As David Ojeabulu sauntered past a string of helpless UCL defenders on his way into the end-zone last Sunday, I couldn’t help but think how easy it all looked. Although I doubt that the American version of football uses the phrase “hat-trick” like most English sports do (it has its very own mystifying language that takes a while to get used to), the big running back – a third year maths undergraduate at St Anne’s – had reached the equivalent milestone by scoring his third touchdown of the day, this time without any opposition players laying a glove on him. More importantly for the Oxford Lancers, his score, worth six points, had put the game well beyond the reach of their London-based visitors, who now trailed 26-6 with just a few minutes of the final quarter remaining. As Oxford’s defence comfortably saw out the rest of the match to seal a comprehensive 20-point victory, I reflected upon my past week of covering the Lancers for Cherwell, and realised that my impression of ease did a great disservice to everyone involved with the team. Ojeabulu undoubtedly oozes the natural pace, power, and dedication which typically characterise top athletes, exemplified by his first touchdown – reminiscent of a bulldozer – which left at least two UCL defensive backs in sorry heaps on the 4G surface of Abingdon’s Tilsley Park. However, whilst the immense talents of players like Ojeabulu should not be taken for granted, this win could not have happened without the tireless behind-the-scenes work and oversight of various members of Oxford University’s American football community, who have quietly been putting together a project that appears to be going from strength-to-strength.
Chief amongst these protagonists is the club’s long-serving President, Stewart Humble. As his surname conveniently attests to, the larger-than-life Biomedical Sciences DPhil student from small-town Louisiana retains an air of humility when talking about his two-and-a-half years in charge of the Lancers, as he repeatedly stresses that he does not want this article to focus upon himself. Nevertheless, it would be impossible to ignore Humble’s huge contribution towards the unlikely progression of the Lancers throughout his tenure as boss. As we chat in the café by the main entrance to Iffley Sports Centre before the team’s weekly Wednesday evening training session, his vision for the club becomes more and more apparent, and a typically-American ambition shines through most of what he says. It soon becomes clear that Humble’s exciting plans for the Lancers revolve around three major priorities: 1) on-field performance, 2) financial sustainability, and 3) improved playing facilities.
Happily for Humble, success in the former sphere has not been hard to find recently, as the Lancers’ results this year speak for themselves. Coming off the back of a 36-0 demolition of Cambridge in the Varsity Bowl last Trinity Term, Oxford have now won all four games this season (a “four-and-O” record in American-speak), including comfortable Michaelmas victories against Chichester Spitfires and Kingston Cougars. A fitting illustration of this upward trend, the hammering of UCL Emperors represented a major reversal of fortunes in comparison to the previous encounter between the two sides, when the Londoners condemned Oxford to a narrow defeat in their final outing before Covid-19 ended the 2019-20 campaign prematurely.
Such on-field progress is the obvious outward manifestation of a slick professionalism instilled into the club over the past few years. Central to this polished set-up is the Lancers’ impressive team of nine coaching staff – led by the amicable Ian Hiscock – who each oversee a separate section of the football team. Before turning up to a session, I had been expecting relatively rudimentary training equipment and well-meaning but low-quality instructors. Instead, I was taken aback by the talent and competence displayed by all concerned. As unpaid volunteers, the dedication of these men left me in awe, as most seemed to donate huge chunks of their lives to both the Lancers and the sport in general, despite juggling such commitments with work and family life.
First to experience my naïve questions about this alien sport was Pat McAleer, the team’s offensive co-ordinator. Although probably a very busy man in his day job as an actuarial recruiter, McAleer has seemingly found enough time to scour the internet’s entire archive of football coaching forums and Youtube videos, which provide inspiration for his sizable catalogue of training exercises. His enthusiasm is reflected in his piercing attention to detail, somewhat evocative of Dave Brailsford’s famous “marginal gains” approach to the Great Britain Olympics team. For example, before the game against UCL last Sunday, McAleer spent ten minutes in the changing rooms with the gentle-giant offensive lineman Josh Abioye. As I eavesdropped, I quickly realised that this chat was neither motivational nor tactical. Instead, Abioye was receiving intricate advice about the relative effectiveness of different thumb angles when grappling opponents. Very little is left to chance!
Similarly extraordinary is the Lancers’ former head coach, Adam Goldstein, who has undoubtedly helped to facilitate the rapid development of hat-trick hero Ojeabulu in his current position as trainer of the running backs. Goldstein’s love for American football is indisputable, and must surely brush the fine line between passion and insanity. The man is a self-described National Football League (NFL) superfan who has written two books about the sport’s partisan supporter culture. Incredibly, he once visited all 32 NFL stadiums in one season – racking up 65,000 miles in the process – as he criss-crossed the United States in a renovated old school bus. A man in the UK with more knowledge about American Football would be hard to find!
Finally, with football knowledge and technical detail exceedingly well-covered, one would be forgiven for wondering whether the team’s health and fitness regimen lives up to the same standards. Fortunately however, the Lancers benefit from the expertise of Ben Wright, a strength and conditioning coach who commutes to sessions from Northampton, where he lectures and conducts research towards a PhD in physiotherapy. By drafting in a qualified physiotherapist to conduct specialist warm-up and warm-down activities, the Lancers have substantially reduced their injury frequency whilst simultaneously improving the physical performance of the squad. Such focus on fitness is further highlighted by the club’s successful navigation of the challenges posed by the Covid pandemic. According to Humble, no other Oxford University sports team was more active throughout the depressingly regular cycles of lockdowns and social distancing, as the squad kept up their regular schedule of twice-weekly training sessions. On-field activities were replaced by DIY workouts on Microsoft Teams, which conveyed a huge advantage for the one-off match against Cambridge when restrictions eased. Moreover, Wright’s physiotherapy work is complemented by the club’s recent acceptance onto Oxford Sports Federation’s prestigious Blues Performance Scheme. This development finally gives American footballers access to the same performance, nutrition, and conditioning programmes previously reserved for the likes of the Blues football, rugby, and netball squads.
Off the pitch, the Lancers’ integration into the Blues Performance Scheme represents a giant stride forward in the club’s relationship with the university’s sporting administrators. Humble suggests that whilst American football may formerly have been viewed as something of an outsider in comparison to the more traditionally British sports listed above, their reputation is now growing quickly. In fact, Sports Fed’s generous attitude towards the club’s training programme has been mirrored by parallel developments that support the President’s additional two priorities for the Lancers’ future: financial sustainability and high-quality playing facilities. During his first year in charge, Sports Fed more than doubled the annual funding that had previously been made available to the American football team. Furthermore, with health and safety of paramount importance, Humble has also overseen the purchase of 50 new helmets – costing thousands of pounds – after a ground-breaking study by Virginia Tech researchers concluded that the Lancers’ previous helmet model failed to adequately prevent concussion and its longer-term impacts. This topic is of particular significance to Humble, whose own DPhil research focuses upon the molecular neuroscience of degenerative brain conditions.
As one would expect, financial issues are also inextricably intertwined with the problem of acquiring a new site to host American football in central Oxford itself, which would be immensely preferable to the current coach trek out to Abingdon’s Tilsley Park complex. The Lancers’ past travails in finding somewhere suitable to play are well recounted by head coach Ian Hiscock, who has been involved with the club since the early-2000s. Back then, the team – known as the Oxford Cavaliers – were composed of a mixture of Oxford University and Brookes students, because the former institution lacked sufficient numbers to field a full squad. In fact, Hiscock himself first joined whilst studying at Brookes. Over the years, the head coach tells me that the Cavaliers/Lancers have variously played and trained in locations as diverse as Brookes’ Wheatley campus, a patch of land behind a community centre off the Botley Road, and on poorly-maintained astroturf pitches at St Gregory’s Catholic School in deep Cowley, which risked serious injury to anyone attempting a tackle. In addition, the Lancers have more recently attempted to play on unmarked fields in Marston, which regularly flooded during winter, and at Wolfson College’s on-site sports pitch, which sadly lacked the posts required to kick field-goals or conversions. Unfortunately, this nomadic existence has posed significant problems for the club’s progression by discouraging potential recruits from making the effort to attend training and matches at far-flung and sub-par locations.
As a result, Humble has devoted considerable time and energy towards establishing a playing facility in the centre of Oxford, which would attenuate many of the issues described previously. Tentative first steps towards this goal were achieved last spring, when negotiations with the central university resulted in the Lancers gaining permission to use University Parks for their Sunday morning training sessions and the Iffley Sports Centre on Wednesday evenings. Nevertheless, the President’s most ambitious venture seems likely to be completed over the coming months, with the anticipated opening of a purpose-built American football field in Uni Parks itself. After discussions with the park’s groundsmen, Humble realised that the south-eastern pitch by the Linacre gate had been severely damaged by mole-hills and therefore could not host any sporting fixtures. Consequently, as part of a mutually-beneficial deal, the Lancers have agreed to fund a complete renovation of the area in exchange for the creation of a new pitch with American football-specific lines, stencilling, and goalposts (imported from the USA). As an added bonus, the park groundsmen have also received a box of official Lancer’s-branded baseball caps! Intriguingly, the funding for this £50,000 project has been donated by an anonymous alumnus of the Lancers, which represents the successful culmination of Humble’s primary plan to raise money for the club by lobbying wealthy former players. If all goes to plan, it is envisaged that the new pitch will be ready for play by the end of April, just in time to host preparations for this year’s Varsity Bowl!
Finally, whilst true that on-field performance and off-field investment are at the heart of the Lancers’ future, it would be unfair to ignore the simultaneous emphasis upon inclusivity and enjoyment, which runs throughout the heart of the club. For example, during the pandemic the executive committee organised a succession of high-profile guest speakers including the likes of Jason Bell, a former NFL player who now presents the BBC’s coverage of the sport. Furthermore, there appears to be a great camaraderie between all team members, irrespective of their position in offense or defence (who are essentially two entirely separate sides), which reflects a curious fusion of British and American cultures. This togetherness is best displayed by the pre-game team huddle and the subsequent Bod Card check, during which coach Goldstein announces each player’s name in the style of a darts promoter. To their credit, the coaches were also more than willing to get me involved in training activities, which led to a few scary encounters with the imposing offensive linesmen as I pretended to be an opposition linebacker. Most of all though, the friendliness of many of the players and their eagerness to explain the sport’s various nuances left me feeling welcomed and part of a wider community. Vice President George Newick went out of his way to describe the tactical defensive tweak that shut down UCL’s offense on Sunday, whilst Secretary Eric Hembling – a United States Air Force officer – impressed me greatly with his thoughtful comments and good-natured conversation, although his Texas-inspired trainers somewhat divided opinion. Thanks to such geniality, I can’t deny that I am now heavily invested in the Lancers’ on-field success, and I am looking forward to seeing the transformation of University Parks over the next few weeks!
Image courtesy of Sam Day
