Garp
26-04-2009, 08:14
Today was the second Annual Warrior Bowl for the University of Hawaii.
The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) tightly controls the number of practices and stuff for the college students, to protect those students and ensure they're at college to learn.
We're reaching the end of spring training and summer break is about to be here, so most Colleges have taken to holding an exhibition match as their final practice, which University of Hawaii chooses to call Warrior Bowl (the team is called the Warriors.)
The college has around 70 players in the team, so it's fairly easy to get 22 on pitch and 22 on the side lines, along with each teams dedicated kicker and so on. Most of the team won't be regulars come the main season, but still remain on the draft and ready for action should there be a need.
Lana's brother (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28975679@N05/3475681278/) was an active part of the team last year (and played in the Sugar Bowl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Bowl), a really big event) but at the end of the season was dropped from the team. The coach wanted him to be a type of player he wasn't physically up to scratch for, Offensive Linesman, and set him targets to achieve to get back into the team. Beginning of this year despite getting bad stomach flu he hit his target weight of 255lb (18st 3lb) and beat the bench press target: he's able to bench press over 300lbs (21st 6lb), so he's back in the team and been involved in practices, playing as number 60. He's actually one of the lighter players on the team but stronger than a good number (one teammate reportedly bench presses 400lbs!)
Today's exhibition match was completely free, and saw the coach sitting on the side lines doing PR and overseeing the match whilst the Defense coach and Offense coach managed a team each. American Football for all it's slow pace, is extremely complex tactically and there is a very real and serious need for 3 coaches in every team. At UH (University of Hawaii) the offense and defense coaches are brothers which added a little bit of sibling rivalry to the game too :) The only concession to this being training and not a serious game was the quarterbacks wearing orange and being "no pounding" targets. Quarterback is the play maker for the team and it takes a very skilled and valuable player to get to play Quarterback. No team can afford to have theirs injured needlessly during practice matches!
Things were a little slow to start with but once the game really got underway there were some beautifully intricate plays taking place with some super distractions and feints. Unfortunately we had to wait until the 3rd Quarter for Lana's brother to get some action:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3371/3474871465_470130a455.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3371/3474871465_73c5818a7f_o.jpg)
Unfortunately my camera batteries died so that's the only game shot I've got with him in it and he's mainly hidden by his team mates. He's one of the front row offensive linesmen, generally he seemed to be in the centre of the line but that changes with certain plays. His role changes depending on if the team is doing offense or defense. With offense his role is to stop any players getting past the initial line and give the quarter back enough space to make the smartest play. On defense he's trying to take down the opposing team's quarterback or receiver.
Generally that seems to involve running full belt into the guys in front of you. All 255lb+ of him launches forwards at the start of the play, straight into his opposite number, trying to get them down fast, or at the worst blocked.
It was surprisingly good fun seeing the match. American football is slow, I'd much prefer a good game of rugby, but live, as with many sports, is so much better than watching on TV. I'm looking forward to next season and hopefully getting to watch some of the games, and hopefully getting to see Lana's brother play more :)
The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) tightly controls the number of practices and stuff for the college students, to protect those students and ensure they're at college to learn.
We're reaching the end of spring training and summer break is about to be here, so most Colleges have taken to holding an exhibition match as their final practice, which University of Hawaii chooses to call Warrior Bowl (the team is called the Warriors.)
The college has around 70 players in the team, so it's fairly easy to get 22 on pitch and 22 on the side lines, along with each teams dedicated kicker and so on. Most of the team won't be regulars come the main season, but still remain on the draft and ready for action should there be a need.
Lana's brother (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28975679@N05/3475681278/) was an active part of the team last year (and played in the Sugar Bowl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Bowl), a really big event) but at the end of the season was dropped from the team. The coach wanted him to be a type of player he wasn't physically up to scratch for, Offensive Linesman, and set him targets to achieve to get back into the team. Beginning of this year despite getting bad stomach flu he hit his target weight of 255lb (18st 3lb) and beat the bench press target: he's able to bench press over 300lbs (21st 6lb), so he's back in the team and been involved in practices, playing as number 60. He's actually one of the lighter players on the team but stronger than a good number (one teammate reportedly bench presses 400lbs!)
Today's exhibition match was completely free, and saw the coach sitting on the side lines doing PR and overseeing the match whilst the Defense coach and Offense coach managed a team each. American Football for all it's slow pace, is extremely complex tactically and there is a very real and serious need for 3 coaches in every team. At UH (University of Hawaii) the offense and defense coaches are brothers which added a little bit of sibling rivalry to the game too :) The only concession to this being training and not a serious game was the quarterbacks wearing orange and being "no pounding" targets. Quarterback is the play maker for the team and it takes a very skilled and valuable player to get to play Quarterback. No team can afford to have theirs injured needlessly during practice matches!
Things were a little slow to start with but once the game really got underway there were some beautifully intricate plays taking place with some super distractions and feints. Unfortunately we had to wait until the 3rd Quarter for Lana's brother to get some action:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3371/3474871465_470130a455.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3371/3474871465_73c5818a7f_o.jpg)
Unfortunately my camera batteries died so that's the only game shot I've got with him in it and he's mainly hidden by his team mates. He's one of the front row offensive linesmen, generally he seemed to be in the centre of the line but that changes with certain plays. His role changes depending on if the team is doing offense or defense. With offense his role is to stop any players getting past the initial line and give the quarter back enough space to make the smartest play. On defense he's trying to take down the opposing team's quarterback or receiver.
Generally that seems to involve running full belt into the guys in front of you. All 255lb+ of him launches forwards at the start of the play, straight into his opposite number, trying to get them down fast, or at the worst blocked.
It was surprisingly good fun seeing the match. American football is slow, I'd much prefer a good game of rugby, but live, as with many sports, is so much better than watching on TV. I'm looking forward to next season and hopefully getting to watch some of the games, and hopefully getting to see Lana's brother play more :)