IFAF regularly tracks media coverage of American Football around the world and makes clippings available to international media. Click on the links below to read the full story...
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Daring to dream in Deutschland
By Moises Mendoza
Houston Chronicle
Wednesday, September 2
Before home games, a few hours before kickoff, Sean Cooper's teammates can often find him in their small locker room in Marburg, Germany, chomping on a sandwich and enjoying a few beats of Texas hip-hop through the headphones mashed over his ears.
The 23-year-old running back from Pittsburg, Texas, shuts everything out. He forgets he's been searching for a path into professional football in the United States for years. He puts aside the struggles he's had adjusting to a foreign culture thousands of miles from home.
And he doesn't think of the fact he probably has only a few short years until he's too old to break into big-time football in North America.
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Allen High football team bonds with Mexican opponents before game
By Sam Hodges
Dallas Morning News
Friday, September 4
Diplomats everywhere could take a cue from the football players of Allen High School and Prepa Tec of Monterrey, Mexico.
Before smashing into one another at Allen Eagle Stadium on Thursday night, they ate sagging plates of barbecue together in the Allen High cafeteria.
As organized by their respective coaches, offensive backs sat with offensive backs, linebackers with linebackers and so on. The talk was halting at first, but grew animated over second helpings and peach cobbler.
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Youthful flashes look for upset of Boston College
By Jonas Fortune
Akron Beacon Journal
Friday, September 11
If the Kent State football team wants to pull off an upset against Boston College at 2 p.m. Saturday at Alumni Stadium, it won't explicitly rely on the strong arm of sophomore quarterback Giorgio Morgan.
Nor will the team entrust the legs of senior running back Eugene Jarvis to carry the team, especially against the stingy Boston College defense.
The offensive skill players are only as good as the offensive linemen in front of them.
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First Aussie adds kick to Viking football team
By Weronika Budak
Portland Tribune
Tuesday, August 25
Born and raised in Melbourne, Thomas Duyndam began playing Australian Rules Football at age 5. His team won the under-16 national championship.
He had never touched an American football until two years ago. And only a year ago did he play his first American-style game -known in Australia as "gridiron."
Now, the 20-year-old punter figures to start as a freshman for Portland State when the Vikings open Sept. 5 at Oregon State.
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USA Football y la IFAF se unen para aumentar las becas para estudiantes jugadores de futbol americano en Universidades de Estados Unidos
ToDoFutbolAmericano.com
Thursday, September 10
USA Football y la IFAF han anunciado que 8 jugadores internacionales se han metido en el Programa para estudiantes internacional de Estados Unidos (ISP) para la temporada 2009 - 2010.
Este ya es la cuarta vez consecutiva que se celebra esta iniciativa por la organizacion USA Football, y la IFAF se mete de lleno en la estrecha colaboracion con la organizacion Estadounidense para darle mayor cobertura y asi ampliar las posibilidades de que en un futuro proximo el futbol americano esta al alcance de todo el mundo y a un gran nivel.
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Lessons on and off the field at grid camp
By Robert Touchie
The Daily Gleaner
Saturday, August 15
To Josh Sacobie, success is in life is not measured in dollars and cents or wins and losses but by what a person gives back to the sport of football and to the community in general.
Sacobie, a resident of Ottawa but a Fredericton football product, has been in the city this week working for Football Canada as Program Development Co-ordinator. He was an instructor at a football camp put on by Capital Area Minor Football Association (CAMFA) which wrapped up Friday at Chapman Field.
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It's not easy getting a football scholarship when you play in Brussels
By Sandra McKee
Baltimore Sun
Wednesday, September 9
It isn't easy being Baltimore native Gino Culotta, a senior linebacker and running back at the International School of Brussels in search of a Division I football scholarship. Every time he approaches a college coach, the conversation goes something like this:
"Hi, I'd like to talk to you about a football scholarship," Culotta says. "Where are you from?" the coach asks. "Baltimore." "Where do you go to school?" "Brussels." "I've never heard of Brussels, Md." "No. Brussels, Belgium." |
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Two brothers import an impact at Lugoff-Elgins
By Neil White
The South Carolina State
Tuesday, September 8
Brunssum, a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands, is a very long way from Lugoff, a small town in central South Carolina.
They're worlds apart in distance, culture, and - as brothers E.J. and Josh Ruiz are discovering - high school football.
Sons of a U.S. Air Force major stationed at Shaw AFB, the two play for Lugoff-Elgin High after spending the past three years competing for AFNORTH International School, a small private school with students from The Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada just outside of the NATO base Joint Force Command Brunssum, where their father was stationed.
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American Football: Pirates sail into final
By Paul Thomson
East Kilbride News
Wednesday, September 9
The town's only senior American football team is gearing up for the final of Britbowl later this month after an emphatic win at the weekend.
For the East Kilbride Pirates will contest the Britbowl Final on Sunday, September 27 after they claimed a 25-0 away victory over Tamworth Phoenix on Sunday.
The Pirates pulled off the win to set up a British Final against the London Cobras at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster.
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Vier deutsche Nachwuchsspieler nehmen am ISP teil
Football-Aktuell.de
Wednesday, September 9
Nicht nur hierzulande neigen sich die Sommerferien dem Ende zu. Auch in den Vereinigten Staaten geht der Ernst des Lebens weiter. Das an sich ist normalerweise keine Erwähnung wert, doch zwei Footballspieler aus Deutschland konnten den Start in das neue Schuljahr nicht abwarten: Der Berliner Björn Werner und der Hamburger Kai Brusch werden gemeinsam im Rahmen des internationalen Football-Austauschprogramms ISP in diesem Jahr an der Salisbury High School in Connecticut spielen. Für beide Footballer ist es das zweite Jahr an der Ostküste Brusch spielte bereits 2008 in Connecticut, Werner war vor zwei Jahren schon einmal für ein Jahr an der High School. Beide Defensive Line Spieler wollen nun in Salisbury ihren Abschluss machen und sich dabei für das eine oder andere renommierte College empfehlen.
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A gritar: touchdown!
By Loanny Picado
La Prensa
Friday, September 11
El Estadio Olímpico del Instituto Nicaragüense de Deportes (IND) se llenará de guerreros con el inicio del Campeonato Centroamericano de Futbol Americano, que inicia este fin de semana.
Por Nicaragua batallarán el equipo Guerreros, los Campeones Nacionales y que recientemente ganaron la triangular Centroamericana, efectuada en Guatemala. Los otros equipos participantes son El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras.
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Tech Notebook: Williams trying to build confidence in return game
By Nathan Warters
The News & Advance
Thursday, September 10
Ryan Williams' days as a punt returner aren't over.
The Virginia Tech redshirt freshman running back asked off of return duty in the first quarter of Saturday's 34-24 loss to No. 4 Alabama after muffing his first career return. The Hokies' coaches obliged and replaced him with freshman Jayron Hosely.
But Williams said Tuesday that he's still practicing returns and hopes to be back fielding punts sometime soon.
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Ambassador for the game
By Paul Putignano
The Signal
Wednesday, September 9
At this time last year, Saugus High graduate Zack Schafer was taking handoffs as the starting running back for the University of Redlands.
On Sunday, he will be taking handoffs as the starting keskushyökkääjä for the Kuopio Steelers, when the team plays in the Spagettimaljaan, Finland's first division American football championship game. "I never imagined I'd be playing in Finland when my career ended at Redlands," Schafer says. "I always wondered and hoped there would be something I could do with this. I thought about going to some combine. I never imagined I would end up over here. It has been an amazing blessing. To lace it up every Saturday has been such a blessing." |
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Rutherglen american football coach Andy is hoping for success
By Jonathan Geddes
The Rutherglen Reformer
Tuesday, September 9
TOMORROW night, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tennessee Titans will kick-off the latest NFL season, as America's most popular sport gets underway for another year of touchdowns and hard hits.
However one Rutherglen man will be more interested than most when watching the action unfold.
Andy Macintosh, of Cardonald Drive, has been coaching one of Scotland's longest-running American football team, the East Kilbride Pirates, for the past four seasons, and has now led them to the Division One playoff final after a 25-0 victory over Tamworth Phoenix on Sunday.
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It's football, but not as we know it
By Craig Tiriana
The Daily Post
Wednesday, September 9
If you have a penchant for slamming head first into things, Paul Morris wants to hear from you.
And while you're at it, have a think about a no-nonsense name for an American Football team representing Rotorua which Morris wants to enter in a Central North Island competition over the summer.
"I want to get the word out there that the sport is coming here," said Morris, who has started, played and coached teams around the country.