Seismic Shifts for American Football in Ecuador

| American Football | 07/06/2018

After the 2018 FFAE (Federacion de Football Americano Ecuador) summit in Riobamba, Ecuador was held in June, several changes were made in football’s developmental process for the upcoming 2018 season.

To begin, the new 2018 FFAE Schedule was released in June. This comes with two new divisions in the league, the North and the South (each with 4 teams) and the voluntary exclusion of two veteran club’s participation in the league (Berserkers de Quito and Condores de Cuenca) in exchange for two new clubs (Titans de Quito and Bulldogs de Puerto Viejo) in their respective places.

Furthermore, the 2017 President of the FFAE, Marco De La Cueva of the city of Santo Domingo, stepped down during the summit leaving the reins to the newly voted in Fausto Ramirez from Ibarra. Lastly, Kickoff and Kickoff return has been added to spice up the season and make the sport in Ecuador essentially the same as NCAA except for 9 players on the field, not 11.

The clubs participating from the year before in the new Northern Division will be Lobos of Central Quito, Kraken of South Quito, Titanes of the Valley of Quito, and the Osos of Puerto Viejo. For the Southern Division, the teams will include, the Caimanes of Guayaquil, Colorado’s of Santo Domingo, Troyanos of Cuenca and the Bulldogs of Puerto Viejo.

As shown in the new schedule, the national championship game on December 1, will pit the top team of the Northern Division versus the top team of the Southern Division in a location yet to be selected by the FFAE committee in charge.

Looking past 2018, it is with great hope that more positive changes can be made in the 2019 season. In specific, creating 11 vs 11 football and adding the two more teams back in to make the total 10 club teams versus 8 club teams this year and an overall more competitive national league.

Season so far

The FFAE season began in early June with 6 out of 8 teams playing. The results included Lobos de Quito winning against Kraken del Sur 56-0 in a blowout. Another northern league team, the Titaes del Valle won 68-8 in Puerto Viejo against the Osos. Lastly, the Caimanes de Guayaquil won against a new team in the FFAE, the Bulldogs of Puerto Viejo 18-0. Colorados de Santo Domingo have yet to play the Troyanos de Cuenca this coming week for week 1 on the FFAE 2018 season. More news to come shortly on the official standings.

 

 

 

 

Owen Krebs-Grimsich was born in Oakland, California and grew up in Berkeley, California. He is a Math Teacher at Academia Cotopaxi in Quito, Ecuador and the Head Football Coach of the Lobos De Quito.