Gambrill and Gaydon fly the flag for women’s football
Damian
read
The first session of the Elite Women Flag Football Project was on the 28 July 2012. Women from Coventry University Ladies, Coventry Ladies, Coventry Cougars, Warwick Wolverines, and Hertfordshire Tornadoes all attended on the day.
Why these teams? They are all very active and in fact pioneers in the world of women’s flag in the midlands.
- The Wolverines were the first official women’s flag American Football team and formed in January 2011;
- the Coventry University Ladies won the first ever official women’s flag game in March 2011;
- the Hertfordshire Tornadoes won the first ever women’s BUAFL Women’s Contact 5-on-5 National Championship in June 2012; and
- the Coventry Ladies (made up of women and girls from Coventry’s various other senior and youth teams) and the Coventry Cougars have had women and girls playing in their teams for years.
The second session of the project was held 1 September 2012 which saw a men versus women All-Star game with teams made up of players from Coventry Jets Senior and Youth, Warwick Wolves, and Coventry Cougars.
Phil Gaydon (team manager) told us that although both the women’s teams lost they never flinched and made consistent drives and stands against their bigger, faster, and more experienced opponents. QB Audrey Annabel completed an impressive 7/8 passes in one scoring drive and Becca Haw led the women’s team in receptions with 10 catches for 82 yards.
The project’s Head Coach Andrew Gambrill is well known for making every effort to include girls and women in flag teams wherever he has coached: “I remember when I first started coaching, without thinking I invited two girls to join the team. It was only when we turned up at the first tournament that I realised how differently I saw things to the other coaches with their male only teams. I was told: “you will win nothing with chicks”. Then Lisa Eaton goes and gets a pick six to win the game in the 2002 final and wins MVP. There has been a female player on all eight of my championship winning teams since then, including five girls on the 2010 junior champion team.”
As if to prove his point even further, Elite Women’s squad member Tendai Cheiza attended the latest England flag football trials. While she was not selected bu Head Coach Dave Lee, he had this to say about Cheiza: “Unphased by being the only female participant, Tendai performed with confidence and poise. She demonstrated a high level of athleticism and skill, whilst remaining intuitive and adaptable to new plays and systems. Tendai is a testament to the immense potential in the Women’s Elite Program. An exciting talent and a credit to the work already put into the women’s game. Tendai demonstrates the merits in backing and developing the women’s program, teams, and players in order to realise the potential that is clearly there.”
Andrew Gambrill has recently retired as Head Coach of the Coventry Jets Academy in order to give all his attention to the Elite Women Project, but his successor in the role of Head Coach at the Academy is also the offensive co-ordinator for the project and a co-founder of the Warwick Wolverines – Pete Coppenhall:
Good luck to everyone involved in the Elite Women Project and thank you to Phil and Andrew.
Here at UK American Sports Fans we want to lend our support to the Elite Women Project, women’s flag football and UK Flag football for all ages and sexes. If you are involved in coaching, playing or even watching flag football we’d love to hear from you. Tell us how you are involved.
We’d also love to receive any game previews and game reports from fans of flag football based in the UK. Get in touch for anything flag, by e-mailing info@ukamericansportsfans.com
The next get together for the project is on Saturday 20 October at Westwood Sports centre at the University of Warwick – find out more on their facebook page https://www.facebook.
