Leeds Bobcats seem to be making all the right moves

However, as all who train at local club, The Leeds Bobcats, will tell you, American Football is very much a game that requires more than pure brute strength.

Despite only officially competing in the British American Football League for four seasons, the club boasts players of all different shapes, sizes and styles, turning matches into highly tactical chess-like affairs, just with a few more bruises.

“People do compare it to chess a lot,” said head coach Miles Stamford, “because certain players have advantages over others, so you’ve got to play to each other’s strengths and use so many different tactics in order to suit each individual play.”

While often jokingly referred to as ‘rugby with pads’, football is certainly a sport with its own unique twists, with each brief, but brutal play requiring each team member to focus on their own individual role at all times. This is certainly one aspect that originally hooked general manager, John Sewell, to the sport, switching to it from rugby due to injury.

“The very first training session, I knew it was for me,” said John.

“It was everything I enjoyed about sport because I could be very physical with some people, stick to a plan and the friendliness of the team was extreme. Everyone was and always has been very welcoming and it’s allowed me to come from not playing football in my life to now playing almost every snap of the game for the past couple of years.”

With The Leeds Bobcats formed only in the past handful of years, the club is very much in transition, with this season alone seeing them take on 20 rookies who had never played the game before.

Ambitions for the future are therefore very high, recruiting players throughout the year with the aim to one day have a 50-60-strong squad for every game, and, hopefully, a junior side. Despite this, the club already boasts a wide variety of characters, including defensive co-ordinator and line-backer Paul Goodward, whose 32-year experience in the sport provides a valuable ‘old school’ perspective.

“The game has changed a hell of a lot,” says Paul, “but I do think that if you want to learn to do something you first learn the history of it and then look at the new ways of playing it.”

This aspect has also been a huge helping hand for many new rookies still finding their feet in the game, catering to each of their needs and allowing them to enjoy the game.

“I think I have more of a unique circumstance because I suffer from mental health issues,” revealed former rugby player and rookie James Barker. So, because football’s in short bursts, if I suddenly get anxiety then I can come off for a bit whereas in rugby you might be on for 20 minutes.

“What I also like about it is that while in rugby you are part of one big team, here, because the roles are very specific, you get to know the other people in similar roles really well.

“So, our group is called the ‘O Line’ but we joke that it’s called the ‘Bro Line’ because when you spend so much time with a specific group of people in the team you become like a family, which I think is a unique part of American Football.”

With the season now in full swing and membership always increasing, the future is still very much a steadily opening door for the club, promising, at the very least, an interesting next few years as the club aims to kick on from its quick recent rise.

FACT FILE

Club: The Leeds Bobcats American Football Club.

Based: West Leeds Rugby Union Club.

Founded: 2009 (as juniors), 2015 (as seniors).

Number of members: 60.