Support a great local cause next weekend:

Rebuilding Together Seattle (www.rtseattle.org) provides donated repair services for homeowners in need so they can continue to live independently in warmth and safety.

RTS was established in 1989 and is part of the national Rebuilding Together organization. They are a volunteer, charitable group who repair or rebuild homes, particularly for those who are elderly, disabled or families with children.

On Saturday April 17th, Grizzly widow Danielle’s gift boutique, Curtsy Bella (www.curtsybella.com), will donate 10% of their total sales to this local organization to help support the vitally important work they do.  Please help us help them help RTS by shopping at Curtsy Bella that day, or donating through the RTS website.

Other notable sponsors of RTS include: Grizzly Ian Cleary’s Austech Electric, and club sponsor Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub.

Minister of “Extracurricular Training”, Ian Cleary reports:

Time to get out of the city and get down to some serious training… If you often find yourself reaching for the tissues-don’t even bother; This one is for the boys.

We are heading deep into grizzly country and we might not even be coming back. So grab your tent, your sleeping bag and your sense of adventure and set the weekend of May 15^th aside, as this is the one you don’t want to miss.

A full schedule of intense training has been set aside to launch us into what is surely gonna be a big year for the Grizz, starting at 9.00 am Saturday with a guided trail run through the newly built Olympic adventure trail,  a skills session/scratch match will follow in the afternoon. We’ll round out Saturday night with a bit of celebration for those grizzlies headed into wedded bliss this summer (congrats Jeff, Josh, Tim, and Ed)

All hangovers will be brushed aside come 9am Sunday morning as the training program resumes with a light jog/polar bear swim around majestic Lake Crescent. 

To get more detail and register for the camp check out the evite at http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?event=ZGXVPVGHBHAIQUSRHLVP

Hey all.


Here is an update I procrastinated on for quite sometime.  After a month or so of procrastination i decided to wait for something interesting to happen.

Footy was my primary reason for coming to Australia.  My goal was to make the Claremont Tigers squad which is a pretty good squad in a pretty good league...  

From Nov and into Febuary i was training with the squad 3 to 4 days a week depending on what the schedule called for.  I was prudent for everything and worked hard on the field.  There were several stages of cuts made.  I made it through the first few and thought I was good to go.  I received a call a few hours before our second "scratch match" (scrimmage) asking me to come in and see the coach.  The news I received in the coaches office is what i expected after receiving the call.  I was cut from the team.  I was upset at the timing and also surprised at being cut at that stage.  The reason given was due to my kicking.  I pleaded a bit with the coach and thought i was being screwed over a bit because of my age, the timing, and being a visitor.  I also felt that on the field I would have been an asset to the team. Most of the guys on the team are in there early 20's.  I was one of a handful over 25.  Two of the guys over 25 played AFL, two were cut, and one was a veteran on the team.  The wrong side of 25 and an amateur kick were legitimate reasons looking back on it now.

So I was cut from Claremont but thinking it may be a blessing in disguise as are things like this are quite often.  It was nice not to have to go to training anymore.  It was stressful wondering if i was going to make the team, working my ass off on the field, and not really enjoying the months of training without competing on the field.  Claremont is 3 and 0 as of last weekend smashing the defending champions and the other two teams they have played.  It looks like they may win the flag this year.  They also have 16 AFL guys on their list which is high number compared to other teams and recent years.  This does not mean that 16 play each week, but it is where guys play if they don't get a go with the pro teams similar to minor league baseball, but different????  I may have had a better shot with other teams in the WAFL.

Shortly after being cut another coach from a country club came to see me to talk about playing for his club.  I wasn't to keen on it because it is a town called Boddington about two hours outside of Perth.  I would have been set up with a job and a place to live, but instead opted to travel down for games along with one day a week of training while being subsidized for traveling.  It is a risky drive down to Boddington considering the high chance of hitting a Kangaroo. The road to Boddington runs about 100km through untouched habitat which means many kangaroos.

Week 1 finally happened last Sunday (April 11).  I started at Half back flank.  The guys are fast, big, and strong with good skills.  I got the ball a fair amount of times but struggled to dispose of it efficiently.  The game is rough as well.  I was involved in several scuffles.  Punches were thrown in a few other scuffles.  Should be an interesting season.  It was the first game I've played in quite a while so I think i can do quite a bit better, but i fell short of my expectations by a mile as well as my coaches i believe.  So we will see what happens with all of that.  I will send off another update after a few more games.  We won the game by a goal and a few points.  The other team cut our lead to 4 points with a few minutes left but we closed the deal.  Good comp though.

I will continue the footy journey.  I will keep you guys in the loop.  Hope all is well for everybody.  I look forward to hearing how the Griz go this season.  Work hard boys.  I can't wait for Nationals!

On Sunday, April 4, a bunch of Grizzlies and Associated Missuses put on a BBQ feed for the homeless men and women of Tent City in Issaquah. A big thanks to all those who put their hand up and got involved, and hopefully learned a little bit about the issues facing the working poor around Seattle.

Patrick, one of the Tent City residents, gave us a tour around their temporary home, which looks a bit like the set of MASH, without the helicopters and camo netting, and Alan Alda.

The Grizzly crew fed close to 100 people, most of them fellas, with a few snags left over for Pedro.

Those people who made the commitment to help out not only gave up their Sunday evening but also paid for the food they provided, so it really was a great effort. Shows what we can do on a bigger scale when we all pitch in a little. Peely's fruit salad even had strawberries in it, which was pretty sensational. Iron Chef award goes to Deborah, however, for her remarkable ANZAC biscuits.

I have spoken with a lot of the people from Tent City since the barbie, and they were really appreciative that we did something different for them, rather than just dropping off 10 trays of meatloaf. Only 11 people were hospitalized for food-borne illnesses, which I think out of 100 people is a good result. Thanks to Andrew and the K&K for the pork sausages.
Great work people. It is great that, as a club, we are always looking at the bigger picture and willing to help out where we can.

A few pics courtesy of Jono's missus Megan are available at:
http://www.seattlefooty.com/Photos.aspx?Year=&PhotosetId=20

Jake.