A new look for...Derby Braves

It started with a throwaway comment in DC Towers, evolved into a fully blown argument, and ended with this - three teams, two re-designs, one winner.

Double Coverage writers Tom Snee and Thomas Piachaud attempt to take on re-designing the kits of the three teams - selected by you, the reader, on our Facebook page - most in need of a new look.

The rules are simple; each writer submits a kit design for each team, which has to be sympathetic to either the team's current colour palette or that of the team's university/athletic union. Other than that, it's pretty much a free for all.

The writers each submit their ideas along with a description of the "creative process", and a Facebook poll will decide the winning design.

First up, the Derby Braves.

Tom Snee

"Florida 2.0"

As the blowout, run-away winners of our poll, our dear readers believe Derby Braves are in serious need of a makeover. Orange and blue can be a sickly combination, but can be done tastefully  as hopefully I shall demonstrate (Ed: sure...).

First of all, the good news; Derby's helmets - white with an orange-over-blue stripe and a strong decal - are up there with the best in the league. I'll keep them as they are.

The rest however...not so much. My initial thought was to go down a similar angle to the Chicago Bears alternate jersey. The orange colouring and handsome typeface of the numbers sit well on the deep navy shirt, but the problem with Derby is that their AU's shade of blue is infinitely more garish.

Cruising through the comments on the poll, it seems Derby's own players prefer the Braves' white alternate jersey, and so I came to the design below, which has a real Florida Gators feel to it (Ed: You mean it copies the Florida Gators...).

As well as being practical (fewer clashes, 3G homefield meaning less mud), the jersey keeps some of the elements of the Bears alternate - sleeve stripes and traditional typeface - while adding some of Derby's favoured blue. The look is completed by the Braves' logo and that of Team Derby, with the university logo on the hip/upper thigh.

Derby's AU apparently have a rule that the team's jersey must be 70% orange, so the white look may have to be classed as the away shirt, but I still think it's a solid concept.

Austrian Football League Week 1 Review

The Prague Black Panthers take the field. © Kellner Holly Thomas/Gridiron Photography

The opening two games of the AFL season took place on Saturday and Sunday and whilst both of last year’s finalists took home the spoils, the competitive nature of the AFL gave us two compelling games, both of which are going to be reviewed here.

SWARCO Raiders 31 – JCL Graz Giants 21

Alex Good fights against the Raiders defence.

The tone, and seemingly the result of the game, was set after the opening drive when without hesitation, the Graz Giants gambled on 4^th and 7 and lost with only 11 yards to go from pay dirt instead of taking the field goal. It was clear that after last year’s two shootouts against the SWARCO Raiders, the Giants knew that they needed every possible point. Their belief was proved correct when Kyle Callahan and Co capitalised by driving the ball 89 yards in little over 3 minutes and put 7 points on the board.

From there, the Raiders dominated the game to until they had an insurmountable 31-0 lead with 7 minutes a 15 seconds left in the 4^th.  Their dominance was highlighted by a standout performance from wide receiver and running back Talib Wise, who’s first of two touchdowns was a toe-tapping 17 yard catch to take the score to 14-0.

Graz did put up 21 straight points to close out the game, but this meant little as the game was already dead and buried. Quarterback Alex Good is clearly the teams most dangerous threat and in my opinion should have scrambled more than he did on the day, as it looked like the Raiders didn’t have a suitable answer when #7 tucked the ball and got himself upfield.

Player of the Game: Talib Wise, WR/RB #9

His punt returns were a real game changer, breaking off returns of 45 and 48 yards to give his team excellent field position as well as contributing with both a rushing and receiving score.

Talib Wise

Prediction: Wrong. I went with the upset but the Raiders were just too strong on opening day at home.

Highlights Here 

The next re-stream of the game is the 30^th March at 14:30 CET at www.raiderstv.at

Prague Black Panthers 14 – Raiffeisen Vikings 31

© Kellner Holly Thomas/Gridiron Photography

Last year’s champs started their title defence at home in Vienna against a new look Prague Black Panthers who were out to shock the league on opening day. In what was reportedly some cold and windy conditions, the two sides put on a good show with the Raiffeisen Vikings showing their class to race to a 24-0 lead before the Black Panthers showed how much they have grown as a team from last year’s two shutouts by putting up two nice looking touchdown passes in a mini comeback bid.

Whilst the Vikings presented a very balanced attack, the Panthers were too one dimensional to really threaten the tough Vikings defence as their rushing game was non existent, the only man with positive yardage in the rushing column was quarterback Andrew Shoop. Our highlighted player Christoph Gross looked on point with his throws and was very efficient, only letting a poor decision on a deep ball blot his copybook with an interception on the day.

Being the first game of the season both teams will have kinks to iron out going into week two. The Vikings will look to capitalise on the momentum they have by rolling last year’s bottom dwellers the AFC Rangers whilst the Black Panthers can take heart in the emergence of their passing game and look to utilise it more in next weekends game against the Swarco Raiders.

Player of the Game: Christoph Gross, QB #8

Gross quickly got back into his groove from last season tossing 2 touchdowns to go along with his 258 yards passing which included an 85 yard strike to Stefan Holzinger.

Chris Gross found last season's form a sliced up the Panther defence.  © Kellner Holly Thomas/Gridiron Photography

Prediction: Correct. The Vikings didn’t reach the 40 point mark whilst the Black Panthers exceeded expectations by 4 points but overall the result was pretty expected.

Highlights Here 

Andrew Shoop on the run.
© Kellner Holly Thomas/Gridiron Photography

Ross' Season Prediction Score: 1-1

Double Coverage would like to give a big thank you to Kellner Holly Thomas and Gridiron Photography for providing us with pictures of the Panthers - Vikings game. We will be working together throughout the season to bring you some of the best shots from the league. Please visit the Gridiron Photography page and give it a 'like'.

Interview with Josef Åhman

Interview with Josef Åhman

Double Coverage: Despite American football being the biggest sport in the USA, in most other parts of the world it's still at various levels in its development cycle. Was there any particular reason why FISU felt like now was the right time to add an American football WUC to the schedule?

Josef Åhman: It was IFAF who started this process some years ago. FISU has been positive throughout the process, since American football has a strong base in university sports. There is a process that new sports have to follow before they are accepted and American football filled all requirements. 

For example there are 100 university teams in Europe and 250 university teams in Asia. The Swedish University Sports Federation has a tradition of introducing new sports on the FISU program, so we have followed the process closely and decided to send in our candidature as soon as there was a possibility.

The First American Football World University Championship Announcement

 The 9^th of March was a historic day for international and university American Football as the International University Sports Federation (FISU) announced a partnership with the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) to put everyone’s beloved game onto the FISU sports programme.

Along with this announcement it was also revealed that the very first World University Championship (WUC) in American Football would be held in Uppsala, Sweden in 2014.

With the GB Students off to Uppsala on the 6^th of April to face Sweden themselves, Double Coverage secured a couple of interviews with the key figures organising the event in Sweden to discover some specifics about the very first WUC and what that will mean for students in the future.

Ross Watson posed questions to both Martin Söderberg and Josef Åhman. Martin is the Project Manager of the WUC and a key figure within the Uppsala 86er organisation whilst Josef is the Secretary General of the Swedish University Sports Federation and has worked closely with the FISU in organising the event.

London Olympians Murray Dumas on the season ahead

London Olympians offensive coordinator Murray Dumas is anticipating an exciting season in store as the South Londoners look to move back among the American football elite in Great Britain.
The Olympians won the first of their back-to-back EuroBowl's 20 years ago and won the British title 10 out of 11 years from 1996-2006, but have seen crosstown rivals London Blitz, from north of the Thames, and London Warriors, from the west of the city, set themselves apart from the rest of the BAFA National League in recent seasons.

“With two teams, the Warriors and Blitz, they've got many coaches and players who have come from our club, when we were at the height, so those two teams particularly, practice well and prepare very well,” Dumas said. “A lot of teams over the last five years, from what I have seen, they've dropped back a little bit and now they're seeing the old ways of what we used to be coming through with the Warriors and Blitz and they saw that we've come back, they're now stepping up. This season should be very exciting.”

Dumas initially joined the Olympians in 1998, during their decade of dominance, and was with the club until 2007, before taking a five-year break and returning to the club last year and remembers the championship years with fondness.