National Flag Football League has started for me! Split SeaWolves are already making historic moves!
Maybe you already know that I practice American Football. If you don't know, check the end of the post for a list of my older posts about my starting in this crazy passionate sport.
After we defended our championship last year ( First time in the history of the sport in my country ), we had an offseason for 20 days. We began our 2018 journey last December. But this time was very different, I can say we made historic changes this time.
Why is this year going to be different? Well, for the first time in our history, we will play with the kids or our juniors. We finally have few of them aged 15, 16 and 17, who are already a SeaWolf for one or two years. They have been practicing good and they earned their right to play with the senior team. And they did their job pretty good for the first time.
Young generations waiting their turn for tackle football
Let me just explain the rules of the league. There are 7 teams and there will be 5 tournaments. After that, first four teams go into the final four. So, 1st placed will play 4th placed and 2nd placed will play 3rd placed. After this, we will have winners that will play in the Finals.
7 teams are in the championship for 2018 year
Dubrovnik Sharks
Karlovac Dukes
Zagreb Patriots
Zaprešić Saints
Bjelovar Greenhorns
Osijek Cannons and
SPLIT SEAWOLVES
The first tournament was played in Bjelovar. Bjelovar is 500 KM from my hometown, so a big part of the team went with a minibus and three of us went with a car. In this tournament, we played against Karlovac Dukes, Osijek Cannons and Bjelovar Greenhorns.
The first game, against the Dukes, was the easiest. I'm not saying it was easy, we had to give our best, as always. We played good offense and defense so we had our big win. We let our enemies score only one touchdown. It was a morale boost for anyone, especially for our kids.
The second game was the toughest. Osijek played a fast game and our defense couldn't cope with that in the beginning. Luckily, our offense played very well so they helped us a lot. The game could go either way, but this time we were cool-headed warm-hearted winners. Meaning, in the toughest moments we kept our coolness and coped with pressure very well.
We played the third game 10 minutes after the second, so we were kinda tired but we wanted to go home with all three victories. Our coach couldn't make it this time because his wife got sick, so I was kinda coach and player. And, we wanted to come home with 3 victories just so we can show we practiced well. And we made it, we won! This game was also tough, but offense and defense were a perfect mix and a perfect SeaWolf. We never gave up, and until the last play, we believed in ourselves.
Me personally, I think I played well. Some plays I could make better, but I'm satisfied with the first tournament. I had 6 interceptions, 1 deflected ball in defense and I played also 3 plays of offense where I caught 2 balls for a small gain. Anyway, next tournament is played in Zaprešić (Saints). We will play with few more teams that we didn't play this time. I believe in my guys and we are here together until the end.
Don't forget to spread love, it's the only way ;)
MY JOURNEY
Sport:
AMERICAN FOOTBALL
- https://steemit.com/blog/@whack.science/entry-1-my-journey-sport-split-seawolves
- https://steemit.com/blog/@whack.science/entry-2-my-journey-sport-split-seawolves-1st-season-ever
- https://steemit.com/blog/@whack.science/entry-3-my-journey-sport-split-seawolves-1st-finals-ever
- https://steemit.com/yoga/@whack.science/my-acro-yoga-class-i-guess-i-found-my-new-hobby-what-is-acro-yoga
BOULDERING/CLIMBING
Art:
never watched it love, it is an interesting sport when you get all the rules :)
so the tournament is 1-2 days? two games in a row must be tough.
Yes, you need to know the rules and then the sport is really amazing... Tournament is only 1 day... Yeah, I just woke up and everything hurts still, I'm so tired :)
I had no idea that you are practicing this sport, it is kind of exotic one for our country. Usually it is basketball, tennis, football.... Very interesting.
Yeah, too extreme for us still. But I bet in 10 years everyone will know about it. And I hope in 50 years it will be implemented in schools.. This sport teaches you a lot more then any other european sport..
I knew there isba rugby team is ST, but had no idea this existed in Dalmatia. I have a friend from my umiversity thay used to play for Zapresic, but he never mentioned your team. Where do you play in Split?
Yes we exist, and we are current two times champions, so this must be the reason they don't mention us haha :D
We don't play our games in Split, we play it near Sinj ( 25minutes from Split), because nobody wants to give us the field to have our game, or their price is waaaaay to high...
really? I thought you play on Stari Plac. Must be hardbto find sponsors for american football here. Does the city give you any money?
We played once at Stari Plac... This was 5 years ago.. Yes it's hard to have sponsors, our partners are Nichi, Hell and Carlsberg. But they are just helping, not a money sponsors... City doesn't give us money because of something I didn't even want to know...
Split has 2 times champions in it's city and behaves like it's nothing. We are defending the colors of our city and they just don't see us... More to that, this sport is really crazy and chance to get injured is VERY BIG. So we put our health on the line, promoting our city here and out of the country, and our city stays silent about it....
It's sad, but we will never give up... Especially because of the kids..
And yes, to equip one player with used equipment, you need at least 200€... And we have 20-30 players :/ Luckily, organization His Print is donating football equipment to us and whole country...
Yea that really sucks. It's sad that you don't get anything from the city. They could have at least secured you a field to train and play. But unfortunately even some more popular sports don't get any or next to no money so it is kind of no surprise to be honest (no disrespect). There is a rugby team in Sibenik where I'm from and they are also financialy struggling hard, but at least they got a field to train and play. Good luck going forward anyway!
Even Baseball club Nada is forgotten by the city... Ah, you know Croatia...
Thanks, and I hope I will see a club from Šibenik one day :)
In my opinion, American football is a sport for real strong men. Not everyone can play.
Strong mentally. ;)
Congratulations!
Did you already qualify for final tournament with this tournament win? Or just got 3 points (3 wins)?
Thanks @poss!
No, we got 4 more tournaments, next one is for 2 weeks. After that, we will see the table, and 1st four are going into Final Four and then into Finals :D It's a long road, and we got 3 wins, so it's a good start.
There's an often saying in football: It's not how you start, it's how you finish. :)
Are there any talks about joining the AFL? They are expanding the league almost every year. It could be the opportunity to step up even higher.
We're hoping to get to the finals this year after 2 years lost in semi-finals =) But first things first ... the season just started. We'll see how Ljubljana Silverhawks will compete this year.