A highlight of the Scottish student sporting calendar, the Varsity American football game has been played annually since 2012 and returns to Meggetland Stadium.
The traditional Edinburgh Napier Knights American Football vs University of Edinburgh Mavericks rivalry returns, as both teams fight it out for the most spectacular trophy in UK American Football.
This years game will be held on a mid-week evening under the floodlights at Meggetland, on Wednesday 20th March, with a 7pm KO.
Entertainment includes a DJ, Edinburgh Rampant medieval Armour Combat Team and the Edinburgh University Brass Band. The Canalside Bar at Boroughmuir rugby club will be open throughout with hot food available.
Last years game produced fireworks during, on and off the field, with the Edinburgh Mavericks edging the game in a 14-6 victory.
Meggetland sports complex features a seated stand for watching the action.
Join us under the lights for the city’s biggest American Football fixture of the season!
Gates open from 6pm, with a 7pm kickoff.
Tickets are £5 adult, £3 students and Free Entry for U16’s and can be purchased in advance or on the gate.
Napier Knights giving young players a head start in American football
Edinburgh Napier Knights, the university’s American football team, is celebrating the achievement of breakthrough quarterback Cameron Dunn – one of several young players who are making moves towards playing the sport professionally.
The 20-year-old, who took up the sport with the Knights youth teams in Sighthill, is embarking on a scholarship with St John Fisher University in New York state, which is due to formally start next month.
After arriving in the USA, he said: “The move over has gone well so far. We are just settling into the pre-season camp schedule now. With practices underway, every day is busy, but exciting.
“The Knights have really helped me prepare to compete at this level with the quarterback coaching I received last year.
“Being able to compete against Americans who have played all their life is really special.”
Edinburgh Napier Knights Head Coach and Club Chairman Pete Laird said: “Cameron started with us as a youth, ended up choosing to come to university, then broke all sorts of records with the team.
“He’s so dedicated, such an earnest kid, his parents have kept him on the steady level. He is a wonderful example to others at the club.”
Cameron isn’t the only young Knights player to have been offered a chance at a higher level. The Knights’ youth teams, which were founded by Edinburgh Napier University students in 2017 as a way of getting children from the Sighthill and Broomhouse community into sport and education, have also drawn more attention from across the country.
Just weeks after the club fielded an under 19s outfit for the first time, it will provide 25 players for the Scotland under 19 squad for an upcoming fixture on 24 September.
Some of those players – AJ Danso, Charlie Torrance-Hay and Steven Malan – have been recruited on athletic scholarship degrees by English universities, while under 16s Luca Clement and Charlie Rattray were invited to try out for a place at the new NFL Academy in Loughborough.
Their development stems from the club’s determination to give young people opportunities in sport in an area of Edinburgh which has suffered from anti-social behaviour and vandalism.
Pete Laird explained: “American football has gone from being a novelty to a participation sport. That is the big difference for us.
“We had 85 kids last year and we’re now starting to see scouts come from elsewhere coming to watch our players. We get kids that have never played before and we teach them the game. We have a resource in our students who can do that – they have such a love and a passion for it.
“For us the main thing about trying to engage with the local kids and offer them an alternative. The university was always seen as an alien external building to them, but we try to show them it’s part of the community. We tell them ‘students at Napier are just like you’.
“That’s what we’re in it for, if they use it as a platform to stay in studies then we’ve done our job. I always say we could be teaching tiddlywinks. It is about giving them an outlet.”
The club is open to anyone aged 8-19 and is always on the lookout for new players.
Edinburgh Napier Knights host University of Glasgow
The annual American Football Varsity match returns to Meggetland Stadium on Sunday (February 13) as the Edinburgh Napier Knights host Glasgow Tigers.
The Super Bowl Sunday event is now in its tenth year and is one of the high points of the student sporting calendar, with the game a shop window for domestic American Football. A great family day out, the fixture has seen some memorable matchups and this year’s promises to be the best yet.
Both teams enter the game undefeated, meaning it’s winner takes all for the division title, playoffs, promotion and the prestigious MacKenzies Challenge Trophy.
The Glasgow team features a grind it out, run heavy, offense whilst the Knights have eschewed their traditional running game and taken to the air this year, smashing the previous club scoring record.
There is game day entertainment of a DJ, music, and the Edinburgh Napier Cheer Squad with hot food, barbeque and a licensed bar at the Canalside.
Varsity tickets include entry to the Knights Super Bowl party at the Canalside bar with late 3am licence.
Gates open from 1.30pm, with kick off at 3pm, and the Super Bowl party from 8pm.
Tickets are £5 adults, £3 students and free entry for under 16s, and can be purchased in advance online or on campus, or on the gate.
SPORTS league start-up UKFL is uniting fans, players and coaches to launch an elite American Football league in the UK – one of the few countries in Europe without a professional league.
Based out of headquarters in the North East of England, UKFL was created by a senior team made up of UK American Football coaches, players and fans.
UKFL’s first season is set to launch in May 2023, with 8 fully professional teams based in cities across the UK and the goal of delivering an authentic American gameday experience to UK fans, from exciting gameplay featuring home-grown and import players to traditional American food and drink and authentic gameday entertainment like cheerleading and tailgating.
After a soft launch in February, the UKFL has generated high levels of interest amongst UK American Football fans, with thousands signing up for social media and newsletter updates.
Now, UKFL’s senior team is in discussion with investors and corporate sponsors to secure funding for the project and is also calling on fans to offer their support via a crowdfunding campaign set to launch in September.
UKFL CEO Mick Tyler explains that fan experience is core to the league’s vision. “Right from the start we’ve committed to building the UKFL with fans at its heart. We’re committed to building something that gives our fan base real ownership and control.”
The popularity of American Football has grown rapidly in the UK in recent years, with over 4 million UK fans tuning in to the 2020 Super Bowl. In spite of this, the UK remains one of the only European countries without a professional league.
UKFL’s Director of Football Operations Jonathan Rooney believes that the lack of an elite professional option in the UK is severely limiting the sport’s potential in the UK:
“For UK players, the only opportunity to play and train at a professional level is in Europe. This forces our best players to look for opportunities abroad because there are none at home. Many do achieve success in Europe, but others choose to leave the game entirely.
“The lack of a professional league also limits the quality of the game at a lower level. We want to create something for young players to aspire to, and to work with schools, colleges and universities to develop a new generation of athletes, some of whom could even go on to play in the NFL.”
American Football in the UK: Key facts and figures
NFL has over 13 million fans in the UK, and is watched by more than 20 million unique television viewers per season.
Since 2007, the UK has hosted sold-out NFL International Series games at Wembley, Twickenham and more recently at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
Most major European countries have established professional leagues. Games in Germany’s GFL and Austria’s AFL leagues regularly draw crowds of over 10,000 fans.
The UK is one of the few European countries without a professional American Football league, leaving UK players with no option but to relocate if they wish to play professionally.
There are currently two major non-professional American Football leagues in the UK: the British Universities American Football League, made up of university teams, and the BAFA National League, which does not permit players to receive a wage.
To find out more about the UKFL, head to teamukfl.com
An Edinburgh-based American football project which is using sport to drive young people from the most deprived areas of the city into further education, is taking part in a national campaign, supported by Dame Katherine Grainger, highlighting how universities are helping local communities recover from the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Edinburgh Napier Knights Youth team was set up by Edinburgh Napier University in 2017, with the goal of working with school-age children in Sighthill and Broomhouse – areas with low levels of educational attainment – to promote health and wellbeing and provide a pathway for players to transition into higher education.
The youth teams are coached exclusively by students and graduates from Edinburgh Napier University who have undertaken coaching awards. By working across age groups, student coaches are able to educate their participants about the benefits of physical activity and the opportunities that are available to them through education.
The project, which has gone from strength to strength and seen seven members of the locally recruited youth team progress to university recently, is one of a number being featured in this week’s Made at Uni Energising Places campaign led by Universities UK and British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and supported by Dame Katherine.
Pete Laird (above), Head Coach of the Napier Knights and the university’s programme leader for Sport, Exercise and Health Science explained how the project had helped inspire local youngsters: “We decided we wanted to give something back to the local community.
“We know from studies that sport can engage young people, and we also know that young people who play sport are also more likely to do better academically. So we thought American football as our sport would be fantastic vehicle to try and help local kids.
“One of the great success stories coming out of our youth team was the progression of some of our players on to further and higher education. For some of our kids they were first generation students, having never thought about university before. Last year we had seven students who progressed from the youth team onto university, which for us that is an unbelievable success story.”
One of those success stories is Robbie Wales, an incoming first year studying Physical Activity and Health at Napier and the first member of his family to attend university.
He said: “The coaching staff are amazing; the team is amazing. I’ve gained a lot of skills from American football, mainly teamwork but also patience. Talking with coaches and past players, it’s definitely helped me make decisions on my life.”
The university are hopeful that even more young people from Edinburgh will get involved in the project as Covid restrictions ease.
Pete Laird added: “We were very worried coming out of lockdown, about whether or not the numbers would stay the same – but actually what we’ve seen is a big growth in people wanting to participate in activity.
“Now more than ever, sport is a vital resource for post-pandemic recovery.”
Dame Katherine Grainger said: “A lot of people know about the role universities play in developing some of our greatest Olympians and Paralympians but there is a real untold story about the work they do in their communities to improve the lives of people through sport and physical activity.
“The Edinburgh Napier Knights Youth team is a great example of that.”
The Made at Uni Energising Places campaign is taking place between July 12-16th, and includes the BUCS annual awards event which celebrates the positive effect of student sport and students who participate in the wider sporting sector in the UK.
To find out more about the Made at Uni Energising Places campaign visit www.madeatuni.org or follow @MadeAtUni on Twitter
THE 2020 Capital curtain-raiser for the big Super Bowl match in the USA is once again an all-Edinburgh affair, with Edinburgh Napier Knights hosting cross-town rivals University of Edinburgh Predators.
With the teams playing in different divisions, the Knights had to turn to Glasgow University for opposition in the last two versions of the annual American football Varsity match.
However, Sunday (February 2) will once again see the two Edinburgh clubs compete for the MacKenzie’s Challenge trophy at Meggetland, just hours ahead of the big Kansas City Chiefs v San Francisco 49ers clash in Florida.
A full programme of family entertainment, including music, a DJ, the Knights’ youth team and the Edinburgh Napier Panthers cheer squad, will accompany the fixture, which habitually draws a big crowd to the Meggetland stadium.
Edinburgh Napier Knights head coach Pete Laird said: “The event has come a long way in the last nine years, and it’s great to have our traditional rivals, the University of Edinburgh Predators, back as our opponents this year.
“The Knights program is currently having a great run of success, with three division titles in the last four years, and we have been outperforming our bigger neighbours in recent seasons.
“But to give our opponents credit, they have been enjoying a good year back in the higher division. As with any derby match, the formbook goes out the window, and it will be a very closely fought game.”
Pete added: “Last year’s Varsity game was postponed due to the weather and had to be shifted away from its traditional home at Meggetland, so we’re very excited to be back under the lights for the game, which is a real spectacle, with all its noise, colour and general craziness.”
The gates will open at 1pm on Sunday ahead of a 3pm kick-off. Tickets – £5 for adults, £3 for students and free admission for under 16s – are available at the gates or on campus in advance.
Match tickets also include entry to the post-game Super Bowl Party at the Canalside Bar, Meggetland, from 8pm.
When American Football first aired on British TV in the eighties, it seemed more of a novelty than a sport that would establish roots. But now, with games shown weekly on Sky and BBC and the annual Wembley games attracting sell-out crowds it has grown from strength to strength in popularity.Continue reading East meets West on Superbowl Sunday
