They come from different countries and in some case continents but all speak the same language of American football.
International coaches from 16 IFAF member federation countries are among the 6,000 attendees that converged on San Antonio, Texas, to attend the 89th annual American Football Coaches Association Convention. Some have traveled from the other side of the world, flying in from as far away as American Samoa, Australia and Japan. Others came from Europe, Canada and Mexico.
They are in town to finalize their game plan for the third annual International Bowl on Feb. 1 at Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex in Austin, Texas, but also took time to talk football with their American colleagues.
On Monday morning, the AFCA International Session kicked off the IFAF presence as three speakers shared their experiences of playing the sport around the world.
Canadian Warren Craney is the head coach of York University in his homeland and also is the defensive coordinator of the IFAF World Team. Craney explained the challenges of coaching in tournaments that feature the 11-man game compared with the 12-man format that is more common north of the border and how he has learned to adapt his defensive philosophy for games such as the upcoming International Bowl.
“Football has fundamentals that are transferable, but it is the skills and the schemes that are different,” he said. “We found that if we immersed ourselves in the 11-man game at training camps and put ourselves in that mindset early on, we would be able to compete.”
Craney’s defensive expertise has earned Canada tournament victories and the silver medal at the 2009 IFAF Junior World Championship.
Glenn Terry of the NCAA Eligibility Center answered questions regarding overseas players wishing to play college football in the United States, then Drake University head coach Chris Creighton spoke to the audience about his team’s experiences playing the first-ever game of college American football on African soil, the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl, and the positive role that the visit to Tanzania played in his team’s championship season.
Creighton challenged the listening coaches to answer the question: “Why do you coach?” saying that his philosophy is to take a group of young men and get them to believe in themselves and do something they feel would not have otherwise been possible.
“What drives me is to make playing football at Drake University one of the most incredible experiences of a player’s life,” Creighton said.
Shinzo Yamada, the IFAF World Team special teams coach at the 2012 International Bowl, told how playing American football as a youngster shaped his career and how he is now giving back to the sport through coaching, organizing events in Japan and helping the local community.
“I want to master football to be able to provide service to Japan and people around the world,” Yamada said. “This is my mission, and it is time for me to give back to the sport.”
Yamada led a team of 70 volunteers from his IBM Big Blue X-League team in Japan to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country last March. The group of players, staff and cheerleaders dug mud from ditches, cleaned houses, gave massages to refugees and taught youngsters to play flag football.