We then prepared to play Hampshire Thrashers away and were beaton 30-13 by them. This showed up some of the problems we face when travelling to away games as a number of our key players either cannot make the long journeys due to work commitments or many of them get no rest at all as they finish in the early hours. It was one of those days when you had a gut feeling early in the day that it wasn't going to plan - they happen every now and again but to play Hampshire with no secondary players we knew would be an uphill task. We started the game strongly leading 13-0 at end of the 1st quarter, but quickly lost momentum and never recovered. This was not devastating however, as in all our previous seasons we had lost to them on the road and they in turn had lost to us when they came to Cornwall. So we were very confident about the forthcoming home game against Hampshire.
We then had a good win against the new team in the league, the Gloucester Banshees, coached by a friend of mine Mo Myers. I knew they would have a good setup and they gave us a good game. The frustration kicked in shortly afterwards when we turned up to play the Plymouth Admirals two hours ahead of kick-off for the second of three fixtures against them this year, and they refused to play us citing health & safety as they had been unable to get sufficient players to turn up for a home game. The boys were extremely disappointed and frustrated. So they looked to the next game on the fixtures list with enthusiasm only to face further disappointment when we were notified on the Tuesday before the game that there were no referees to officiate our game. Despite ourselves and Hampshire trying to find an alternative date to re-schedule the game, we were unable to find a slot agreeable to both teams and so the league awarded a 1-1 tie, which meant that we would probably not qualify for the play-offs this year. In previous years we would have as the top two teams from all divisions usually go to the play-offs but the league changed the rules this year and only the top of the division and the best wild card from the North and South Divisions progressed. Although disappointed, the players were determined to finish the season in style and we ended with two further good wins, one against Gloucester away and the final game in Newquay against the Plymouth Admirals. So despite not qualifying for the play-offs we have had our best record - 7 wins, 2 losses and a draw. It would however, have been nice to have played the return match against Hampshire because although nothing is certain, we felt confident as a team and were ready to play and I am sure Hampshire were frustrated too.
Since the season finished, I am delighted at the number of new players that have asked to join the Sharks for next year and we will shortly be posting the dates for training through the Winter. The Youth Programme has been a great success and we now train our 14-16 year olds every Saturday from 12 - 2.30pm. This is going from strength to strength.
As an organization we have had a great year bearing in mind it is only our third season and yet we have three coaches working within the Great Britain set-up. Myself and Nigel Hoyte are coaching GB youth. I coach Running Backs and Nigel defensive ends. We also have Paul Fullman working with the GB senior setup as head of football operations. We are also pleased that we have one player, Gavin Boak who has been selected for the senior squad and Lee Ambridge who has been selected for the GB youth squad - the first Cornish youngster to be selected for the national team. I am so proud of everyone's achievements including those other Sharks players who attended the selections for the GB teams - I am sure they will go away motivated to make the improvements required to have another crack at it.
Also the season starts with a bang for some of the Sharks players as have we have been invited to play in an All Star Game in Miami, Florida USA and we have two scrimmages scheduled for the winter (dates to published) as well as our annual prize presentation evening to look forward to and other favourites in the Sharks calendar - keep checking the site for updates.
Finally, the Sharks in the Community were active this year - see the news releases. We opened a new Sainsbury's in Newquay, we won a prize at the Newquay Carnival where we helped raise money for the Newquay Lions.
We also launched our range of merchandize - a new section will added to the website shortly so you can order from the Sharks Shop and we launched our Sharks 100 Club, the first draw of which will take place at the Annual Presentation. This had to be postponed as several of the team came down with Swine Flu this season, which all credit to players and coaches for fulfilling our season despite the outbreak.
2009 has been a good year for the team but hard one for everyone personally with the state of the economy and I am proud that so many players invested their time and effort to play for the squad. Work is sometimes hard to come by in our neck of the woods but most players manage to juggle their commitments to the team. The players were inspired this year when e joined by Mike Adams, a young man who I met in 2006 in Las Vegas were he was playing on an All Star Team. Mike had been lucky enough to have been on the training camp for the Minnesota Vikings and passed on his vast experience at wide receiver and cornerback to our young team. This meant we enjoyed two further defensive "shut outs", i.e. no points against us when he was coaching the secondary which up until then had been one of our weakest areas. Players have learned a lot as have the coaches and I think we will be stronger in this area for next season thanks to the experience. This is one of the reasons why I love this game and have taken part for 40 years - it is a small community world-wide where you get to meet interesting and talented people. The fact that a young man with such experience was happy to come to the UK for a playing holiday and give of his knowledge for nothing in return means so much to us as an organization. We were also delighted to have a talented player come with his young family on holiday from Sweden to play for us too. Fredrik Flyghed came with his wife and 7 children in an old minibus to visit Cornwall and its sights as well as play Sharks football. He had a lot of experience as a player coach for defensive and offensive line and taught our players a lot.
This year we also had a significate growth in our fan base and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters to followed our games this year.
Sharks Pride!
Head Coach Brian Smallworth |
