Tamworth Phoenix 2007 - 2010
During the spring of 2007 I was approached by my friend Jay Alexander, to see whether I'd be interested in joining him in a venture within the British Senior Leagues. As I had never considered coaching 'summer ball', I was interested in what he had to say.
My problem with a lot of teams in the British Senior league is that they're full of guys who were past their best, and wanted to run around and have fun, but not really push themselves to be the best. I was at a stage where I wanted to be tested, and wanted to become the best version of me that I could be.
Jay told me that the team would be constructed from local university players, athletes from the local area who were new to the sport, with the addition of youth players who were graduating from the local Youth American Football team - the Tamworth Trojans. I trusted Jay, and if nothing else it would be a lot of fun.
As part of the league's requirements, the team had to fulfill two fixtures - one home and one away - to ensure that we had the ability and infrastructure to play competitive football. We ended up playing four fixtures that summer and won them all, giving us a lot of confidence heading into our rookie season.
While we were confident, we had no idea how well our season was going to go. We tied our first game with the perennially tough Nottingham Caesars, before finishing with a 6-1-1 record, making the playoffs in our first year. We then beat the Merseyside Nighthawks, and the Caesars again in the postseason, giving us a shot at the Division 2 title in our first season. Ironically, the other finalists that season were also a rookie team, built from the foundations of a strong youth movement, combined with excellent coaching. The London Warriors beat us in the final, but as a virtue of making the Division 2 final, the Phoenix were promoted to division 1.
As the defensive coordinator, I wanted to apply a lot of pressure, and play man coverage behind the front, believing that the quality of offensive line in division 2 would not be able to stand-up to the pressure placed on it, leading to quarterbacks would throw errant balls our way. That was certainly the case for a lot of our opponents, but confronted with a bigger, more experienced London Offensive Line, we were outmatched. We gave as good as we got, but were just overpowered by a more physical team.
Learning from the previous year's final, I studied more on zone coverages, and tweaked our scheme, to become more of a three front team. The new Phoenix 3-5 used more of a Cover 3 zone, whilst still having the versatility to bring pressure should we need it.
Once again, the Phoenix outdid expectations, and would go on to finish with a 9-1 record - our only blot on the copybook would be a home defeat to the South Wales Warriors. Our inexperience would tell at the semi-final stage as we were upset by the East Kilbride Pirates at home.
Reloading and rebooting the following year, we were determined not to leave any stone unturned for our quest for a championship. We recruited very well, and exploded to an 9-0 record as our defence led the nation in several statistical categories including total defence and turnovers recovered. We shut out the Gateshead Senators in the first round of the playoffs, before humbling the Cambridge Cats - Division 1's best offensive team - 45-7 in the semi-final, setting up a date in the final with East Kilbride.
Despite some early nerves, the defence stood firm, and secured an early interception as the offense ran wild, scoring early and often. Our defensive front got better and better, harassing the Pirates quarterback all day - sacking him eight times - whilst the defensive backfield snagged three interceptions on the way to a 35-24 win.
It's somewhat of a cliche to say that 'championships are won in the offseason', but for us it was really true. The entire staff looked at our program from top to bottom and identified how we could get better - defensively I felt we needed an identity that our athletes could get behind. I had always thought that we were a very selfless team, and one that played very well together. We didn't have any stand-out athletes, but a team that played TOGETHER and for each other.
The Division 1 championship was my last game as Defensive Coordinator - I had an opportunity to take up a position with the Endicott College Gulls the following season, and didn't want to abandon the team mid-way through the year. I did want to stick around and help the transition, so took up a role coaching the linebackers for half the season, allowing me to still work with the team and help the coaches out as much as I could.
