Hanover. The Hanover Grizzlies football men are allowed back on the field on Saturday. “Finally,” as marketing boss Paul Deuster says. The start was planned for earlier. However, the Grizzlies lost another competitor in the regional league shortly before the start of the season. The Wolfsburg Blue Wings were condemned to forced relegation by the Lower Saxony association because they were unable to field a youth A team.
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That was not only bitter for Wolfsburg, but for the entire regional league. The Hamburg Blue Devils, who had been German champions several times in better days, had already had to announce their withdrawal. The Regionalliga Nord has shrunk from only six teams to now four teams. The North teams can only dream of conditions like those in the West season of the Regional League with nine teams.
Shrinking league a “statement of poverty”
“That’s a big deal and almost an indictment. The association is not doing itself any favors with such requirements,” says Deuster. With only six games in the entire season, there is hardly any league atmosphere. Last year’s promoted team Hamburg Swans has great ambitions, the Elmshorn Fighting Pirates and long-term rivals Braunschweig Lions II are the other remaining opponents.
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The Grizzlies also had to reschedule the venue. They actually wanted to make the Beeke Stadium in Ricklingen their venue. The home field on Stammestrasse is already busy enough with training and youth and women’s teams. “But the pitch in the Beeke Stadium was unplayable and would no longer have been usable this summer,” said Deuster. Like last season, the Grizzlies will play their three home games in the Rudolf Kalweit Stadium on Bischofsholer Damm.
Former star Allen now coach of the Grizzlies
At the start of the season they travel to Hamburg. Saturday (3 p.m.) it starts at the Hamburg Swans. This brings back bitter memories, especially for head coach Breon Allen. Almost a year ago he was the key player for the Grizzlies, who dreamed of promotion to the second division. Allen tore a cruciate ligament in the game against the Swans. That was the end of his career – and the end of the Grizzlies’ dreams.
He was only able to change because the American is also a coach and has already successfully coached junior teams. He was hired as the successor to Christopher Baerwolf (who moved to first division club Hildesheim Invaders). Allen also puts a lot of emphasis on youth in Hanover. “We have good young talent. Breon did a lot of good work there in the winter. This is an investment in the future,” says Deuster.
Stampeders “still” number two
The Hannover Stampeders, the oldest football club in the region, are starting one league below. Football was played on the canal in Anderten as early as the 80s. The women even competed in the first league. After a long period of development work, the men are playing in the top league for the third year in a row.
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“Of course we want to go even higher. We are still only number two in Hanover,” says Vice President Boris Schäfers. After the first win last week in Göttingen, we go to the Osnabrück Tigers on Saturday (3 p.m.). “Cohesion is really important to us,” says Schäfers, “you can see that from the fact that I had 50 men with me at the last game. I shouldn’t take anything else with me. But everyone feels comfortable in our family.”
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