The club chose the all black kit.

American football  comes to Hastings

The Hastings Conquerors American Football Club, to be formally established in August, will be the UK’s first ever co-operative American football club, the first in a national league system of 50 teams and 30 others in development across the UK. In fact, there is only one National Football League co-op run team in the US – the Green Bay Packers, writes Chris Cormack.

Chris Chillingworth set up a Hastings American Football Facebook group in March, expecting to meet 20-30 like-minded fans of the sport. However, the group has grown to 300 followers in just 12 weeks since opening, and in April the club’s first meet-and-greet saw 28 or so people come down to Alexandra Park to sign up to the club. There is now a player roster of 35 players, training twice a week at William Parker Sports College.

Chris Chillingworth, chairman of Hastings Conquerors.

The Conquerors espouse a not-for-profit co-op ethos, which means that any cash surpluses are re-invested in the club or used to benefit the local community as written into the constitution. The club will sell 12-month memberships for £30 which will include one share in the club. Each shareholder will have no more than the single share, and “It won’t matter if you’re the chairman, the groundsman, or a fan in Japan, we’ll all own the same-sized slice and all have the same voting rights at the AGM,” says Chris Chillingworth, now the chairman.

Members will receive a share certificate as part of their 12-month membership and have access to the club’s exclusive website content featuring behind-the-scenes insights – recorded committee meetings, video footage of training, interviews, chairman updates, treasury updates. Also, members will have voting rights – 68 people recently voted on the club name, 72 on the club logo, and 82 people recently chose the club uniform design and colours. Going forward, members will get to vote on the application of surpluses.

Club helmet.

Chris also plans to work on community projects, ‘Community Linking’, including working with local broadcast and film, journalism, photography and graphic design students to deliver media content for the club. The club has already started having discussions with a local cheerleading team who want to help with match day entertainment.

The club has a two-year goal to build a youth team, and a three-year goal to build a women’s team (a part of the sport that’s really starting to take off here in the UK). They have spoken to local schools about introducing flag (non-contact) American Football into schools and were met with a lot of enthusiasm. For the time being, however, only over-18s can play.

A Sport England grant application will be submitted shortly with the full backing of the sport’s national governing body BAFA – British American Football Association –  who, in their director’s words, have said the Conquerors’ set-up could potentially lead the way for a massive change in the way clubs here in the UK  are established. The grant  will help the club operate in a way that should keep the cost of playing lower, making the sport more accessible to the people of Hastings.

American football is a sport for people of all shapes and sizes. “If you’re a 23-stone male wanting to lose weight and get more active, the club has two-three positions you’d be perfect for! So you won’t bring the team down, you’ll be an asset from day one!”  says Chris Chillingworth. “The flag (non contact) aspect of the sport also means we can appeal to people of all ages who just want to stay fit and try something new.”

Check out the website and an interview with UK EndZone Podcast.

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