lynx_rufus
08-09-2008, 02:30 PM
http://www.courier-gazette.com/articles/2008/08/07/mckinney_courier-gazette/sports/asports01.txt
BY ANDREW MAY, McKinney Courier-Gazette
Mike Cluskey is nothing if not persistent.
The CEO of the Yorkshire Rams, a team that competes in the British American Football League, sparked up a dialogue over the internet with Celina defensive tackles coach Dusty Hutson three years ago on a football forum inquiring about a certain offensive formation.
What started out innocently enough eventually escalated into Cluskey requesting to bring a select group of youth players to the states to train with the record eight-time UIL state champions.
Hutson “shied away from it” repeatedly, instead responding by sending playbooks, training videos and various other football resources. That in itself failed to appease Cluskey, who continued to push for a trip stateside. Then, Hutson approached head coach Butch Ford with the idea earlier this summer and the trip was officially rubber stamped.
“Maybe they realized I wouldn’t go away until they accepted,” Cluskey guffaws.
With that, Cluskey, Yorkshire head coach Paul Goodward and six players are leaving the 65-degree temperatures in Leeds on Saturday to train with the Bobcats in triple-digit heat for a week until departing Aug. 17. Because the British footballers are not fulltime Celina students, they will not be able to run through drills with their American counterparts. They can watch how practice is conducted, get ideas, and chat with the Bobcat coaches and players, but that’s all. If they so choose, the Rams can put inspiration into action with each other in a separate breakout group sans any orange-clad athletes. They can also carry out their own drills before or after practice in addition to viewing film and using the weight room. “We don’t want to do anything to take away from our kids,” Hutson said, “but we still want to accommodate them and help them learn about Texas High School football.”
Hutson doesn’t believe the cluster of young chaps will create any distractions for the Bobcats because of the community-oriented nature of the Celina program. Parents and coaches from around the Metroplex frequently take in the sights and sounds during two-a-days and the regular season.
“We’re used to it,” he said.
‘Kilt wearers’
The Yorkshire Rams began as the Wakefield Wasps in 1986 before moving to Huddersfield the very next year and undergoing the first of several name changes. For the next 21 years the team shifted locales trying to find a permanent home, and as a result of its nomadic existence, renamed to Yorkshire. In 2006, the squad moved to Leeds, a major British city on the River Aire in West Yorkshire, and has been putting down roots in the local community ever since.
The Rams started their first-ever competitive youth contact football team this season for players ages 16 to 19. There are approximately 50 senior teams, the same number of University teams, and roughly 25 youth and junior contact teams in Britain.
Yorkshire’s senior team comprises nearly 50 players, but the youth team began the season with just 30, which was shaved to 17 after many players decided the game was too tough for them.
“I’ve got a lot of friends who play rugby and they see football as a less physical sport because we wear pads so I get a lot of stick off them, but I don’t mind,” said center Laurence Hall, 17, who has been playing for about 2.5 years. “I keep telling them to come down and try football but they won’t dare. My mum finds it quite hard to watch me play; she always thinks I’m going to get hurt.”
Players like Hall are trying to change the stigma attached to the sport. In the early days, the club was always considered a social team that happened to play football, and as a consequence, viewed as a bit of a joke. The team was “pretty hard,” but had no real fundamentals back then due to a lack of coaching. As a result, the rough and tough players were lost, leaving a hodgepodge of differing talent.
“The team consisted of a few outstanding players surrounded by what we called ‘kilt wearers,’” Cluskey said.
But since the relocation to Leeds the club has posted two consecutive winning seasons, brought in a new coaching staff and started the youth team to train younger players.
‘Rugby lite’
American football in Britain plays second fiddle in an orchestra composed by soccer-crazed fans. The primary exposure to one of the most popular U.S. sports is through international broadcasting of the Super Bowl. Even then, viewers must be dedicated to the cause to catch a glimpse.
“There are a lot of Super Bowl parties around even though it’s on at about three in the morning,” Hall said.
Hall and teammate Robert Chandler, 17, agree that football is behind soccer, cricket, both forms of rugby (Rugby League and Rugby Union), tennis and boxing in terms of popularity in Britain. Though it is growing, the development is still quite slow because of misconceptions about the sport.
“Some friends and others at my school believe that football is for weaklings because of the padding, although I know they are incredibly incorrect and ignorant in their assumption considering most have neither played nor watched a football game,” said Will Smith, a quarterback who has been playing for four years.
For those that do partake, it is based on pure love of the game. Smith, 17, is forced to travel for an hour simply to get to practice. While he participates in mixed martial arts and badminton on the side, football is his ultimate passion.
“It’s the only sport I love to play 100 -percent of the time and give 100-percent dedication to,” he said.
Cluskey said many in Britain are completely ignorant when it comes to football, commonly perceiving it to be “rugby lite” due to the helmets and pads. Most have only seen the game since the 1980s and have no idea as to the history and pedigree of the sport and its players.
He also sights American cultural imperialism and the signal for the end of all that is British.
“The irony is that the people that started the Yorkshire Rams couldn’t have been more down to earth and British if they had tried,” Cluskey said. “It may be called American football in the UK, but in virtually all cases it is just another bunch of local people playing a team game on a Sunday afternoon.”
The National Football League has begun trying to develop its fan base abroad by scheduling games at Wembley Stadium. On Oct. 26, the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers are set to face off at the British soccer venue. Last season’s inaugural game outside of North America between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins was played before a sellout crowd of 81,176. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated earlier this year that the league’s UK viewership figures have grown by 40 percent since.
“The NFL regular season game at Wembley means a lot to us football fanatics, but try to get a British NFL fan to one of our games and they sit there beefing about how we aren’t as good as their team and how our players aren’t up to scratch,” Cluskey said. “We usually see them once and then they never come back.”
Expedited training
Football in the UK is not linked in any way with the schools, but Yorkshire is hoping to change that with its journey to Celina next week, a trip Hutson believes to be the first of its kind. It is hoped that the collaborative exercise between the Rams and Bobcats will pave the way for South Leeds’ seven high schools to join forces with other Texas schools to help advance the educational and sporting links made during the trip.
“Even if it is just a long distance cultural exchange of ideas or if it is a full blown exchange of students and teachers it will be a success,” Cluskey said.
Smith, a student at Ermysted’s Grammar School in Skipton, estimates that spending one week with the Celina football team will be the equivalent of nine weeks worth of training in the UK. The intensity, execution and discipline of football in Celina will be the most valuable tool for Hall, who believes those three aspects of the sport are not focused on enough in England.
“It’s a culture in sport that we don’t really have and that’s what I want to take back,” Hall said. “It’s just a completely different culture and it’s just really exciting to come out and see the best play the game.”
BY ANDREW MAY, McKinney Courier-Gazette
Mike Cluskey is nothing if not persistent.
The CEO of the Yorkshire Rams, a team that competes in the British American Football League, sparked up a dialogue over the internet with Celina defensive tackles coach Dusty Hutson three years ago on a football forum inquiring about a certain offensive formation.
What started out innocently enough eventually escalated into Cluskey requesting to bring a select group of youth players to the states to train with the record eight-time UIL state champions.
Hutson “shied away from it” repeatedly, instead responding by sending playbooks, training videos and various other football resources. That in itself failed to appease Cluskey, who continued to push for a trip stateside. Then, Hutson approached head coach Butch Ford with the idea earlier this summer and the trip was officially rubber stamped.
“Maybe they realized I wouldn’t go away until they accepted,” Cluskey guffaws.
With that, Cluskey, Yorkshire head coach Paul Goodward and six players are leaving the 65-degree temperatures in Leeds on Saturday to train with the Bobcats in triple-digit heat for a week until departing Aug. 17. Because the British footballers are not fulltime Celina students, they will not be able to run through drills with their American counterparts. They can watch how practice is conducted, get ideas, and chat with the Bobcat coaches and players, but that’s all. If they so choose, the Rams can put inspiration into action with each other in a separate breakout group sans any orange-clad athletes. They can also carry out their own drills before or after practice in addition to viewing film and using the weight room. “We don’t want to do anything to take away from our kids,” Hutson said, “but we still want to accommodate them and help them learn about Texas High School football.”
Hutson doesn’t believe the cluster of young chaps will create any distractions for the Bobcats because of the community-oriented nature of the Celina program. Parents and coaches from around the Metroplex frequently take in the sights and sounds during two-a-days and the regular season.
“We’re used to it,” he said.
‘Kilt wearers’
The Yorkshire Rams began as the Wakefield Wasps in 1986 before moving to Huddersfield the very next year and undergoing the first of several name changes. For the next 21 years the team shifted locales trying to find a permanent home, and as a result of its nomadic existence, renamed to Yorkshire. In 2006, the squad moved to Leeds, a major British city on the River Aire in West Yorkshire, and has been putting down roots in the local community ever since.
The Rams started their first-ever competitive youth contact football team this season for players ages 16 to 19. There are approximately 50 senior teams, the same number of University teams, and roughly 25 youth and junior contact teams in Britain.
Yorkshire’s senior team comprises nearly 50 players, but the youth team began the season with just 30, which was shaved to 17 after many players decided the game was too tough for them.
“I’ve got a lot of friends who play rugby and they see football as a less physical sport because we wear pads so I get a lot of stick off them, but I don’t mind,” said center Laurence Hall, 17, who has been playing for about 2.5 years. “I keep telling them to come down and try football but they won’t dare. My mum finds it quite hard to watch me play; she always thinks I’m going to get hurt.”
Players like Hall are trying to change the stigma attached to the sport. In the early days, the club was always considered a social team that happened to play football, and as a consequence, viewed as a bit of a joke. The team was “pretty hard,” but had no real fundamentals back then due to a lack of coaching. As a result, the rough and tough players were lost, leaving a hodgepodge of differing talent.
“The team consisted of a few outstanding players surrounded by what we called ‘kilt wearers,’” Cluskey said.
But since the relocation to Leeds the club has posted two consecutive winning seasons, brought in a new coaching staff and started the youth team to train younger players.
‘Rugby lite’
American football in Britain plays second fiddle in an orchestra composed by soccer-crazed fans. The primary exposure to one of the most popular U.S. sports is through international broadcasting of the Super Bowl. Even then, viewers must be dedicated to the cause to catch a glimpse.
“There are a lot of Super Bowl parties around even though it’s on at about three in the morning,” Hall said.
Hall and teammate Robert Chandler, 17, agree that football is behind soccer, cricket, both forms of rugby (Rugby League and Rugby Union), tennis and boxing in terms of popularity in Britain. Though it is growing, the development is still quite slow because of misconceptions about the sport.
“Some friends and others at my school believe that football is for weaklings because of the padding, although I know they are incredibly incorrect and ignorant in their assumption considering most have neither played nor watched a football game,” said Will Smith, a quarterback who has been playing for four years.
For those that do partake, it is based on pure love of the game. Smith, 17, is forced to travel for an hour simply to get to practice. While he participates in mixed martial arts and badminton on the side, football is his ultimate passion.
“It’s the only sport I love to play 100 -percent of the time and give 100-percent dedication to,” he said.
Cluskey said many in Britain are completely ignorant when it comes to football, commonly perceiving it to be “rugby lite” due to the helmets and pads. Most have only seen the game since the 1980s and have no idea as to the history and pedigree of the sport and its players.
He also sights American cultural imperialism and the signal for the end of all that is British.
“The irony is that the people that started the Yorkshire Rams couldn’t have been more down to earth and British if they had tried,” Cluskey said. “It may be called American football in the UK, but in virtually all cases it is just another bunch of local people playing a team game on a Sunday afternoon.”
The National Football League has begun trying to develop its fan base abroad by scheduling games at Wembley Stadium. On Oct. 26, the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers are set to face off at the British soccer venue. Last season’s inaugural game outside of North America between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins was played before a sellout crowd of 81,176. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated earlier this year that the league’s UK viewership figures have grown by 40 percent since.
“The NFL regular season game at Wembley means a lot to us football fanatics, but try to get a British NFL fan to one of our games and they sit there beefing about how we aren’t as good as their team and how our players aren’t up to scratch,” Cluskey said. “We usually see them once and then they never come back.”
Expedited training
Football in the UK is not linked in any way with the schools, but Yorkshire is hoping to change that with its journey to Celina next week, a trip Hutson believes to be the first of its kind. It is hoped that the collaborative exercise between the Rams and Bobcats will pave the way for South Leeds’ seven high schools to join forces with other Texas schools to help advance the educational and sporting links made during the trip.
“Even if it is just a long distance cultural exchange of ideas or if it is a full blown exchange of students and teachers it will be a success,” Cluskey said.
Smith, a student at Ermysted’s Grammar School in Skipton, estimates that spending one week with the Celina football team will be the equivalent of nine weeks worth of training in the UK. The intensity, execution and discipline of football in Celina will be the most valuable tool for Hall, who believes those three aspects of the sport are not focused on enough in England.
“It’s a culture in sport that we don’t really have and that’s what I want to take back,” Hall said. “It’s just a completely different culture and it’s just really exciting to come out and see the best play the game.”