EVERETT – While the region’s baseball prowess is well known, the Pacific Rim is probably the last place most folks think of when the topic of conversation is football hot-beds.
But, during the post-World War II occupation, American rules football was introduced in Japan. The sport thrived there for several decades before it caught on in soccer-crazy Europe in the late 1970s.
Now, arenafootball2 has announced local fans will have an opportunity to see for themselves when the Everett Hawks host a Japanese All-Star team, the Samurai Warriors, on March 19 at the Everett Events Center.
The Samurai Warriors, who have played exhibition games against af2 teams in each of the two previous seasons – Louisville (2004) and San Diego (2005) – are coached by Shinzo Yamada who starred as a collegiate player in Japan.
Yamada played in NFL Europe and briefly with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003.
Yamada, league president Jerry Kurz and Jim Foster, owner of the Quad City SteamWheelers, were in Everett last week to promote the exhibition event as well as the Hawks and the league in general.
“You tend to think of baseball there,” Foster said. “But there is a great history of football in Japan. The athletes are very good.”
Yamada and Atsushi Suzuki, af2’s international development coordinator, said there are more than 200 collegiate programs in Japan. The sport also thrives at the high school level.
On the field the Samurai Warriors are led by running back Takuya Furutani.
On Jan. 3 Furutani led the Obic Seagulls to a 47-17 victory over the Hosei University Tomahawks in the Rice Bowl, Japan’s version of the national championship.
Furutani rushed for 246 yards and five touchdowns in the game, which was played in front of 28,041 fans at the Tokyo Dome.
“He plays with reckless abandon with no regard for his physical well-being,”
Foster said with a laugh. “He represents that Samurai spirit.”
Kurz said bringing a Japanese team here is part of a larger plan to eventually expand af2’s version of indoor football across the Pacific Ocean, and perhaps across the Atlantic.
“The economics of our game supports international development,” Kurz said.
The exhibition game offers fans a chance to familiarize themselves with af2 rules before the season opener at the Events Center March 30 against the Bakersfield Blitz.
“We’ve got a motto,” Kurz said. “Don’t blink.”
Kurz and Foster believe it’s the proximity to the action that gets folks hooked on indoor football.
“You might as well just suit up,” Foster laughed.
Foggie likes his QBs: Coach Ricky Foggie called Julian Reese – who enjoyed a standout rookie season in 2005 for the Amarillo Dusters where Foggie was the offensive coordinator – the front-runner to be the Hawks’ starting quarterback.
“He’s an athlete,” Foggie said. “But, he can get better.”
Foggie also likes what he has seen of presumed back-up Matt Dennison, a rookie from Washington State.
“He’s got a canon for an arm and nice quick feet too,” Foggie said.
Short learning curve: Foggie admitted he got off to a rough start indoors in his first season in the Arena Football League in 1998 after riding a gun-slinging style to stardom in both the Big-10 (University of Minnesota, 1984-1987) and the CFL (B.C. Lions and Toronto Argonauts, 1988-1997).
Foster, who owned the Quad Cities AFL franchise at the time, recalled Foggie’s first pass against his team when Foggie was playing for the Minnesota Fighting Pike.
“It was a quick out route,” Foster said. “Rickey threw it so hard it sailed and hit three rows up in the stands.”
“They had to tone me down a little,” laughed Foggie, 39, who went on to enjoy a stellar AFL career before taking over as offensive coordinator for Amarillo in 2005.
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