki, and next weekend we play Taft at home. The amount of talent in the game was not all that high, but it was obvious the Taft was better coached, and they had much higher numbers. The result was Taft 35-0. One important part of scouting the teams in my league is identifying their American players. Each team is allowed two players that are not European citizens, and they can never be on the field at the same time.
Following the game I went to my head coaches apartment where we watched some recorded NFL games he had recorded. I was surprised to find out that he was a Patriots fan, and is currently reading Bill Belichick’s, Education of a Coach, but since this day I have realized that most Finns who are interested in football are also fans of the Patriots. The success of the Patriots is clearly to blame for that. I went out on the town that night with many teammates and a few coaches. I was impressed by certain elements of the bar we went to. For one there are two distinct areas, one has the feel of a pub, and it had a live band that night. The other is much more similar to a nightclub, with extremely loud music and a crazy light show.
The Monday of my first full week in Kuovola was filled with coaching. In addition to our playing responsibilities, Matt and I are expected to coach the junior teams, and also help teach people the game of football in the hopes that they may become interested. Monday we did both of these responsibilities. First we went to a school where we taught 16 and 17 year olds football for the first time in their lives, and it seemed that they had a great time. Ideally we could get a few of these teenagers to come play for one of the junior teams. That evening we helped coach the Junior-B team, which is under the age of 16.
The coaching has proved to be challenging as I try to remember the things that I first learned about football in the 4th grade. It has been fun though as the Finnish kids are very interested in the sport, and cannot complain since I can’t understand them. This language barrier has proved to be difficult only with the youngest of the kids though, as the older ones are more experienced with English. It is required in Finnish education that students begin learning the English language when they are in the third grade. This has made it easy to communicate with my teammates and coaches.
That is a summary of what I have been up to for my first week, now here is a summary of what I have noticed about Finnish people in my first week. The first thing that I have noted is that most men wear black athletic socks, even if they are wearing white sneakers. This was peculiar to me, as my only pair of black socks are dress socks. You may think it is strange that I would notice people sock color, you may be right, but the reason it is so obvious is because everyone is required to take their shoes off whenever they enter someone’s house. There are even shoe brushes outside of buildings so that you can rub the dirt off of your shoe before you enter the breezeway. I have never seen anyone violate this rule, except for Matt and I inside of our own apartment.
The drinking age is somewhat strange in Finland. The general age is 18, where you can purchase and go into bars. The only adjustment to that rule is that if you are under the age of 20 you cannot purchase anything over 20% alcohol content. This means no liquor from 18-20. But it does not mean that you cannot buy liquor from bars in the form of shots or mixed drinks. This rule is somewhat strange, but I have yet to see this rule enforced.
My teammates and coaches have been extremely conscious to make sure that I am well fed, and that I am having a good time. They have cooked us food many times, and also buy us drinks when we are out consistently. I think this is because they realize that Matt and I do not have a ton of money. This really helps out, as I don’t think we could go out on the town at all if we were completely on our own. This has been really nice, and helpful. Something completely different I have noticed is that it is not customary to say 'bless you' after someone sneezes. I am still trying to figure out why this is, more in the upcoming weeks. That is it for week one; I hope you continue to follow the blog as we get deeper into the season, and Finnish culture.