ELF: 2023 Helvetic Guards – A Complete Roster Breakdown

By Michael Voitek

Norm Chow, the legend of offense in NCAA football. has taken his talents overseas to Switzerland and the Helvetic Guards, newcomers to the ELF. The former offensive coordinator of the USC glory days and old Hawaii head coach will be aiming to turn his Guards into an offensive power. Their 2023 European League of Football roster is set, now let’s break it down.

The roster consists of 60 players with four Americans and five European imports. They still have an open spot for a European player on the roster.

Offensively, Collin Hill, who played major D-I ball starting at Colorado State before moving onto South Carolina in the SEC, will be the guy behind center. One of their main weapons on offense will be running back Silas Nacita who amassed over 10,500 yards and scored 137 touchdowns during four seasons in Europe from 2016 through 2019 playing for the Marburg Mercenaries and Frankfurt Universe in the German Football League and Italy’s Firenze Guelfi. He retired from football during COVID but after three years off he came back last year to play for the Danube Dragons in the Austrian Football League playoffs helping them win the AFI title after rushing for 376 yards and 8 touchdowns in 2 games. He originally had played for Baylor University and was inititally a Cinderella story. He was a homeless walk-on at Baylor and performed so well that he was touted for great things before he being suspended indefinitely for unwittingly accepting tuition, housing and food. from a private donor.

Wide receiver is the big question mark for this team. They have only one player who played in the ELF before this year, Anton Jallai, who played for the Leipzig Kings last year. Jallai should lead the team as a 6’2″ receiver with experience playing at IMG Academy in America, one of the best high school programs in the country. Last year, he was the offensive rookie of the year in the ELF, so look for him to be the main target on this team. Igor Maslanka did play for the Dragons last year at tight end and he should help with receiving needs. Up front, they have Gabriel Rodriguez from the Barcelona Dragons, a top offense last year. They also have Niels Meier, a Swiss product who played D-II football at Washburn University.

They signed a huge addition on their defensive line from the Hamburg Sea Devils in Tim Hanni. Hanni was a first team all-star last year and is an absolute disruptor. He had 6.5 sacks and 14.5 TFLs, both top 20 in the league. They also signed Michael Kimpiabi from the Stuttgart Surge, so they have great experience for a run stopping front. The Linebackers are led by JR Tavai, a former CFL player who played at USC. He was on the practice squad for the Titans and should be the true leader of the backers. They also have Jonathan Falk who played in America for 10 years for various organizations.

The Guards used an A-import in the defensive backfield with Ken Hike, who played for Tuskegee in America. They also have Shaska Perron, who played for the Stuttgart Surge last year. At safety, they will start former Berlin Thunder player Maceo Beard, who was invited to the CFL combine. Good bunch in the back.

Quarterbacks

• Collin Hill – American Import – (University of South Carolina)
• Ralph Trachsel

Running Backs

• Silas Nacita – American Import – (University of Baylor)
• Kevin Audetat – National
• Ibony Mbungu – National
• Andres Silva – National
• Moritz Stein – National
• Dimitri Gfeller – National

Wide Receivers

• Colin Ceesay – National
• Samuel Friedli – National
• David Marty – National
• Cayman Bailey Jr. – National
• Xavier Baudraz – National
• Gregorio Calonego – National
• Timo Hager – National
• Anton Jallai – European import – (Leipzig Kings, Swedish)
• Remo Spahr – National

Tight Ends

• TE/FB Adrian Fiedler – National
• TE/FB Robert Harvey – National
• TE Igor Maslanka – European Import – (Slovakia, Barcelona Dragons)
• TE Theo Stirnimann

Offensive Line

• Jamil Essifi – National
• Federico Ferretti – National
• Pascal Hollenstein- National
• Filip Kovljenic – National
• Philipp Leimgruber – National
• Niels Meier – National
• Matthias Münger – National
• Gabriel Rodriguez – European Import – (Spain, Barcelona Dragons)
• Timothy Schmid – National
• Jürg Stalder – National
• Raffael Wachter – National

Defensive line

• Abdur-Rahman Elabed – National
• Yannick Friedberg – – National
• Tim Hänni – National
• Michael Kimpiabi – National
• Dominik Liechti – National
• Milos Panic – National
• Michel Sousa – National
• Jean Pierre Stadler – National
• Luca Steiner – National

Linebackers

• Andreas Buri – National
• Julien Conus – National
• John Falk – National
• William Harvey – National
• Timothy Schürmann – National
• Fabian Strahm – National
• JR Tavai – American Import – (USC, DI)
• Ludovic Vincent – National
• Joel Muntwyler – National

Defensive Backs

• Labinot Arapi – National
• Maceo Beard – European Import – French
• Fabian Bruhin – National
• Ken Hike Jr. – American – (Tuskegee University, DII)
• Olivier Marty – National
• Dominic Mischler – National
• Chaska Remy Perron – European Import – French
• Hendrik Rutishauser – National
• Florian Ziegler – National