The
first American Football club in Coventry was
formed as the Warwickshire Bears in February
1984 by two local men with a lot of assistance
from the head coach of the united states air
base team at Chicksands. The Bears played their
first season in the American Football League's
Midland Division, which was arguably the toughest
division in the Country. That year the Bears
only posted one regular season victory, however,
friendly games proved more productive, with
the best result coming when they travelled to
London to take on the unbeaten and eventual
Summer Bowl finalists, Streatham Olympians.
The Bears ran out easy winners with a 26:0 scoreline.
1986
saw the Bears in the Anglo Conference Central
Division where the proved to be too experienced
for the others and won the division with an
8 won and 2 lost record. This includes a British
American Football League record victory of 100:0
over the Black Country Nailers. They also played
host to International opposition when they played
the top Norwegian team, the Oslo Trolls, losing
the match by one point on the last kick of the
game. The following year, in an effort to improve
the overall talent levels and make the next
step up, the club merged with Milton Keynes
to form the CMK Bucks. It was a disaster. The
team folded and lost a lot of talent to neighbouring
teams, but reformed again as the Coventry Bears.
At the end of 1990, a successful merger with
the Walsall Titans once again transformed the
clubs fortunes, with a dynamic new team called
the Coventry Jaguars.
The
Jaguars imported two US players (Quarterback
Travis Hunter from East Carolina and Tight End
Craig Otto of the University of Minnesota),
which was the trigger for great things. Coventry
won every game in 1991, finishing 10-0, Division
II Coca-Cola Cup Champions and also inflicted
the first defeat in 7 years on the raining USAAF
Champions Upper Heyford Skykings.
In 1992 the Bears were loaded with talent, despite
Hunter leaving for the formidable Birmingham
Bulls team. Mark
Cohen joined the team and he went onto a
glittering career, culminating in playing professional
football for the London Monarchs. The Skykings
were beaten once again, this time on their own
airbase. A semi-final defeat to the Kent Mustangs
was disappointing but a narrow defeat by the
Bulls showed just how good the Bears were. The
following year the team had high expectations.
After years of trying a Coventry team had finally
made it into the big time Division 1 Superleague
and mouth watering games against the Birmingham
Bulls, Glasgow Lions, Nottingham Hoods, Leicester
Panthers, Northants Storm and the great London
Olympians. At QB the Jags brought in Cleveland
Brown draftee Clemente Gordon, linebacker Steve
Donlin from the Toronto Argos and Head Coach
Bruno Waldner had all the right credentials
(former assistant coach of the NFL’s Minnesota
Vikings). An opening day defeat at the Bulls
14-6 signalled that the Jaguars were not out
of their depth and even a 44-8 defeat at home
to the reigning National Champion London Olympians
was encouraging.
In
late 2003 Jamie
Kilby began the process of re-launching
a team in Coventry. Jamie was a former quarterback
for the Jaguars and Bulls and he had a vision
to not only restart a team but take British
American Football back to its former glories.
The Coventry team had to start from scratch.
It attracted some good veteran players but by
kick-off time in April 2004 the team would field
a team of 80% rookies, most of them under 23-years
of age.
It was a very tough year. Despite a narrow,
yet encouraging opening day loss in the final
two minutes of the game at the Oxford Saints,
the team never improved sufficiently to win
a game. There were some great moments, particularly
in the 60-32 shoot-out defeat in Wales. Despite
the loses, the Jaguars first season was a resounding
success. With some excellent gates, averaging
500 people per game, the Jags were the most
watched team in the league. Off the field the
management team successfully raised the profile
of the team, introduced a gameday event program
in a quality stadium and developed a thriving
youth academy. The club received a great deal
of attention nationally within the game and
began to attract plenty of new and proven talent
to its roster. The New Year led to a change
of name from Jaguars to Jets, the club decided
to pay homage to one of Coventry's greatest
sons, Sir Frank Whittle – inventor of the jet
engine. Several GB Internationals liked what
they had seen and heard of the new team and
signed up. The names of Anthony
Perkins and Steve
Coles will now power the Jets running game.
The
2005 Coventry Cassidy Jets are therefore an
entirely different outfit to the 0-9 team that
ended the 2004 season. We are ready to take
our next step and win some football games…
In 2005 the Jets went undefeated and won the
Division 2 National Title.
The Jets continued to be successful collecting
the Division 1A National Title in 2006.
The Jets were unable to fulfill their dream
of being the first team to lift the Premier
League trophy in 2007.
In 2008 the Jets went undefeated and claimed the BAFL Premier League Boston Trophy for the first time.
|
