The top league in Sweden has to have the raddest name of any league throughout Europe. The 6 teams in the top division compete in the Super Series. The Super Series has been dominated by one name over the past decade, The Mean Machine from Stockholm. The nation’s capital and biggest city housed the most dominant team in Sweden winning 7 of the 10 championships in the first decade of the 2000’s including back to back in ’08 and ‘09 until 2010 when the Carlstad Crusaders put an exclamation point on their perfect season defeating the Tyreso Royal Crowns 37-15 in the Championship. Swedish football can be most defined by the sheer size of the players. The size of the offensive and defensive lines mirror that of division I caliber teams in the United States. Before this past summer when the Germans took over the European crown, the best football nation in all of Europe was Sweden, as they took the European Championship just 3 years prior under the tutelage of BD Kennedy, current head coach of the Arlanda Jets. Four of the Six teams in Sweden hail from Stockholm and surrounding areas with a 3 hour drive on the E18 highway west to the lake town of Karlstad hitting Orebro on the way. These teams will frequent this itinerary throughout the late spring and summer.
The Carlstad Crusaders had a memorable and unstoppable 12-0 season in 2010. One opponent player was quoted recently by saying that, “the only line in Sweden that can block the Crusader’s D-Line is the Crusader’s O-Line.” If this is any indication of what 2011 will be like, it’s going to be a blackout. The team from the west heads into their first ever season as the defending national champion. This squad was as “on the cusp” as it gets, earning second place in the Super Series in each of the last 7 seasons. That’s right, 7 years in a row as number 2, how sweet it was last September when these guys hoisted the trophy. Not only did the Crusaders dominate the Swedish competition last year, but they also made moves on the international stage. Beating the Sollerod Gold Diggers (Denmark) and London Blitz (UK) brought the Crusaders to Switzerland for the final of the EFAF Cup. A torrential downpour kept them off the scoreboard except for a field goal in a 17-3 defeat, their one and only of the year. 2011 appears to be a year for the record books as the national talent has only improved and the Crusaders have hired 3 Americans for the season. QB Eli Cranor of Ouchita Baptist (Div II) and myself will play and coach and are joined by Chris Vicory, Humboldt State (Div II) as an offensive line coach and running game coordinator. Tracey Gere is at the helm after running the defense in recent years which had just 3 games out of 15 last year giving up more than 15 points. The Crusaders started it off with a group stage victory against the current German Champions the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes on April 23rd. The Crusaders season will get VIP treatment on this blog due to obvious reasons.
Nobody could compare to the Crusaders in Sweden last year, but a team that has no shortage of glory days is the Stockholm Mean Machines. Their 6-4-1 season was not indicative of the talent level of this team. They started the season as reigning champions but lost a close decision to the Crusaders in the opening game. After that date the team rattled off all 6 of their wins in dominating fashion. Then, what looked like a well oiled machine took a turn for the worst and ended up breaking altogether. A tie score against the Northside Bulls segwayed into 2 losses. First at Arlanda and then at Carlstad to end the regular season, compounded by a season ending 28-21 loss at Tyreso in the semi-final. Things kind of fell of the wagon for the Machine in 2010, but a fresh start and a fresh face at quarterback makes all that feel like yesterday. Cody Hawkins of the University of Colorado will signal call for the Machine this year and returning head coach Robert Johansson both will definitely help to instill the winning ways back to Stockholm. Pay special attention to the week 4 matchup between Stockholm and Carlstad, the weekend of May 21st.
Another team that is vying for the title in Sweden is the Tyreso Royal Crowns. At 6-6 last year the Royal Crowns did not produce as well as planned, but still came up one win from magnificence in late September. The Royal Crowns had lost twice to the Crusaders and Mean Machine before beating the Machine 28-21 in the semifinal game. This feat of winning the third encounter was almost accomplished a second time in the title game, but the Royal Crown fell short at the hands of the Crusaders. This year the Crowns will attempt to separate themselves from the rest of the league and prove that they can hang with the big boys.
The Arlanda Jets, named perfectly for the Arlanda airport in Stockholm, had a tough year coming in at 4-6 overall in 2010. The Jets split with the Bulls, beat Djurgardens twice (a team that has disbanded since the 2010 season due to a player shortage) and had a season highlight win against Stockholm at home in the second to last game of the season by a score of 28-21. To complete a turnaround this season will take a large amount of resolve, and some great playing from the players out East. This team has a shining light in head coach BD Kennedy. Coach Kennedy has been working hard to instill popularity and increase skill level of the youth in the Stockholm area. The future is obviously in the youth, and Coach Kennedy has his priorities set right. Coach Kennedy is also not more than 4 years removed from a European Crown coaching the Swedish national team to the promised land. For the Jets in 2011, anything can happen as General Douglas MacCarthur put it, “A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.”
The next team to portray is the STU Northside Bulls. The young organization, started in 2006, hails from exactly where the name implies, the north side of Stockholm. The Bulls finished 4-6-1 splitting the season matchups with Arlanda, and showed that they could battle the top teams beating first the Tyreso Royal Crowns 28-25 on the road and later tying the Stockholm Mean Machine as an away team. Reaching the semi-final game was a short lived thrill after a 40-0 thumping from the champion Crusaders was placed on their plate. 2011 already shows promise. The Bulls have hired Canadian linebacker Andrea Bonaventura. Bonaventura played at the University of Calgary who were finalists in 2010. He was named defensive player of the year twice in Canada. He’ll add skill and knowledge to the already building Northside squad, who boasts 2 junior national championships in just 5 seasons. Swedish national team QB Anders Hermodsson runs the show for STU.
The final team to compete in the 2011 Super Series are the Orebro Black Knights. The Knights, recently moved up a division from division 1 to the Super Series this offseason. They waste no time in displaying their intentions by signing American QB John Cody Ladutko for this year. Ladutko played at Averett University (Div.III) in Charlotte, NC. He was a prolific passer in his two seasons playing for Averett and brings these skills to the table for the newcomers to the top division. Orebro joins Carlstad as one of two teams not from the greater Stockholm area. They are situated nicely in between Carlstad and Stockholm, which just about guarantees that one aspect of their transition into the SAFF will be free from turmoil, the travel.
The Super Series kicks off on May 30th with what is consistent for many of the leagues throughout Europe, a rematch of lasts year’s title game between the Carlstad Crusaders and the Tyreso Royal Crowns. For your viewing pleasure, check out this video that was created by enperiEntertainment displaying this very championship game last season.
SM Final Senior 2010 from enperiEntertainment on Vimeo.
