Junior Season 2013

Our Junior season wrapped up a few weeks ago.  We finished 3-1 in organized games, with another couple of scrimmages thrown in there.

The Lions Junior team opened our season with a camp outside of Prague.  I really like these camps because they allow us to get to know our guys better in an environment and have an affect on their lives.  Each season we do a leadership program during camp.  The program itself is not overtly Christian, but the concepts we put on front of them can easily be tied back to the gospel.  At the very least, it serves as a mechanism to get values in front of our guys that are biblical in nature and sets the stage for future conversations. 

Each season brings with it a new set of challenges, but this season has its own unique challenge in that we do not have a Czech league this year, meaning we have to completely make our own schedule against international opponents that we, honestly, don't know much about.  So we started out season with a minicamp and scrimmage against the juniors from three other teams.  It was a good chance to work with other teams and help develop the game in Czech as a whole.

In light of that, we had our first game against a much larger and more numerous Dresden (Germany) team.  It was quite obviously our first game, just based on the mistakes we made.  But we managed to score a touchdown with 39 second left and converted the two point conversion to win the game 8-7.  

We opted to go for two simply because we were missing some guys on our roster and the ones who played were exhausted.  Our second game was against the Trnava Bulldogs.  We played really well and put up 36 points in the first half.  We started substituting guys who had never played before which is great for getting these guys playing experience.  We didn't score in the second half, but neither did they, so we won 36-0

Our third game was in Bielawa, Poland against the Owls.  The Owls are the champions of the Polish league, but the league itself not being that old, they play 8 man football at the junior level.  So this was their first 11 man game and they brought the hammer.  The Owls were more aggressive than any team we've faced.  We ended up losing that game by a touchdown.  It was a learning experience for our guys because up to that point, we had had poor attendance and effort at practice.  

Our final game was against the Trnava Bulldogs again, but in this time at their place.  We saw an entirely different team.  They fielded a number of guys who were older than junior level.  We suited two guys who were a few months too old, but we were upfront about that.  They had at least three guys suited who were more than a few months older.  So the game was a bit more difficult.  We trailed for a lot of the game, but managed to take control late in the fourth quarter and 23-18.  

This was by far the most interesting football season I have ever been apart of.  Being the only Czech junior team to field an 11 man team, we were pretty much left to schedule our own games, which obviously adds some work to the season.  Nonetheless, the guys who came to practice got a lot better and I enjoyed working with them.