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Last Updated: Dec 3, 2023 - 1:35:06 PM

By Michael Preston – IFAF
Nov 25, 2023 - 1:32:52 PM

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USA… The Independent Women's Football League (IWFL) and USA Football, the sport’s national governing body on youth and amateur levels, have forged a partnership to further promote the sport and its immense popularity among female athletes.

All USA Football women’s national teams for International Federation of American Football (IFAF) women’s competitions will comprise entirely of IWFL athletes. In addition, the IWFL has named USA Football as the league’s Official Education Partner and will provide USA Football membership to all IWFL coaches and officials. USA Football conducts more than 100 training events annually on youth and amateur levels. In the past two years, USA Football has helped train more than 16,000 football coaches in all 50 states.

This football partnership also will further strengthen girls’ participation in America’s favorite sport. The IWFL will establish an “IWFL ‘J’ League” – or “Junior” league – in the coming year. These all-girls youth leagues will offer more youngsters the opportunity to further their football participation within the IWFL’s 42 markets in the United States and Canada.

More than 450 American high schools offer girls-specific football programs, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). This figure represents the greatest number of girls-specific high school football programs in history.

“This is a very exciting partnership for us,” said Laurie Frederick, IWFL Chief Executive Officer. “USA Football has made great progress in the standardization of youth football. They have represented the USA well as a member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF). This partnership is just one more step towards the same standardization of girls and women’s football. We look forward to developing stable programs with USA Football well into the future.”

“We’re extremely pleased and proud to partner with the IWFL,” said USA Football Executive Director Scott Hallenbeck. “Football’s appeal is universal. Its values and excitement resonates with women and men, boys and girls.

We look forward to a strong relationship with the IWFL for the betterment of the sport and our U.S. women’s national team program.”

https://www.usafootball.com/articles/displayArticle/6440/6558
Contact: Steve Alic, salic@usafootball.com

Great Britain… Under the floodlights of the National American Football Academy Stadium in Amiens, the Great Britain Lions pulled off another amazing victory against the French national team on Saturday, November 15.

The Great Britain Lions have an outstanding record against the French team, having won all five of the meetings between the two nations. Despite this, France came in to the game highly favored having recently defeated the current European Champions, Sweden, in a similar friendly fixture.

France opened the scoring on their first possession when quarterback Paul Durand connected with receiver Jeremy Larroque for a 30-yard touchdown pass. The ensuing extra-point kick was blocked by Tom Barker. The Lions responded in the second quarter with a long drive capped by Gareth Dauley's four-yard touchdown run. But Ian Jacquet's extra-point kick sailed wide of the post leaving the score at 6-6 going into half-time.

Defense dominated the third and most of the fourth quarter until the stalemate was finally broken just four minutes remaining. Great Britain quarterback, Stuart Franklin, scrambled to his right and fired a 25-yard pass to the end zone where receiver Ian Jacquet made an outstanding catch under pressure. Jacquet kicked the extra point to make the score 13-6.

France had two more opportunities to win the game but the Lions defense stopped both possessions on fourth down to give the Lions a historic victory.

Great Britain Head Coach, Riq Ayub said: "I am very honored to be part of the achievement of this team. The players and staff have been a privilege to work with and it's their hard work and dedication that has made this result possible. What we must do now is build on this achievement as we work towards the next European Championships in 2010."

BAFA National Program Lead Director, Jim Messenger said: "Head Coach, Riq Ayub, and his team have achieved amazing results with very limited resources. The dedication and resourcefulness of everyone has been outstanding. We are very lucky to have such skilled and committed volunteers. With the European championship just twenty months away, we will all be working hard to give the team the best opportunity to win in Frankfurt."
https://www.bafa.org.uk/

Canada… Football Canada, the national body for amateur football, has named its coaching staff for the 2011 International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Senior World Championship.
Larry Haylor, the former head coach of the University of Western Ontario Mustangs, has been chosen to lead the team.
Also named to the coaching staff are five head coaches of CIS teams who all have a winning background. The assistants include Blake Nill from the University of Calgary, Greg Marshall from the University of Calgary, Glen Constantin from the University of Laval , Jeff Cummins from Acadia University and Brian Towriss from the University of Saskatchewan.
The location of the event has not yet been determined, but there have been bids from Austria and a joint bid from Denmark and Sweden to host the 2011 tournament.
This competition will mark the first time that Canada will field a team for qualification for the IFAF Senior World Championship. They join the United States, who played in their first tournament in 2007.
With the CIS season coming to an end, the coaches will meet to look towards 2011. Player selection criteria and team administration will be on the agenda.

For more information and coaches bios:
https://www.footballcanada.com/useredits/Image/FC-Senior2001Coaches.pdf.

Contact: communications@footballcanada.com

Finland… A women’s flag tournament was held Saturday, November 15, in Finland with three teams participating in the event organized by the Rauma Sea City Storm.

The tournament featured the Rauma Sea City Storm, Turku Trojans, and the Jyväskylä Jaguars. The event was successful and teams are planning friendship games for the future.

Scores:
Sea City Storm 6    Jaguars 12
Jaguars 0     Trojans 13
Trojans 10     Sea City Storm 0

https://www.sajl.fi/-/artikkeliarkisto/?num=15523

Germany… The German American football federation’s (AFVD) announced that its membership has increased by 1,367 people, representing a 4.18% increase from a year ago. The federation has a total of 32,697 members.

The figures were verified by the German Olympic Sports Committee.

AFVD is ranked 42nd out of 60 sports federations in Germany. Olympic sports such as ice-skating, fencing, baseball, softball, triathlon, and ice hockey have fewer members in their federations.

The federation has 20,697 men and 11,811 women members.
https://www.efaf.de/

Austria… The Raiffeisen Vikings won the Under-19 College Bowl defeating the Danube Dragons 19-7 on Sunday, November 9 in Vienna, Austria in front of 500 spectators.
All but two of the total points were scored in the first half, while the second half featured a defensive battle between the teams. The only second half points came from the Vikings defense forcing the Dragons into their own end zone resulting in a safety.

The most valuable player was named Viking’s Dustin Illetschko for his defensive performances.

https://www.afboe.at/37.html?&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=826&tx_ttnews[backPid]=8&cHash=988a4ad300

Argentina… The Argentinean American football federation, FAA held multiple mini training camps over three sessions on November 8, 15 and 22 at the federation’s Communications Club.
The camp was open to all anyone from the ages of 14 to 45-years-old interested in learning about the sport. Each session lasted for three hours.

Canada… The Vancouver Island Raiders defeated the Burlington Braves 35-8 on Saturday, November 15, in Burlington, Ontario becoming Canadian Bowl champions and captured their second national championship in three years.
Their first title came in 2006 when they defeated the Edmonton Wildcats 27-26 at Caledonia Park in Nanaimo.

The John M Bannerman Memorial Trophy went to offensive player of the game Raider’s Andrew Harris. He carried the ball 32 times, rushing for 410 yards and four touchdowns, capping off what is considered the best game in CJFL history. The 410 yards were the most recorded in any CJFL game ever, bettering the old record of 370 that Harris set two weeks earlier. The four touchdowns were also a Canadian Bowl record.

His teammate Levar Hayden captured the Paul Kirk Memorial Trophy as the defensive player of the game. Hayden had three tackles and two pass knockdowns.

For more information visit www.cjfl.ca.

    Photo by Michael Mahood

Ireland… The Irish American Football Association held a Festival program in Newry at Jennings Park to actively promote American Football in Ireland.
“We chose Newry to begin with due to its strong connections through the Rooney family who own the Pittsburgh Steelers,” said Irish American Football Association President Greg Loughran.
“American Football has been growing steadily over the past few years and we now have 13 teams and another three in our audit process for next year. Next stop will be Portlaoise and Galway, who also have various connections.
“We had a wonderful day in Newry, the sun shone all day, we played football on a perfectly laid out pitch and we made some great friends.”
Contact: Greg Loughran, dacowboy71@hotmail.co.uk
https://www.iiofpitt.org/UserFiles/File/Common%20Ground%20November%202008/Common%20Ground%20November%202008.htm

Ireland… Irish American Football Association President Greg Loughran explains how his federation has established a successful 8-man league to help develop the sport in Ireland…

In whatever part of the world the sport of American Football emerges, it has to compete locally with existing sports for athletes, administrators and resources of all kinds. American Football requires more of these resources than most sports, so can be very difficult to start from scratch.

Ireland is no exception to any other country in this regard. The main team sports in Ireland are Soccer, Rugby and Gaelic Athletic Association sports of Football and Hurling. The GAA has the 4th largest stadium in Europe in Croke Park, Dublin. This stadium of 82.300 seats is regularly filled to capacity for Gaelic games.

Although there are a number of well-established "11-a-side" teams in Ireland, it has been difficult to grow new teams from scratch. It takes a special set of circumstances for a full team to emerge.

For the 2008 playing season, the Irish American Football Association established an 8-a-side league to run along side its fully developed league. This league had two new teams that had moved from Flag Football, the Edenderry Soldiers and Trinity College Dublin Thunderbolts.

A reformed Craigavon Cowboys, who had also been playing flag, and the Dublin Dragons, who had fallen from full league status both needed time to rebuild.

Established 11-a-side teams, the Dublin Rebels and the Cork Admirals also entered teams in the new DV-8 league. As both of these teams had large experienced rosters, it gave new players a chance to play football and gain experience.

This provided a league of six teams so two regional divisions were created to reduce traveling costs.

Under the supervision of DV-8 Commissioner Ciaran O'Sullivan, each team was given the flexibility to draw up it's own schedule which was then published on the https://www.irish-american-football.org/ site.

To keep things as simple as possible, a number of rule changes were required. There are no goal posts required as there is no kicking at all; no kickoffs, no field goals or point after touchdown kicks. Punting is also missing from the game, with a 30-yard walk-off after a turnover on downs. The field is also smaller and is generally played on soccer pitches.

As this is a development level of football, a rule of no blocking below the waist was also introduced to encourage the form blocking. To encourage the development of new players, it was decided that no team would be able to field more than three players with two years of competitive football experience on any one play.

The whole system has worked pretty well although there have been problems and a number of small changes are planned for the 2009 season.

The success of the league can be measured by the fact that 3 new teams have passed the audit process for next season and it is envisioned that another two will apply for DV-8 status for the following year.

Teams who have been in the DV-8 league for two years will then apply for full IAFL status and be audited for moving up.

© Copyright 2008 by bafa.org.uk

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