‘You go into every game not expecting to win’: Kent Falcon’s Smash Varsity 20-0
Running one-by-one through a ‘spirit tunnel’ of cheerleaders, the Kent Falcons prepared themselves for a battle against the Christ Church Chargers. Not only a massive Varsity fixture but a league game too, the Kent Falcons awaited their game uneasily but with confidence – the undefeated winners at the top of the league. Even through the blizzard of snow and hails where the snow settled on the pitch and even the spectators hid inside the Pavilion, the Falcon’s drove on with a comfortable lead of 20-0. InQuire sat down with President Joe Ganly, defensive Feranmi ‘Fez’ Oke and Tom ‘Jersey’ Crawford to discuss their win and how they prepared to face the Christ Church Chargers.
So, tell InQuire about the roles you played today.
Joe: I actually didn’t play my normal position today, usually I’m responsible for deep defence at the back of the pitch. I follow deep defence out so receivers on the other team don’t catch the ball. Today for Varsity, I was just in midfield doing everything in between.
Jersey: I’m offensive, my role is to catch the ball when it comes to me. *laughing* To block the other receivers and running backs. I was also on special team units today which involve plays like kick-off, kick-off return and field goal.
Fez: I play defensive, my actual role is outside line-backer, and it’s just a bit of everything. A lot of tackling a lot of wrestling, a lot of coverage, following receivers and a lot of attacking the quarterbacks. It’s like Jack of all trades.
Have you ever played before university?
Jersey: 95% of our team have never played before Uni, and the other 5% are an American on a year abroad or been playing for England. I think it’s a great sport.
Fez: I think it’s the fastest growing sport in England.
What were your trainings and prep like for Varsity?
Fez: We just trained normally. We train three times a week already so there was no way we could add any more trainings in.
Joe: Our whole team is 85 people, and everyone plays, there’s an away game squad of 53 that we take to away games but there’s only ever 11 people on the pitch. There’s 11 different people for each scenario we play on the squad. Today for Varsity we had 67 active players playing but offensive and defensive train at the same time on two different side of the pitch, and then play together to practice.
Fez: We actually have external coaching staff that come in and pick the squads in for each match. We have to adjust our plays to every different team because nobody plays the same.
How do you feel the game went?
Fez: CCCU concussed our quarterback and we lost our best player, our offensive scheme changed completely. We were up by two scores, but we knew what we had to do. We knew from the start CCCU had to play a particular way they tried to get under our skin, so we had to play with composure. Our team is really close so when you see your quarterback hurt, the intensity went up.
Jersey: We didn’t go in nervous because we know what we had to do.
Ganly: Our strength is very adaptive, so we knew there was always a plan B.
Fez: We have the best defence in the South.
How do you feel the Falcons played as a team?
Joe: Our coach said it at the end, there’s no reason we can’t go undefeated if we stick together. We had to rally each other around when our QB got injured. We only have one, it was terrifying.
Jersey: The QB knows everything inside out, we have a receiver, but he had to step up into the QB position and it affects it when we can’t pass to him. I don’t think Christ Church gave up once.
Fez: Within the first ten minutes we were pushed back to our own 10 yards where it’s easy to score which really put us off but as a defence we held them off. I think ultimately, we done what we did best, we stuck to our game plan and we didn’t let anything affect how we play when it easily could’ve. For every team we prepare for that game in particular and we try to exploit their weaknesses, we try to cover our tracks for every game. It wasn’t extremely clean, but we tried to dominate. We kept getting defeated on one play, it was frustrating when we’d trained all week for it.
How did the game differ to last year’s performance?
Joe: We didn’t play them at Varsity last year and we hadn’t played them for two years. Before Christmas we had a league game with them that we won so we always knew that they were going to come fighting. We’ve never lost to Christ Church, so it was really pressurising.
Jersey: CCCU are the dirtiest team we’ve ever played, but we need to win every game because UEA are just behind us.
Fez: We’ve not lost a game this season, we’re undefeated and that made it even higher pressure. This wasn’t just Varsity, it was a BUCS game we knew we had to win.
Were you worried?
Fez: No game is a guarantee, you never know what the score it was going to be.
Jersey: We went into the first game before Christmas way too confident, and we nearly lost because of that.
Joe: We came into it expecting a battle. Even though they didn’t score we didn’t know they were ever going to lose until the end.
Did you lose enthusiasm when the snow took over?
Joe: It made us play even harder because we knew that one team was going to let the conditions hit them on the chin and we were determined to keep on going.
Jersey: We’ve always wanted to play in the snow and we didn’t even expect it because it didn’t say it on the weather.
Joe: We’ve never played it where it’s settled.
Jersey: We had to change our tactics because we’re a very pass heavy team and it affects how we play. You must catch it with your body rather than your hands in the snow, but you still going into it with 100%.
Did you ever think CCCU were going to score?
Jersey: I have the greatest confidence in our defence, so no.
Were Christ church as prepared as you?
Fez: We had a game, and they had a bi-week, so they didn’t even have a match. They had more time than us to train because we were working on our other league match.
Jersey: One of their coaches is our former head coach and last year he switched to CCCU, so they know how we play.
Do you think there was a player who stood out?
*Joe, Fez and Jersey deliberate*
Fez: We can’t pick, and I think that proves how good we are as a team.
Jersey: Usually we have a stand out player but we all gave our heart. Rakim Trapp-Jackson really stepped up as the quarterback when we didn’t have one.
How do you feel moving forward?
Jersey: If you think ahead you start to let yourself go, we take one game at a time. There are 5 teams in our league, we’re in South East 1A.
Fez: Our next game is the biggest game of the season, a home game on Sunday against UEA. We beat them last away game. They’ve played 7 games – you play 8 games in total – they have 6 wins and 1 loss to us. We’ve played 6 games and won all 6. UEA know that if they beat us, both of us finish 7 wins 1 loss, and it determines who we play in the play-off. They’re trying everything to beat us. They’re the hardest game we’ll have to face. They’re quick, they’re big.
Jersey: They have a lot more personnel than us. They’ve already had two weeks and will have three weeks to prepare.
Joe: You have to respect teams that are working as hard as you. There are about 112 teams in England now. After March 4th we’ll be in trophy games and any home supporters for that game would be great.
Jersey: More supporters and more shouting puts the rivals off.
Do you feel you can win?
Jersey: Why not?
Joe: The coaches have put hundreds of hours into training us. It’s an elevated level of play which is a challenge, it’s exciting knowing you can rise up to their level.
Fez: We’re taking it one game at a time. We can’t afford to think about the trophy games yet.
Is there anything you would like to finish on?
Fez: Special shout out to Caitlin and InQuire. The Kent Falcons are pro-Inquire, #VarsityWins, #KentFalcons ##Winners, and come to the UEA game!! (Bring a jumper).
A great game for Varsity and a well-deserved win to the Kent Falcons. The Falcon’s play their league games every Sunday. Make sure to catch the team after March the 4th for their cup games.
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