High School American Football Student-Athletes Will Tour England Before Lining Up Against Bristol Academy as Teams Stars & Stripes
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Global Football will return to the United Kingdom when Team Stars & Stripes travels to London and the West Country to participate in the 2017 Global Ambassadors Bowl England from April 1-9, facing local team Bristol Academy on the gridiron.
The tenth Global Ambassadors Bowl will provide the opportunity of a lifetime for deserving student-athletes to travel internationally, while playing the sport of American football and representing their school, state, nation and themselves.
The squad of high school senior standouts is selected as much for a player’s conduct off the field as for his performances on the gridiron and is known as Team Stars & Stripes. The venue and date for the game against Bristol Academy will be announced at a later date.
“It is always fun to return to the UK for football and travel, as the NFL’s continued presence there helps build the interest among players, coaches and fans,” said Global Football President & Founder Patrick Steenberge. “Bristol Academy is a leader in this development, led by Coach Ben Herod, and we anticipate a very competitive game featuring many of England’s top high school age players.”
Long-time Penn Charter (Philadelphia, PA) head coach Bill Gallagher, who has taken charge of Team Stars & Stripes for the past four journeys overseas, will again lead the American squad. While combining practicing for the match up against Bristol Academy with sightseeing, the travelers will visit Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, Hyde Park, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Bath, Stonehenge and the Cotswolds.
Coaches who wish to nominate suitable high school seniors for Team Stars & Stripes should contact Coach Gallagher: bgnd72@comcast.net. Players wishing to join Team Stars & Stripes, as well as family members wanting to join the 9-day tour should register online through Anthony Travel.
Joining head coach Gallagher on the coaching staff are John Storey (Villa Angela-St Joseph’s, Cleveland, OH), Tim McFarlin (Blessed Trinity, Atlanta, GA), Eric Rogers (Pima Community College, Tucson, AZ) and Evan Sharpley (CEO/Owner of Sharpley Training).
Bristol Academy was founded in 2008 and provides students from Europe with an opportunity to get a quality education alongside testing their sporting ability by playing games against top European and North American teams along with national programs. The Academy has defeated Great Britain, Holland and France, along with victories over the top military airbase teams in Europe. The team is unbeaten in three years of competition against the best university programs in Britain, while playing up an age group. The Academy first worked with Global Football in 2009 when the Kent School from Connecticut traveled to Bristol to play against the recently formed program.
More than 20 former Bristol Academy students have progressed to play NCAA, Junior College, Prep School or High School football in the United States, with students currently at LA Verne, Austin and UIW in the NCAA as well as several in the JUCO ranks and at high school.
“This game will give our team another opportunity to learn about the speed and physicality they need in order to play at the top level,” said Bristol Academy head coach Ben Herod. “Our game against Kent School all those years ago propelled our program by showing our team how fast you needed to play and how low you needed to stay through contact. I would like to think we have come a long way since then and have this year as good of a team as we have ever had. If everyone can stay healthy then it will be the best opportunity, we have ever had to compete against an American Team of this ability. We hope it opens further doors for those who perform well to continue the sport in the USA.”
The Team Stars & Stripes coaching staff has strong links to Global Ambassadors Bowl organizer Patrick Steenberge, the President of Global Football.
Bill Gallagher played in the same backfield as Steenberge at the University of Notre Dame and has traveled with Global Football to France, Germany, Italy, Ireland and Spain.
Storey has been a member of the high school-aged Team Stars & Stripes squad’s coaching staff for all eight years on visits to Japan and Europe. He first traveled with Global Football in 1997 as the offensive line coach with John Carroll University, where he coached for ten years. He will also coach the Division III college Team Stars & Stripes at the Tazón De Estrellas (Bowl of the Stars) in Mexicali on December 17.
McFarlin took his Blessed Trinity Titans, who reached the 2015 AAA Georgia State Championship game, to Ireland this summer as one of six high school teams that participated in the Global Football-organized American Football Showcase Dublin.
Sharpley returns as a Team Stars & Stripes assistant coach for the third year in succession. He played football and baseball at the University of Notre Dame and was a member of the Seattle Mariners organization having been selected in the 2009 MLB Draft.
Rogers is the newcomer to the staff and has coached at Salpointe Catholic High School and Tucson High School in Arizona and was an Assistant Coach on the USA-Arizona Gridiron All-Star Football Team in Australia in 2003. As a player he captained UConn to its only 10-game winning season, in 1998.
The Global Ambassadors Bowl traces its origins back to Japan in 2008 and has taken high-school aged travelers and mentoring coaches to Europe and Asia to expand their appreciation of the world, make new friends and play football. The series has graced Japan (2008 and 2009), France & Belgium (2010), Germany (2011), Italy (2012, 2013 and 2015), Spain (2014) and Czech Republic & Germany (2016), with Team Stars & Stripes boasting a 7-2 overall record. An additional 2017 Global Ambassadors will be played in China when Viewpoint School (California) head coach Chris Adamson takes a separate Team Stars & Stripes roster to Beijing and Shanghai.
About Global Football
Since 1996 Global Football has provided 15,000 amateur football players, coaches, families and fans from 350 schools the opportunity to travel and compete internationally with similar people of differing cultures. During that time they have produced games and tours in 25 countries on 6 continents, including the 2012, 2014 and 2016 high school games staged in Ireland alongside the NCAA college football event. Through these games, clinics and tours the people involved experience and learn about unique lands, fascinating people, and the sports environment in different parts of the world. Global Football has become the world’s largest exporter and producer of American football outside of the USA.
Contact Patrick Steenberge:
Tel: 817-219-7274 / Email: Patrick@GlobalFootball.com