Double Coverage: Photography Competition!

It's that time again!

Last month we asked you, the British American Footballing community, to submit your best photographs to feature on our Facebook Page.

The competition was a rousing success with Denzil Byron becoming the face of the Double Coverage franchise for a month with this picture:

BAFANL: The Rule Changes – What you need to know.

Every year BUAFL adopt most of the rule changes from the previous year’s NCAA competition. BAFANL are even quicker on the uptake in that they adopt the rules a couple of months after the NCAA is over. There have been some significant rule changes, so make sure you’re clued up before you take the field come October this year, or even sooner come April.

BUAFL & BAFANL Match Reports

With the increasing amount of match reports we are receiving every week we have decided to make this statement to let you guys know how we want to receive them and to give you some pointers as to what we are looking for.

1) We ask that all match reports sent to us are attached as a Microsoft word document, with 12pt Calibri font as the body text and 12pt Calibri bold font as the header text.

2) We can only guarantee publishing match reports we receive by Wednesday lunchtime (12pm). After this our schedule is full of predictions and other weekend related content, so there can be no guarantee your work will be published (and we do hate leaving good work behind).

3) Try and mention as many names as possible, including the opposition teams names (all it takes is a quick email or facebook message)! One of our goals at Double Coverage is to give British American Football a "face" people recognise. Every team has their stars and legends, so give them an opportunity to be recognised through us.

4) Always try and add a photo (also attached) to the report. This also plays into giving Britball a face. If you can't get a photo then we will still publish your article, it just might not get as much attention as one full of photography.

If you are using a photographers photos please ask permission first and also ask how they want to be credited on the site. We are trying hard to work with the communities photographers, who are a crucial part of getting the image of American Football in the UK out to the world.

5) Details! The more detail the better! If you can include stats from the game we can edit them in or add them where we think appropriate. Any time you can get comment from head coaches or players is also great and adds to the depth of a reprot.

Thankyou for taking the time to read this and we look forward to reading your match reports!

Cheap Kit on the Horizon for the BUAFL and BAFANL?

From IFAF.com

The International Federation of American Football today launched the IFAF Equipment Program to benefit its 62 member federations and further the international growth of the sport.

The initiative aims to increase the number of participants worldwide by eliminating the greatest barriers to entry - the accessibility and affordability of playing equipment.

Dbl Coverage Interviews: Russ Hewitt - Current BUAFL Championship HC and head of BAFCA

We sat down with the current Head Coach of the BUAFL champion Portsmouth Destroyers Russ Hewitt to talk about his coaching philosophy, how he feels about the multi tier debate and if his Destroyers compare with the other team he coaches with, the London Warriors.

DBL: How is this season shaping up compared to last year?

The University season, is so much fun... you have to be so organised, to not waste a second of Practice time. I have to say my staff, put so much time in over the summer, to ensure we are efficient come August.

The difference in this year and the past years is based around the history of the Programme!

It’s been well publicised that we went from zero to National Champs in 5 years, so last year motivation was based around what we call ‘Football Nightmares’

The Hurt of losses, or injury, or simply under achieving.... just one growing pain after another ... anyone of those ‘Football Nightmares’ would give you a desire to put in extra work, to correct the wrongs!

Our last regular season losses was a heart breaking 3-0 loss to Solent Uni  (Away in Dec 2009) which turned out to be conference decider. Then our last home loss was also 3-0 the previous season (to Brighton – Jan 2009). That result dropped us to 4-3 after a 4-1 start... and technically closed the Playoff door, in our third season.

This year, we have a different breed of Athlete than previous recruitment classes... still the same raw rookies every other team gets, but individuals that really want to represent the University and continue the work we have put in, to become a Champion.

         

Exclusive Interview with Birmingham Lions HC Wayne Hill

In our latest interview we speak with Birmingham Lions head Coach, GB Lions defensive coordinator and IFAF World team Linebacker Coach (I think I got all the titles in) Wayne Hill. We cover everything from the new coaching staff at the Lions to his notorious decision to go for two at the end of the BUAFL Championship game (a decision that ultimately cost them the game). Read on!

DC: First off congratulations on a fantastic year coaching wise. You were named head coach of the Birmingham Lions, OC of the Birmingham Bulls, LB coach for the IFAF world development team and now DC of GB lions. Which one personally means the most to you?

WH – Obviously all are very special and I am very lucky to have been selected to the National Programme and IFAF World Development Team. I have to say being back in charge at the Lions is a little extra special to me. This enables me to work with some amazing coaches and players on a daily basis, that really push me to develop myself and my coaching. However, all of the positions have something special to me; the Bulls role was great as that was where I grew up and developed a love for this sport. So it was great to contribute to a really successful season and be part of a great development programme being put in place by Steve Hannington and Brendan Cunnane.

The National Programme role is going to be a challenge and I love a challenge! I am excited to be part of the new set up and even in the early stages I am enjoying working with Coach Callan and putting together a great defensive staff.

Now the IFAF World Development Team role is awesome and I am looking forward to working with some of the best coaches and players in the world. This has been a great learning curve for me and now the selection process is complete I am looking forward to meeting the players face to face and getting on with the on field coaching.

London 2012: Funds for school-site sports clubs

American Football teams are set to receive fresh incentives to work with local schools under a new government scheme aimed at getting youngsters to continue their sporting development post-16.

A third less people play sport after they conclude compulsory education than before it, and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has now announced a £1bn strategy in order to combat a growing issue.

The funding will be used to ensure that every secondary school in England has a "community sports club", and BAFA are set to encourage their member clubs to volunteer and join the scheme.

Under the five-year youth and community sport strategy, Sport England will help set up clubs where expert coaches will run sessions to create ties between schools and existing local sports clubs.

Over 2,000 soccer clubs have pledged to participate, along with 2,300 clubs from both codes of rugby and 1,250 cricket clubs.

Jeremy Hunt wants to get more sports into schools

GB Tryouts Announced

The open try outs for GB Lions are:

 Junior

(South)
Saturday 28th January 2012 - Hertfordshire University, £10 admission
(North)
Saturday 4th February 2012 - Balby Carr College, Doncaster, £10 admission

In games played during 2012, a player has to be born on or after January 1st 1993 to be eligible to play for the Junior GB Lions. 

To register for any of these events email your full name/DOB/BAFANL number/club/position/contact number/emergency contact number nick_wasmuth@hotmail.com. This is mandatory for juniors as there is a consent form for U.18s that must be signed by your parents to participate.

Offensive players should bring a white jersey, defensive players should bring a dark blue jersey and QB trialists should bring red jerseys.

Adult

(North)
Saturday 14th January 2012 - Balby Carr College, Doncaster, £20 admission
(South)
Saturday 4th February 2012 - Filton College, Bristol, £20 admission

 To register for any of these events email your full name/DOB/BAFANL number/club/position/contact number/emergency contact number (if under 18) to nick_wasmuth@hotmail.com. Pre-registration is highly recommended to avoid being late on the day, I repeat highly recommended. 

Offensive players should bring a white jersey, defensive players should bring a dark blue jersey and QB trialists should bring red jerseys.

Put it in your diary and cascade to friends and team mates. More details to follow.

GB Lions announce Positional coaches

From BAFA: http://britishamericanfootball.org/news.aspx?id=55

The GB Lions have announced the positional coaches for the Junior and Senior teams:


Junior Team Position Coaches:
Marco Fasulo (Defensive Line)
Francis Hatega (Linebackers)
Simon Purcell (Defensive Backs)
Ben Johnson (Offensive Line)
Jay Alexander (Running Backs)
Clive Palumbo (Wide Receivers)
Jonathan Rooney (Quarterbacks)

Senior Team Position Coaches:
Mark Moss (Defensive Line)
Ross Templeton (Linebackers)
Martin Hilton (Defensive Backs)
Anthony Fitzpatrick (Offensive Line)
Nick Rockell (Running Backs)
Andy Sweeney (Wide Receivers)
Ryan Baker (Tight Ends)

Congratualtions to all!

Dbl Coverage Interviews: Ed Butcher two time BUAFL Defensive MVP

Double Coverage were privileged to sit down with BUAFL legend Ed Butcher and talk about football, friends and his legendary father.

DC: So, how did you get into football?

EB: When I was a lad, summer holidays were normally spent across the pond on trips to Disney world in Florida and the rest of the theme parks! It was from watching TV in countless sports bars the old man would take us around that I discovered the sport. I would watch loads of games and all the American Football movies as well.

My older brother and I would often throw the ball around in the garden and then when he went to university and joined up with the Glasgow Tigers I went to as many games as I could! I learnt a lot from watching him and the Tigers and my passion grew from there! I gained a scholarship to go over to a Private School in Northampton, MA, where I got to experience the full on the high school football experience and lifestyle.

DC: What position do you play? What attracted you to that position?

EB: The funny thing is I started off as a Quarterback as I can throw the ball a fair distance and accurately. It would have been interesting to see how I would have got on if I had continued there. I decided after 2 weeks of training that I was not going to be good enough to get on the field with the calibre of QB’s around my team at the time and I didn’t want to be redshirted, so I suggested to my coach I wanted to change!

When asked where I would go I decided to go back to my old position of Defensive end. I had played there before and it was a position I was made for! Hard hitting, tough going and non-complicated football, where every down you get to hit someone! Coming from a rugby background this suited me down to the ground. In my second season I was recruited to play offensive tackle as well, which worked for me as this was the position I had been going up against and one that I had always wanted to play! 

That season and the following seasons I also played Tight End, Slot receiver and Wide Receiver! In my final University season I played Outside and Middle Linebacker, which gave me the opportunity to have a run up and hit people!

GB Coordinators Announced

As per the BAFA Website: http://www.bafa.org.uk/news.aspx?id=54

Following the announcement of Mike Callan and Damien Anderson as GB Senior and Junior Head Coaches respectively Bafa has announced the coordinators that will be working with them.

Senior Team:

OC - Andy Mackintosh (EKP Head Coach)

DC - Wayne Hill (Birmingham Lions Head Coach)

ST - Chris Hartley (Reading Knights)

Junior team:

OC - Graham Kelly (Tamworth Phoenix Head Coach)

DC - Scott Rowe (London Olympians DC)

ST - Kenny McPhail (Manchester Titans Special Teams and DB's coach)

More to follow later!

Dbl Coverage: Christmas Schedule

Remember, if you're not following us on Facebook, you're considerably less cooler than those who do.

The Christmas break is upon us! Normally a time of purgatory for blogs covering British American Football we at Dbl Coverage towers have put our collective brains together and formulated the following features we will be running to keep your hunger for BUAFL and Britball based banter/information/opinion satisfied!

As It Stands: A Feature where we will project the playoffs using the standings as they are now the first half of the season is done. Each game from the Champ Playoffs and Challenge Cup (Plate) playoffs will have it's own fictional game report, which I am sure will lead to much derision/conversation/admiration from many...

The Breakdown: We will take a look at each division in the BUAFL and breakdown how each team has done so far this season and how we expect them to do for the rest of the season. We will shortly be contacting teams for details to fill out this feature, the more detail you give us, the more we can write about you! Rep your team!

Photo Challenge: As many of you will have noticed (and if you haven't you need to like the Facebook page and follow us already) the top of our Facebook page is a barren wasteland. We want to fill it with the top 5 photos from this seasons BUAFL. What we want people to do is to upload their picture to imageshack (with the permission of the tog on your team if you need it) and post the forum link on our Facebook Page.

Then you will need to get everyone you know to vote for your picture! The top 5 pics will  be added to our Facebook page, so if you don't want to see a load of pics of Herts or Brum on there (ED: I can see organised pic bombing and vote rigging on the horizon) you need to get on and REP YOUR TEAM!

We will be launching this during the week, so keep your eyes peeled!

The Powerless Rankings: A look at the bottom  of the BUAFL food chain as we put together our Powerless rankings, otherwise known as the "Lame report". Remember, we didn't put you here, you put you here!

Interviews: Following on from our excellent (Ed: If we do say so ourselves) interview with London Blitz Head Coach Mark Moss, we are currently stocking up on Christmas interviews from around the BUAFL, Britball and European leagues. We have some exciting interviews lined up with some of the big names around the country and will be bringing you their views and opinions on the game at large and how they got into American Football!

College Bowl Predictions: Some of you may be aware that they occasionally play a game of football across the pond. Those of you that are will know the the NCAA Football Bowl season is upon us! We will take a look at each bowl game and try and predict the winners!

Top 5: Our standard Wednesday Top 5 will still run over the Christmas break! We will be looking at the best and worst dressed teams in Britball, as well as the top coaches and players!

Alongside all these features we will be sure to bring you the latest news from around the leagues as well as the results from a heated round table debate on the need (or lack thereof) for a tiered BUAFL.

Keep it locked and follow us on Facebook already!!

What’s in an APPG?

Written by Jonathan Farrow

Despite the event itself being attended by NFL Chairmen and cheerleaders, there was surprisingly little made of the new All Party Parliamentary Group for American Football, that had its inaugural meeting two months ago. A short press release was seemingly all that surfaced from BAFA. A shame, because the APPG could represent a new willingness to change and improve the state of American Football in the UK.

Indeed, the aims stated by Richard Fuller MP (no relation to Andy, I think...) in his speech as Chairman of the APPG was to increase official recognition of the sport, develop participation at a grassroots level, aid British players to reach their full potential and to pave the way for an NFL franchise to be established in the UK based team. This last statement, I imagine, will probably be met with a fair amount of groaning from the community as a whole. I’m not going to pontificate on the arguments here, but an NFL franchise would seem to be the very antithesis of the “bottom-up” method of increasing participation that has seen such success in recent years, and pooling our efforts into such an endeavour would appear to be counter-productive to this.

Dbl Coverage Interviews: Mark Moss Head Coach of the London Blitz

Mark Moss has been the Head Coach of the London Blitz since 2006, overseeing the most successful period in the teams history. He has won the Britbowl four times and added the EFAF cup this year. We sat down with Coach Moss for an interview to get his thoughts on the season ahead, the season before and his views on coaching and philosophy. Read on after the page break for the full interview!

Coach Moss is given the traditional post game drenching after winning the Britbowl this year

.Photo Courtesy of David Fearn

BAFANL Re-Alignment Winners and Losers

Since we exclusively broke the news of the BAFANL re-alignment, we at Dbl Coverage have been discussing the after effects felt all around the country. We decided to release an article covering who we think were the main winners and losers of the new re-alignment.

Winners

Courtesy of AJW Photography

East Kilbride – If you asked most people around Britball who the main winners of this re-alignment were, the most likely answer you would get would be one of the promoted division two teams who didn’t make it to the final, however, this is not the case. Without doubt the best team to benefit from this latest shake up is the East Kilbride Pirates. Having played against EKP in the playoffs, I can safely say that they deserve to be in the Premiership next year.

The problem for EKP was if the league stuck with a six team premiership or changed to an eleven team league, East Kilbride would have to travel to Bristol, Farnham and London more than once which makes travel costs pretty hefty.

With this new re-alignment EKP only have to travel to Yorkshire, Doncaster, Leicester and the West Midlands twice resulting in cheaper travel costs and some would say, an easier route to the final.

I’m not saying this was the main reason for a Northern and Southern Premiership, but it sure does look that way.

GB Lions on the Hunt for Coaching Staff

http://www.britishamericanfootball.org/news.aspx?id=51

 
Following the recent announcement regarding the Head Coaches of the Great Britain Lions Junior Contact and Adult Contact Teams (Damian Anderson and Mike Callan, respectively), vacancies now exist for coaching positions within both teams.

The Head Coaches have worked closely with the BAFA National Programme Sub-Committee, comprising BAFA Directors Gary Marshall, Jon Wyse, Matthew Davies and Russ Hewitt, to produce an Application Pack (available on the “Downloads” section of the BAFA website) that prospective coaches should refer to.

Specifically the positions available, for both Junior and Adult teams, include:

· Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Co-ordinators
· Positional Coaches,
· General (coaching) Assistants.

The pack contains details of the roles, their requirements and the process for application and selection, as well as contact details for any questions. The deadline for receipt of applications is midnight on Sunday 27th November 2011. We look forward to receiving all applications from all sections of the British American Football community.

BAFA announce GB Senior and Youth Head Coaches

Coaches Callan and Anderson celebrate winning the EFAF cup with the London Blitz

From BAFA.com

BAFA have announced that London Blitz Assistant Head Coach, Special Teams Coordinator and Defensive back coach Mike Callan will be taking over as Head Coach of the GB Senior team.

Fellow Blitz coach, defensive coordinator and linebacker coach Damien Anderson was also announced as Head Coach of the GB Junior team, a promotion form his assistant coaches position with the same team.

This caps off a great year for the coaching pair as they won their third consecutive undefeated national championship as well as winning the EFAF cup during the same season.

 Nickc Wasmuth was also announced as the General Manager for team GB.

Dbl Coverage would like to extend our congratualtions to the pair and hope they bring every success to the national program.