00:00Long passes, runs into the end zone and clever plays are just some of the weapons that the
00:20South East Legion have used to fight their way to the top of their American Football
00:24League.
00:25The under-19 team are based in Maidstone and played their very last game of the season
00:28this month to win their entire division without a single loss.
00:33The achievement means that the team, ranked first in the country for their whole age group,
00:37are headed to the national finals this weekend in October to attempt to earn a trophy and
00:41cement their title as the undisputed number ones.
00:44I don't think we expected it to be as good as it has been.
00:47I think we knew we had something special with the players that are playing at the level they
00:51have, but yeah, absolutely didn't expect it to go this well.
00:56After the first two tournaments we could see where it was going and I think we're
01:00on an upward trajectory now.
01:02Some say that American Football is for everyone and that's because there's so many different
01:07positions that you can play.
01:08Cornerback, running back, tackle, linebacker, safety, wide receiver, fullback and I haven't
01:13even named all of them.
01:14And while it sounds complicated, it's a very simple game.
01:17All you're trying to do is get this to the end zone.
01:21Despite that, American Football is still a complicated game and the players understand
01:25the finals won't be easy.
01:27But that hasn't hurt the atmosphere at training one bit.
01:30We're all excited, we're all buzzing for it.
01:34We're all talking within each other like, oh, imagine this happens, imagine this happens.
01:39We're hyping ourselves up towards it because we've come so far we would hate to lose it.
01:43I'm very optimistic, I come into a lot of games with a very positive atmosphere.
01:50We come there to win, we're not coming for anything else really.
01:55Losing is not an option to us really, so at the end of the day we're going to get it done,
01:58and I know we're going to get it done.
02:00The team have risen the ranks only recently after building and developing their squad,
02:04with coaches putting an emphasis not just on their physical development as players,
02:07but on their mental and personal development as well.
02:10We want our players to go on to some of the great programmes in the UK,
02:14the NFL Academy, Bristol SGS, just two of them.
02:19So we're trying to develop football players that think for themselves.
02:23As a coach, we've done our job, if they can do it themselves,
02:27and even on game day, lots of our players, you know, they call the plays,
02:32they read the game, they read the defences, if they're on offence and vice versa.
02:36So yeah, we're trying to build young men which are great football players.
02:39The team's motto is hard work, full gas, and as they train for hours in the sweltering
02:44heat ahead of the finals, it isn't hard to see why.
02:47Let's give it a national finals one, yeah?
02:49Let's go.
02:50Hard work!
02:51Full gas!
02:52Hard work!
02:53Finn McDermott for KMTV in Maidstone.
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