The Mürzer Football Club is playing its first home game. It has 52 members, new ones are very welcome.
“Down, set, hut” is the motto twice a week at the sports field in Hönigsberg when the “Styrian Panthers” complete their training. The American football club was founded in 2019 and is one of only a few in the region. In August the “Styrian Panthers” play their very first home game. “American football is a sport, as the name suggests, that came over from America and is finding more and more enthusiasm on European soil,” emphasizes chairman Bernhard Valant, who founded the club together with Aline Kristin Mohl, Thomas Schwaiger and Daniel Degenhardt . Together with Schwaiger and Degenhardt, Valant played for the Vienna Vikings football team for some time. The dream has always been to set up a football club at home as well – and they have now achieved that.
Team performance
The “Styrian Panthers” have 52 members, including four trainers. There is also a woman among the players, twelve young people and 40 adults. “The fascination is that in this sport every body stature and every body type actually finds a position. Thus the sport is really made for everyone and it is an interlocking of eleven players who should make a move together so that the move works and that is what makes the sport so attractive. It is a team performance that takes place on the field and not an individual performance, “explains Valant.
“There must be order”
Football is a tough sport, but even in football not everything is always lovely. “You can distribute, but you also have to be able to take it. Training is a very military matter. There has to be order. When people wear helmets and armor, they are dangerous and you have to tame them,” jokes coach Valant.
The Mürzer Football Club will play its very first home game on August 1st. The game will be played against the “Grizzlies” from Stockerau. It starts at 3 p.m., the game is played in the Mürzzuschlag stadium (Knappenhof). The goal is to enter the league next year.
Probationary period
Young people aged 14 and over are welcome at the “Styrian Panthers”. Rental equipment is available for the trial period. “Football is a very time-consuming and costly hobby. You should be aware that, in addition to training, you also have to do something for yourself on a regular basis. Your own equipment costs from 500 euros upwards,” explains Valant.
More information about the Styrian Panhters
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