Amateur American football league tackles heavy demand

http://www.nflchina.com 2010年08月19日 14:31 中国日报 浏览次数：0 评论(0)

It might be a non-contact sport, but clothes are shown little mercy in Flag Football. [Photos provided to China Daily]

With the hangover from the World Cup long gone, another kind of football, American Football, has been given growing interest amongst both Beijing's expats and Chinese.

The fall season for the Beijing American Football League began its second season last Saturday as ten teams, a balanced mixture of Chinese, Americans and Europeans, gathered to play at the fields in Ditan sports stadium.

What began as just five guys playing pick-up American football in Chaoyang Park has morphed into a movement for both amateur and well-seasoned football players piqued by the odd Western sport.

"The league has really started to gain some momentum," said League Commissioner and co-founder of the league Yoyao Hsueh.

A non-contact version of American Football, Flag Football involves fewer lines of beefed-up players donning several layers of padding as they run full bore into each other than its counterpart. Instead, the game relies heavily on quick movements, accurate throwing, and well thought out strategy.

"It's a completely different challenge. With Flag (Football) it is all about speed and your ability to maneuver around people," said league player Scott Cleland, who has played American football for most of his adult life. "The difference is between night and day."

The league officially began its first season last April with Hsueh working with the local NFL China league to work out the details in how they would set things up.

Having successfully acquired local sponsorship from the Blue Frog Restaurant, buying jerseys and flag belts, Hsueh said he is excited to see where this league can go.

But what is now deemed "one of the best organized leagues" by players such as Cleland, started out with much humbler, much more simple roots.

"It all started as just a bunch of guys heading to the park, finding an open space and throwing the ball around," he said.

Within the first two weeks of their "throw around" sessions, the number of players had doubled and by the time they ended their first unofficial "season" in November, they had more quadrupled their numbers, he said.

"After that we just said to ourselves 'we've got the numbers, let's do the league', " he said.

Now, a year later, the league boasts more than 80 players, 10 teams with eight players each, with the number of interested players growing so quickly Hsueh said he has had to limit the amount he has allowed to join.

The interest in the sport comes not only from Americans who grew up with the game, but also from curious Chinese looking to learn a new sport while making new friends.

For Shanxi-native Donovan Wan, this is his second season playing in the league. He said he has always been a huge fan of American football and the NFL.

"I've always watched the Superbowl on TV. It's an exciting sport with lots of competition and lots of body contact," said Wan.

While Wan has been able to watch the Superbowl, America's biggest tournament for football, he said it was nearly impossible to find anywhere to play and is grateful for someone having finally set up a league.

"I love this game," he said.
 

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