Head Coaches Prepare To Take On
The World
January 25, 2005
WHILE NFL HEAD coaches Bill Belichick and Andy Reid perfect
their respective game plans for Super Bowl XXXIX, five
coaches from three continents are also preparing to win
a world championship in Jacksonville.
Japan, France, Mexico, Canada and USA will meet at the
NFL Global Junior Championship IX at The Bolles School
on Wednesday, February 2 and Saturday, February 5.
Leading the USA challenge and coaching 36 Jacksonville
junior all-stars is CORKY ROGERS, the
all-time winningest coach in Florida high school history.
His Bolles Bulldogs captured the Florida 3A State Championship
this fall.
“It is an honor to coach on an international level
and to represent the USA,” said Rogers. “The
host team has won the past four championships and we have
a lot to live up to if we are to carry on where they left
off.”
Nobody will be more determined to end the USA streak than
Canada head coach DANNY MACIOCIA, whose
team has finished runners up on each of the past four
finals. Maciocia spearheaded the Canadian challenge in
Houston in 2004 in his first tournament and was named
head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football
League last year.
“I am convinced that the players we selected are
going to provide strong opposition for the teams that
they will compete against in Jacksonville,” said
Maciocia. “We have good size and speed and have
our hearts set on winning the gold medal, just as Canada
did back in 2000.”
Team Japan head coach MR NOBORU HAMABE
is the assistant head coach of Waseda University Big Bears
and also the head coach of Waseda University High school.
In 2004 and 2001 his high school team finished as runner-up
in the Kantoh area football tournament. He brings a wealth
of experience to the Japanese team having played at quarterback
for Waseda University, Fujitsu Frontiers and Sakura Bank
Dinos.
Mexico will again be under the leadership of head coach
JUAN GONZALEZ, whose team earned third
place at the eighth NFL Global Junior Championship in
Houston last year. Tournament newcomers France won the
European Junior Championship for the right to fly Europe’s
flag in Jacksonville and will be led by long-serving head
coach PAUL VINCENT MIRAVAL. He is no
stranger to the tournament having served as an assistant
coach when a combined all-star team represented Europe
in Tampa Bay in 2001. |
