Even though Polish athletes do win medals of major international championships every now and then, Poland is no superpower in sport. And while Poles generally prefer to experience the spirit of sport by watching tv coverages rather than exercising themselves, the number of those who practise American football is growing fast.
‘If you are well-built – we’ll teach you how to be a good defender, and if you run fast – we’ll teach you how to catch the ball’ – this invitation to join the Warsaw Eagles Club seems to have appealed to a lot of Varsovians. The club’s captain Jedrzej Stęszewski admits that people’s interest in playing American football is greater than ever before.
The Warsaw Eagles team meet twice a week and hold a match after the practice each Sunday. Now it has become easier for the Warsaw Eagles to find partners to play friendly games here in Poland, while up till recently, the only way to have a real match was to play a foreign club from, for example, neighbouring Czech Republic or Denmark. In the opinion of Warsaw Eagles’ captain Jedrzej Stęszewski it is very likely that next season the Polish League of American Football will be launched.
There are teams in Wroclaw, Poznan, and at the seaside. Hopefully, next season our league will start operating.
Sports commentator Andrzej Person agrees that new sports or disciplines that have no tradition in Poland tend to be eagerly taken up by Poles.
Poles seem to be open to new sports – like curling, snooker – or disciplines which are not popular here. I guess the reason is that we are hungry for success, medals, records. And new sports give new opportunities and new hopes.
Still, it would be unwise to expect outstanding achievements of Polish American football players in the near future, especially on the international level.
But, after all, sometimes it takes just one athlete to turn their discipline into one the nation’s favourite sports like in the case of Adam Malysz whose victories in the World Cup, World Championships and Olympic medals kept record numbers of Poles glued to their TVs during each and every competition.
Anyway, as they say: the first step is the hardest, and this, thanks to the determination of a growing number of American football lovers in Poland, has clearly been made.
by Michal Zajac. |