In Germany, Football Means Football
Curtis Feigt (left), Stephan Kreifels (right) and Aidan Francois-Friis (center) came from different cities in Germany to spend their upper-middler year at Mercersburg. They share many similar interests, but perhaps the most intriguing is their love of football. Not football as in soccer, as in ‘European football,’ but rather the full-padded, full-contact American gridiron game.
Kreifels tells me with obvious pride that his 15-19 year old squad, Düsseldorf Panther, is the best European club team, losing only one game, to the Paris Flash, during Stephan’s time there. I figured, then, that Stephan must have been raised on a healthy diet of Brett Favre, Bill Belichick, Emmitt Smith and Cleveland’s Dawg Pound, but I was mistaken. “The American NFL games were not broadcast on free TV,” Stephan told me. Instead, his long affair with the game has its roots in the now-defunct NFL Europa league. Stephan and his father often went to watch the Düsseldorf Rhein Fire, and by the time their hometown team grabbed the World Bowl in both ’98 and ’00, Stephan was hooked.
Only tag football is played in Germany until the age of 15, so Kreifels jumped in. But he itched to don the pads and did so as soon as he could. I assumed that it must have been difficult for Kreifels to learn the mind-bending number of different plays and formations that form the core of American football but I was surprised by his response: “Not at all. In Germany, football is played all year long. In the winter we worked on conditioning and football theory. We had about 150 plays, and we studied them hard.” In Düsseldorf, Kreifels played wide receiver, and he brings those talents and raw desire to the 2007 edition of Blue Storm football. In addition, though, Kreifels is going to see a lot of time on defense at the outside linebacker position.
It’s not hard to see why Curtis Feigt loves football. At 6’5” and 256 pounds (Mr. Bershatsky wasn’t available to help us convert from metric), Feigt throws a big shadow. A native of Berlin, Feigt has been playing football for nine years. He told me that he “wanted to play his whole life,” and at age 15, he joined the Berlin Rebels. Like Düsseldorf Panther, the Rebels play against teams in Germany, France, Holland and Austria. As for NFL Europe, Feigt’s allegiance went to the Berlin Thunder, and while Feigt was watching the Thunder, the Thunder had an eye on Feigt. In fact, Feigt went through the first stages of the recruiting process with the Thunder before coming to Mercersburg.
Feigt is slated to play both defensive end and offensive tackle. Like Kreifels and Francois-Friis, he’s very excited to be playing in America. When I told him to expect some very strong competition, he beamed and said with no trace of uncertainty, “I want to play against the best.”
Aidan Francois-Fiis hails from Munich and, unlike his two fellow Germans, Francois-Fiis is a rookie to the game of football. He watched a friend playing in Munich a few months back and thought that it looked “pretty good.” Despite the long preseason played in some pretty intense heat, Francois-Friis remains convinced that he made the right decision. He has been working at left tackle and is excited to play in his first real game against Wyoming Seminary.
They come from different parts of Germany. They have different levels of experience. But they agree on a few important points: 1) they’re very happy to be here at Mercersburg; 2) they love football and are thrilled to be playing the game; 3) they’re excited to watch some NFL and NCAA football; and, 4) they all think that head coach Dan Walker is “awesome.” Win or lose, this will be a good year for these three special athletes.
--by Phil Kantaros