Join An American Football Team Today

If Sunday's Super Bowl has left you inspired, now's the time to take up a new hobby.

As one of the fastest-growing sports in the UK, there are a number of American football teams at a variety of age groups recruiting new members across the country.

No experience is necessary and all UK clubs registered with BAFANL have fully qualified and insured coaching staff ready to teach you the skills needed.

There’s a position on the field for all shapes and sizes, with the linemen physically matching rugby’s forwards to the nimble running backs with a similar stature to a scrum half or soccer player. 

On Monday 10th February, Swindon Storm Amateur American football club are holding try outs for new players. 

The trials will take place at Isambard School and are for anyone over the age of 14. No previous experience is necessary and all equipment will be supplied by the club. Registration starts at 6. 45pm and costs just £5 for the event. 

Over the last decade American Football has gone from an occasional late night show on Channel 5 to the forefront of Sky Sports Sunday night listings boasting millions of regular viewers.

The expansion of the TV schedule and the International series has had direct impact on the game being played  in this country. 

Swindon local Steve Bennett who is based at RAF Brize Norton has been playing the sport in England since 1995. “I had a lot of fun playing rugby during my school years, but then preparation for my GCSEs took over and all sports dropped out of my life for a bit. My best friend and life long Washington Redskins fan dragged me down to a junior aged squad starting up in Plymouth and I was hooked from the first session!”

Steve’s team won the National Junior Championship in their first year and by 18 he was representing Great Britain in the Junior European Cup in 1998.

Steve joined the RAF in 1999 and continued to play for his nearest clubs right through his RAF career in between deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was also selected to represent the Great Britain Lions Adult squad in their build up to the 2008 European Championships.

In 2005 Steve took up coaching the sport at the University of the West of England (UWE), winning the UK College Bowl National Championship in 2007.

Steve took this experience and in 2008 started the Swindon Storm American Football club while working at RAF Lyneham.

“Its been an incredible amount of work building the team from scratch, even UK clubs often boast well over 50 members, dozens of staff and an annual turnover in the tens of thousands of pounds”.

The club gained entry into the National League (BAFANL) in 2012 and played their first ten game season in 2013. UK teams play in the summer, utilising modified Rugby pitches during the RFU’s off season. 2014 will see a league high 42 teams in the adult league competing in 2 divisions.

Clubs are spread out across the whole of the UK with Greater London hosting the two previous national champions and several perennial powerhouses are based in the midlands and Bristol.