College Update

This Saturday the Vandy Aussie Rules Clubs will take to the field at Elmington Park with five Vandy seniors wearing Black & Gold for the last time.....

President & Captain - Jonathan Mott will lead the team for the last time with seniors Evan Gardiner, Robert Caldwell, Jason Newquist, and Daniel Branscomb. The club was really founded and developed on these now senior players who have been playing with the club since their sophomore year.

The Vandy squad will be vying for the NAFL Metro Footy Championship against the Music City Roos at Elmington Park at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday April 23, 2005. The Nashville Australian Football League is a new metropolitan Australian Football League aimed at developing and promoting Australian Football to colleges and armateurs in Nashville.

The Vandy Club has done tremendously well since forming in 2001 - with a championship win in the 2003 Australian Festival Cup, runner up in First Annual National Collegiate Championship in 2004, and of course these Vandy seniors will be keen to complete their careers with a big win over the Music City Roos.

The Nashville Kangaroos have been working very closely with the Vandy program since its inception - and the relationship has been very valuable to both organizations - the Kangaroos have provided resources to coach, administrate and build the program - and Vandy has shared a great training facility as well as provided on average 5 players to the Kangaroos team each of the last 3 years. This group of seniors are the first graduating generation of this program - and all 5 players are capable of playing senior football with any USAFL club in the United States.

To the programs credit - Vandy has also produced 2 superstars from the post grad ranks in Janni Mirsosevich & Mike Waller - who were both key players for the Kangaroos in 2002 when the club won their second Mid American Australian Football League Championship and a final national ranking of number 2 in the country. Both players are now living and playing in other US cities now.

Also, Adam Bishop, a sports administration student from Australia living in Nashville will be doing a summer internship based on developing (and studying) Aussie Rules in colleges around the United States and getting as many college participants at the tournament in September. This will be supported by Vanderbilt & Belmont Universities, the Nashville Kangaroos, and the USAFL.

Also, Vandy will be hosting the 2nd Annual Collegiate Invitational on September 10 & 11 in Nashville.

Good luck to our graduating seniors - great job in helping build this program - and lets get one more big win for the black and gold! 
 

- Peter Beare
(481)