Thonon Black Panthers

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Thonon Black Panthers

Established	1987
Based in	Thonon-les-Bains, France
Home stadium	Stade Joseph-Moynat (1998–present) 3500 spect.
Head coach	Larry Legault  Canada
General manager	Benoît Sirouet  France
League	Ligue Élite de Football Américain
Division	Division 1
Current uniform
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The Black Panthers of Thonon is a French American football club based in Thonon-les-Bains (Haute-Savoie) and founded in 1987 by Benoît Sirouet, Nicolas Schpoliansky and Frederic Mériguet.

Jérôme Garnier quickly joined the three founding members and became the first President of the Club.

The first Head Coach of the team was called Jolly Bruno (player), former player of Blue Angels of Joinville le Pont.

Now chaired by Benoît Sirouet, the club has led since 2005 by Canadian Larry Legault, current head coach of the France national team.

Teams

The club has four different teams of American football and three flag football.

• The elite team in the first French division, the Diamond Helmet since 2005.
• The reserve is playing in the Romande League of American Football, the NSFL since 2011.
• Juniors, champions of France in 2011.
• Cadets since 2010.
• As three teams flag football (-15 years,-18 years, and +18 years).

Awards

Seniors

• France's Championship Elite (Diamond Helmet)
  • Champion (2): 2013, 2014
  • Vice Champion (3): 2007, 2009, 2012, 2015 ^[1]

• France's Second Division League (Golden Helmet)
  • Champion (1): 2004

• EFAF Cup
  • Champions (1): 2013
  • Finalist (1): 2009

Juniors

• Junior Championship of France

Champion ** (3): 2004, 2011, 2012 ^[2]

Vice Champion ** (3): 2006, 2007 and 2008

Flag

• Championship of France 16
  • Champion (1): 2002
  • Vice Champion (2): 2008, 2009

• France Championship -16
  • Champion (2): 2005, 2006
  • Vice Champion (1): 2008

• Regional Championship 16
  • Champion (2): 2008, 2009
  • Vice Champion (1): 2011

• Regional Championship -16
  • Champion (5): 1998, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2006
  • Vice Champion (1): 2009, 2011

Season by season

Personalities linked to the club

Staff

• Benedict Sirouet  France Founder, former player and current president
• Nicolas Schpoliansky France Founder
• Frederic Mériguet France Founder
• Jérôme Garnier  France Former President
• Jolly Bruno (player)  France Former Head Coach
• Larry Legault  Canada Head Coach, Team HC France, former HC of Gaiters of Bishop's

Notable Players

• Damon Thomas  United States WR
• Dimitri Kiernan  France player, former coach (Carabins CIS  Canada)
• Tory Cooper  United States RB
• Jason Jackson (player)  United States
• Patrick Hall (player)  United States RB
• Stephan Neville  United States RB (Stonehill College NCAA DII)
• Baylen Laury  United States RB
• Maxime Sprauel  France Player (ex Carabins, CIS,  Canada)
• Alex Sy  France Former player (ex Carabins, CIS,  Canada)
• Bastien Pereira  France Player (future Carabins, CIS,  Canada) ^[3]
• Fred Wells Jr  United States Former player, RB / WR (Northern Michigan University, NCAA D1-AA)
• Jimmie Russell  United States Former player, QB (Bethune-Cookman University NCAA D1-AA)
• Brandon Minch  United States Former player, DE / FB (Wesleyan University, NCAA DIII)
• Chris Dolan, United States Former Player, OL/DL (Uni. of Maryland, NCAA- D1, Arena Football League, Arena Football League 2, National Indoor Football League)
• John Allanach, Canada Head Coach, former player LB (Mount Allison Mounties, CIS,  Canada)
• Sundee Jones, Canada Head Coach, former player RB (Mount Allison Mounties, CIS,  Canada)

Media

The Black Panthers of Thonon-les-Bains were the first in France to broadcast all of their regular season games live on the Internet. The BPWEBTV created in 2010 was well-received, and broadened for the 2011 season.

References

External links

• club's official website in french
• club's official website in english
• Web TV