Jeddah American Football developing one game at a time

Jay Asser 07:25 10/04/2017
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  • Heading in the right direction: Jeddah American Football Team. Picture: Jan-Peter Mohwinkel.

    While Jeddah American Football Team coach Abdullah al-Kidd is a realist, he’s methodically working on his long-term vision for the sport in the Kingdom.

    The Saudi Arabia squad were in the UAE this past weekend to play against the Emirates American Football League (EAFL) Falcons in what was only their fourth game overall.

    Relative newcomers to the sport, Jeddah had only previously played against Egypt’s GUC Eagles, Jordan’s Amman Barracudas and the Kuwait national team.

    Their lack of experience showed, with the EAFL comfortably earning a 42-0 victory at The Sevens on Friday and it came as no surprise to Al-Kidd, who has been around the game since the age of five, played in NCAA Division I at the University of Idaho and attended three NFL minicamps.

    “You just can’t fake football,” said Al-Kidd. “You might be able to fake other sports, but football is one of those sports that reveals your characters, reveals who you are and reveals your preparation.”

    The lopsided loss wasn’t without some promising signs, however. One of the highlight plays came from Jeddah cornerback Taj Al Haj Hussein – playing in his first-ever game – who intercepted Falcons veteran quarterback Zavier Cobb and returned it to the red zone.

    Jeddah couldn’t get on the board, but there were moments, particularly on defence, that gave Al-Kidd hope for the future.

    “This is promising,” Al-Kidd said. “At the end of the day, I’m trying to lay a foundation that when I’m done, they have something to build on. They’ll tell you I’ve been so raw and explicit in trying to give them pure, pure football. I’m not trying to give them football that fits in their culture, I’m trying to give them real, raw football. It’s a process.”

    The foundation’s construction began in 2009 and while most of the players on the current team are fresh faces, some have been with Al-Kidd since the beginning.

    Years into the programme, opportunities remain few and far between with Jeddah existing independent of any structured league. For Al-Kidd, the greatest impediment to Jeddah’s development is a lack of regular scheduled games, which in turn saps the incentive for his players to put in the hard yards.

    “Our issue is practice. I think if we could actually schedule some games, it actually motivates the guys to come to practice,” said Al-Kidd. “My coaches always used to tell me ‘you’re going to play like how you practice’. If you practice well, even if you didn’t have that many games, it’s in you. Things come automatically when you have repetition.”

    The trip to the UAE is another stepping stone towards building commitment to the sport, especially with all of Jeddah’s players paying their own travel cost, as they have for their other international trips. There’s no sponsor yet, but it’s clear there’s enough passion to overcome obstacles like that.

    “The more these guys see different teams and what different teams have to offer, I think it’s going to give them a taste for it,” said Al-Kidd.

    “At the end of the day, some of the guys might say ‘I’m not a good player but I might be a good coach’. So absolutely, I think the more the merrier and that’s one thing I want to do in the offseason, focus on getting more games and focus on getting funding for games because this is all out of pocket.

    “We’re going to use these games as a platform to schedule. We’re working to have more games and more opportunities.”

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