IFAF 11 days: Fun facts about the IFAF Senior World Championship & the competing teams

IFAF Senior World Championship Notes:

Twenty-one players on other national teams in this tournament have either NFL practice squad or NFL Europe experience.

The tournament features 29 game officials from 12 countries; including two women – one from Austria and another from Serbia

The IFAF Senior World Championship is held every four years: Palermo, Italy (1999); Frankfurt, Germany (2003); Tokyo, Japan (2007); Graz, Innsbruck and Vienna, Austria (2011)

Australia:

Arizona Cardinals punter Ben Graham will play for his native Australia.

Austria:

Austrian head coach Rick Rhoades, prior to coaching in Europe, coached college football in the United States winning the NCAA Division II college championship with the Troy University Trojans.

This will be the first time the IFAF Senior World Championship has been held in Austria and the second time Europe has played host.

Canada:

Team Canada’s 75-man roster includes 13 current CFL players

Head coach Larry Haylor, a former head coach of University of Western Ontario (1984-2006), is the winningest coach in Canadian university football history with a career record of 178 wins, 47 losses and 4 ties.

This will be the first time Canada has comped in the IFAF Senior world Championship

France:

Since the last IFAF Senior World Championship, France played in four friendly contests within Europe before qualifying for this year’s tournament with a second place finish in the European Championships held in Frankfurt.

Germany:

Nine offensive starters & ten defensive starters that led Germany to a gold medal at the European Championship are also on the 75-man roster that will compete at the IFAF Senior World Championship

Germany’s Jerome Morris was born in Killeen, Texas and will play for Germany this summer

The roster is represented by 20 different teams throughout Germany.

Japan:

Roughly 100 Japanese universities have football teams, which was introduced to the nation by Americans during the 1930s. Japan won the first two IFAF world titles before the U.S. entered the international competition in 2007

Defensive Tackle Yasuo Wakisaka is the oldest player on the team at the age of 42, he has participated in all three previous IFAF Senior World Championships

Running back Tomokazu Sueyoshi is the only college player on the Japan roster who currently plays for Waseda University

Mexico:

Several players of team Mexico have been members of NFL International Practice Squad Program: linebacker Educardo Castadena (Arizona Cardinals), defensive tackle Mauricio Lopez (Oakland Raiders), Linebacker Manuel Padilla (Denver Broncos), tackle Ramiro Pruneda (San Francisco 49ers) and Saloman Solano (Baltimore Ravens.

Pruneda and Solano are currently teammates playing in the Professional Indoor Football League for the Green Bay Blizzard.

United States:

Team USA QB Matt Bassuener has an International Affairs degree from Georgetown, speaks five languages, has played football in Mexico (college) and Finland (post-college), and is an active Arena League QB who will miss his team’s playoff chase to play for the U.S.

The team boasts the NCAA’s all-time leading rusher across all divisions in Nate Kmic, Mount Union.

DE Charles Bay graduated from Dartmouth this spring with a medical anthropology degree; he led the Ivy League in sacks last season (8.0). he is the son of Nigerian immigrants.

LB Osayi Osunde was born in Nigeria and graduated from Villanova with a Psychology degree.

Two US players – CB Diezeas Calbert and LB Demetrius Eaton – were also part of the U.S. Men’s Team that won the gold medal at the 2007 IFAF Senior World Championship in Japan.

Defensive backs coach (Steve Bernstein) who is a Vietnam veteran and former Marine captain who was awarded a Purple Heart; has spent nearly 40 years as an assistant coach at some of the NCAA’s top programs