American Football: the sport for me

Sometimes something just feels right

But that didn’t exactly go to plan.

The first team I’d decided to join, one which I had been randomly drawn to, was the American Football team, or York Centurions. I’d planned on going to a Wednesday afternoon training session, and then watching them play on the Sunday. I was going to write about what went on in the session and how it felt to be part of a team. Did it even feel like a team, or individual players? A lot of sports seem to feel like that sometimes.

But from the very first time I contacted Tim Blades, Quarterback and President of the York Centurions, I felt very welcome. He was more than pleased to have me come to a session, and was even willing to tailor it to my needs. I told him I was nervous but he told me I was in very capable hands. Come Wednesday, he met me before the session to give me a brief introduction to the sport and let me know what I’d gotten myself into.

Trying to forget what she'd learnt about rugby tackles...

Before training had even started a lot of the other guys in the club had come up to me offering me advice on how to do things and tips that would be useful to the session, Rucinski, a Wide Receiver, even lent me a spare pair of catching gloves. A few other people were trying out American Football for the first time alongside me so we stuck together with the trainers, Kingstone and Hamilton.

Having a laugh with Kingstone

The training session was hard but with the adrenaline pumping I wasn’t in too much pain. It’s a strenuous work out, but definitely worth it: - I had such a good time.

And I totally rocked it.

Even so, I was incredibly sore the day after, and the day after that ended up in A&E due to pain and immobility in my arm – never a great feeling. Turns out I had ‘severe nerve damage’, but that hadn’t stopped me on Wednesday, I did the full training session even after I’d received the injury. A few painkillers and my arm was sorted – I didn’t even get that much banter off the lads.

At the match on Sunday with "Popps"

On Sunday I headed down to the Centurions v Sharks games to assist – okay, so I was the water girl, but I think I did a good job of it. After the match, or should I say ‘after York smashed Hull’, we headed to the pub for a celebratory drink and a bite to eat. But the experience didn’t end there as that night was the Superbowl and all the players headed down to the Courtyard to keep up to date with the action. I had such a good time, managed to stay up till four in the morning, and didn’t feel too tired with it. The game was all right, but it was the atmosphere I loved most. All the guys are funny and really lovely and hanging out with them was great.

Maybe it was the training, or maybe it was all the shit banter (provided by Nick Walter), either way I know I’ve found the team for me.

So I won’t be trying any more sports this term, but my advice is for you to go out there any try something new – you never know what you might be good at.

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