Portsmouth Dreadnoughts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portsmouth Dreadnoughts

Year Formed

2012

Team Colours

Navy and Yellow

Head Coach

Jim Roberson

Home Field

"Victory Field", Alexandra Park, Portsmouth

Team Motto

"Speed Is Armour"

League

BAFA National Leagues South West Division

The Portsmouth Dreadnoughts are an American Football team currently based in Portsmouth, England. The club was founded in Horndean in April 2012, moving to Southsea in late 2012 and to Alexandra Park, Portsmouth in early 2013. The team is named after the famous battleship HMS Dreadnought that was built in Portsmouth in 1906. From 2014, the Dreadnoughts play in the BAFA National Leagues South West Division.

History

Founding of the Dreadnoughts

The Portsmouth Dreadnoughts were founded in April 2012 by coach Simon O'Hara and three players, Pete Southwood, Ben Bell and David Bennett. They had met whilst playing and coaching for the Solent Thrashers, but found that the travel considerations of a long drive to Southampton from Horndean were significant enough to make them look into how to keep playing American Football, but not at such a distance.

Having decided to leave the Thrashers, the decision to found a new American Football team nearer to home was made. As the nearest major city, Portsmouth was selected as the home of the new team, although practice would occur in Horndean as it was where the players lived. Several names were posed at this early stage, with the 'Anchors', 'Victory' and 'Sea Devils' being suggested, whilst considered team colours included navy blue, orange and battleship gray, the decision was eventually made, with the help of an impromptu straw poll of the pub they were in, that the team would be named the Portsmouth Dreadnoughts. O'Hara was appointed as Head Coach, whilst Southwood, Bennett and Bell were provisionally appointed as Captains.

Growth of the Team

Once the team had been set up, the next issue faced was developing the team from the small group that had started it into a team that would be able to play games. Player recruitment began with friends and family of the original three players, older players who had previously played under Coach O'Hara, and other players who had been at the Hampshire Thrashers but lived in the Portsmouth area.

This developed into a small group of around fifteen players who trained at Horndean with Coach O'Hara and Coach Phil Marter, who had also left the Thrashers and was appointed as defensive co-ordinator. Once it reached the point where more players were travelling to Horndean than lived in that area, the search for a new home began. This led to the Dreadnoughts moving training to Southsea Common at the end of 2012. It was here that the club really took off. An article in The News (Portsmouth) and promotion by the growing group of players saw yet more people join the team.

2013 Season

The Portsmouth Dreadnoughts' first season consisted of three games, two away, one at home. The team was originally intending to play in the United Kingdom Independent Gridiron League, however after the League folded in early July 2013, the Dreadnoughts instead played against two other former UKIG teams, the Plymouth Extreme and the London Hornets.

The first game in Portsmouth Dreadnoughts history was an away game against the Plymouth Extreme. After making the long journey to Plymouth, the Dreadnoughts fell behind early, with the halftime score reading 22–8 to the Extreme. However, a resurgence from the offense behind a power run game provided by running backs Nathan Cooper and Matt Fay in addition to a second half shut out from the defense resulted in a late comeback and a maiden victory for the Dreadnoughts as they triumphed 24–22.

Portsmouth again traveled for their second game, this time to face the London Hornets. In spite of scoring first, key injuries and questionable tactics from the Hornets resulted in a heavy defeat for the Dreadnoughts, losing 42–6. As a result of injuries inflicted by the Hornets, Portsmouth lost several players for the season, with linebacker Luke Head-Rapson suffering a career-threatening knee injury.

After the physical toll that had been taken during the London game, the Dreadnoughts returned home to Victory Field to once again face off against the Plymouth Extreme. Plymouth were down on numbers against a Portsmouth side motivated by a tremendous home crowd. The Dreadnoughts dominated the Extreme, controlling the game from start to finish and finishing with a 50–0 win.

2014 Season

Portsmouth's second season began with a change at the top. Former Southern Sundevils Head Coach Jim Roberson joined the coaching staff, resulting in a shuffle of the coaches with Coach Roberson taking over as Head Coach.

Training Ground

The Dreadnoughts have used three places as team training grounds during their brief history. The club started out with training at Jubilee Park, Horndean. This location was chosen due to the four original Dreadnought players living in the surrounding area to the park. The Dreadnoughts remained at Jubilee Park for all three of their weekly training sessions until late 2012, when the club's Sunday practice was moved to Southsea Common. The club moved once more in early 2013 to its current training ground at Alexandra Park, with all three weekly training sessions being held there. Following the marking of the gridiron at Alexandra Park, the Dreadnoughts home field became known as 'Victory Field'.

Uniform

The Portsmouth Dreadnoughts play in navy blue helmets, navy blue jerseys with yellow lettering and yellow game pants. The kit's colours are similar of those of the Michigan Wolverines.

Senior Team

Team Captains

#79 Paul Hook (OL)
#55 Gary Threapleton (OL)
#31 Joe Perry (FS)
#1 James Morgan (LB)

Coaching Staff

Head Coach/Offensive Co-ordinator: Jim Roberson
Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Co-ordinator: Simon O'Hara
Defensive Co-ordinator/Defensive Backs Coach: Phil Marter
Assistant Coach: David Bennett
Linebackers Coach: Luke Head-Rapson

Roster

Portsmouth Dreadnoughts Roster
Quarterbacks #4 Jon Phillips (QB) #8 Laurence Nelson (QB) Running Backs #28 Matthew Fay (RB) #29 Callum Murdoch (RB) #32 Nathan Cooper (RB) #34 Dan Neal (RB) #42 Harry Bell (RB) #44 Adrian Smith (RB) #48 Matt Kirlew (RB) Receivers #7 Morgan Bowden (WR) #10 Ollie Pickersgill (WR) #11 James Gibson (WR/TE) #14 Jamie Pinkney (WR) #16 Patt Heathcote (WR) #17 Pete Southwood (WR) #80 Jason Nelson (WR) #81 James Windsor (WR) #83 David Bennett (WR) #84 Dan Wierzbicki (WR) #85 James Bayes (WR/TE) #88 Ben Bell (WR)	Offensive Linemen #55 Gary Threapleton (OL) #56 Roie Lord-Taylor (OL) #60 Simon O'Hara (OL) #73 Neil Gibbs (OL) #79 Paul Hook (OL) Defensive Linemen #3 Dave Gibbs (DL) #23 Jake Hancock (DL) #64 Andy Neal (DL) #66 Aston Ralph (DL) #74 Neil Upton (DL) #77 Matt Audley (DL) #86 Az Grant (DL) #92 Steve Thackery (DL) #93 Luke Alexander-Hill (DL) #96 Tom Adams (DL) #98 Sam Guillen (DL)	Linebackers #1 James Morgan (LB) #9 Lewis Hayes (LB) #50 Tom Bonser (LB) #52 Luke Head-Rapson (LB) #91 Scott Quade (LB) #97 Steve Conlon (LB) #99 Jason Brown (LB) Defensive Backs #15 James Wilson (DB) #19 Aaron Tyrrell (DB) #21 Dan Barrand (DB) #22 Rhys Edwards (DB) #24 Jay Hyland (DB) #27 Andy Little (DB) #31 Joe Perry (DB) #33 Tom Clark (DB) #35 Tom Green (DB) Special Teams #83 David Bennett (K) #8 Laurence Nelson (P) #55 Gary Threapleton (LS) #31 Joe Perry (PR) #32 Nathan Cooper (KR)

Season Win/Loss Records

Season	Division	Wins	Loss	Ties	Position	Playoffs
2013	No Division	2	1	0	-/-	No Playoff System

Academy

The Portsmouth Dreadnoughts Academy was founded in September 2013 with the intention of fulfilling the Dreadnoughts aim of creating an accessible, sustainable and successful program of American Football in Portsmouth. Academy coaches are made up of some of the Senior team staff and players, all of whom are qualified, insured and DBS checked.

Coaching Staff

Head Coach: Phil Marter

Junior Team

The Portsmouth Dreadnoughts Junior Team is the branch of the Portsmouth Dreadnoughts Academy for players who are 16-19 years old. The Junior Team plays kitted 11v11 football, providing young players an experience of the 11 man game before making the step up to the Adult side.

Youth Team

The Portsmouth Dreadnoughts Youth Team is the branch of the Portsmouth Dreadnoughts Academy for players that are 14-16 years old. The Youth Team plays kitted 5v5 football, giving an introduction to the techniques and skills of American Football that will give Academy players a good grounding in the fundamentals in order to help make them better players once they reach the older age groups.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.