Play Seniors Gridiron | South Eastern Predators

South Eastern Predators Gridiron Club

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A Word From Our Coach

My journey in Gridiron began 32 years ago here in Victoria. After a couple of years playing here I decided to give it a go in North America. I started by playing for a high school team near Toronto, Ontario, the Clarkson Chargers. Next I was really fortunate to join the NCAA at the University at Buffalo Bulls. My university playing career didn’t end at Buffalo. Following a year at Buffalo I returned to Canada where I had the opportunity to play for the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks and in my final year I joined my brother Kyl (another Victorian Gridiron original!) at the St Marys University Huskies.

In 1999 I started to explore coaching. At first I was surprised by how much fun it was and quickly realized that the biggest difference between coaching and playing was that I could probably coach for a lot longer than I could ever play. During the past 24 years I’ve coached strength and conditioning, multiple roles in Gridiron, academic skills (gridiron being a predominantly school based sport in North America), basketball, ice hockey, and performance development at the high performance sports academy, Southwest Academy. Outside of my work with teams I’ve had the tremendous good fortune to work with professionals in and from the CFL, NFL, NHL, MMA and sports cinema.

Gridiron requires athletes of wide range of sizes and athletic abilities. The team environment provides an opportunity for a variety of players with different attributes to work together in a unique way. From larger players in “the trenches” to the smaller speedier players in the open spaces, there are roles for nearly everyone in gridiron.

After 32 years of involvement with the game, the best general description I have come to is that it’s a “team martial art”. Gridiron is violent. When played at its very best, gridiron involves a lot of hand to hand fighting. It demands extreme discipline. The rules are sometimes complex, but the ethos of the game is that we have to respect and I would even say love our opponent. After all, without them we can’t play. The fun of this game, the love of it and for our opponent really becomes apparent when we give our all. The contract, when we step onto the field, is that I am going to do my very best to beat you and I expect that you will do the same. When we are fortunate enough to find ourselves in that space it is very difficult. Two teams, each absolutely determined to overcome the other, is about the most demanding, uncomfortable, exciting, and exhausting thing there is. And there aren’t many things that are truly more fun than that!

Our Captains

Andrew

Wide Receiver

So a little about myself. I have been involved in sports most of my life, tennis taking up majority of that time. I moved to play soccer for a few years, and around that time started following the NFL and supporting the Arizona Cardinals and Larry Fitzgerald. One year, as a laugh. I decided to look up local gridiron clubs to see if it existed in Australia, found myself a local club and fell in love with the sport. With a lot of people doubting that I would ‘survive’ being a skinny lanky guy, I worked hard to prove myself.
Inspired by the dedication and discipline of the players at the Predators, I soon moved to join the team, but found myself at the bottom of the depth chart. A season of training and games I felt like I found my new home, and had established myself within this club. And made a new bunch of solid mates to go to war with. I’m proud now to be a captain for this club, and continue to strive for greatness.