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| Layke Rossiello |
"My Journey to the IFAF World Cup"
I start playing American football in late 2004 for the Bay City Buccaneers Junior team. I was a long haired skinny 16 year old that had achieved some success in Australian rules football playing at senior level from age 14. After an injury to my ankle saw me miss all but two games of the senior season I decided I needed to find something to do during the summer. Never being a fan of cricket I jumped at the opportunity to play a contact sport during the off season of aussie rules and I was always curious about the foreign sport of American Football.
So I went down to my first ever training session with a group of my mates and fell in love with the game almost instantly. I played my first season for the Buccaneers on both offense and defense and we were lucky enough to make the junior Vicbowl only to be defeated by the far more experienced Croydon Rangers. After the game they had an awards ceremony for the most valuable players in the league and I was lucky enough to be named Gridiron Victoria’s best defensive player and was invited to try out for the Victoria Eagles State team. I was shocked firstly I didn’t know they gave out awards and secondly I didn’t know that they had a state team or national competition.
So I played for the State team over the next 12 months every opportunity I got in Adelaide, ACT and at the Down Under Bowl against Americans in Queensland. I had some success as on both sides of the ball and later found out that I had been selected in the Australian Team. I was stunned in 12 months I had given away Australian Rules Football and was now representing my country in my new found passion of American Football.
So now I will fast forward a few years to the start of the senior season 2009. I had finished playing junior football and I had suffered a few injuries to my knee, ankle, shoulder, hand and I had played over the past 5 years about 10 senior games because of these injuries. A lot had changed now, I was no longer the skinny long haired kid I was in 2004 lucky to be 80 kgs soaking wet. I was now an out of shape 101 kgs from 5 years of injuries, with only a hand full of badly played senior games and I’m at a cross roads… do I continue to play football or do I give it all away and try something new. I wasn’t effective in our team anymore, had barely played any games and was in the worst shape of my life. This is when I was given an opportunity by my junior coach and long time friend Marty Jackson. He named me defensive coach and captain of our then struggle senior defense and gave me full power to do as I liked and develop my own system. This was just the spark I needed to relight the flame and my passion for American football. We had a very successful season, our defense was ranked number 1 in the state and we made our first ever senior final. I was awarded Gridiron Victoria Senior MVP and Defensive Player of the year and I was back on top.
In 2010 I was offered a sponsorship from Ultimate Performance Supplements and I completely turned my life around. I am no longer an out of shape 101kg with more fat than muscle and through hard work, good nutritional advice and supplementation from U.P.S I am now 97kg of powerful football player, which helped me to dominate at the senior nationals in 2010. My performance at the Senior Nationals helped to earn me a position on the Australian team which travelled to Austria in 2011 to play USA, Mexico, Germany and Austria.
So now I will fast forward a few years to the start of the senior season 2009. I had finished playing junior football and I had suffered a few injuries to my knee, ankle, shoulder, hand and I had played over the past 5 years about 10 senior games because of these injuries. A lot had changed now, I was no longer the skinny long haired kid I was in 2004 lucky to be 80 kgs soaking wet. I was now an out of shape 101 kgs from 5 years of injuries, with only a hand full of badly played senior games and I’m at a cross roads… do I continue to play football or do I give it all away and try something new. I wasn’t effective in our team anymore, had barely played any games and was in the worst shape of my life. This is when I was given an opportunity by my junior coach and long time friend Marty Jackson. He named me defensive coach and captain of our then struggle senior defense and gave me full power to do as I liked and develop my own system. This was just the spark I needed to relight the flame and my passion for American football. We had a very successful season, our defense was ranked number 1 in the state and we made our first ever senior final. I was awarded Gridiron Victoria Senior MVP and Defensive Player of the year and I was back on top.
In 2010 I was offered a sponsorship from Ultimate Performance Supplements and I completely turned my life around. I am no longer an out of shape 101kg with more fat than muscle and through hard work, good nutritional advice and supplementation from U.P.S I am now 97kg of powerful football player, which helped me to dominate at the senior nationals in 2010. My performance at the Senior Nationals helped to earn me a position on the Australian team which travelled to Austria in 2011 to play USA, Mexico, Germany and Austria.
I had never been out of the country before and I was filled with mixed emotions. I had to be away from my beautiful fiancé for the longest time in our relationship, leave my Bay City Buccaneer brothers during the 2011 season and my family’s business which was going through a massive growth stage. I felt like I was letting allot of people down to do something selfish for myself which is probably why I had the worst preparation camp possible. I got a concussion on day 1 during the first training session and then I woke up with a severe inner ear infection on day two which after consulting a doctor was going to keep me out of action until day 5. I thought that things couldn’t have gotten any worse however on the second training session of day 5 I suffered an ankle injury that sidelined me for the rest of the preparation camp. As they say things happen in threes and that was obviously my three. The only thing that kept my spirits up was the support of my fiancé Rachel Shaw and knowing that back home my Buccaneers still were winning. On Sunday the 3rd of July we set off on our way to Austria and 2 days travel later on July 5th we landed in Helsinki and drove the 4 hours to Innsbruck our home for the next 10 days. I continued to rehab my ankle and I was soon back on the training track doing light jogging and light training drills but with game 1 against USA fast approaching I was in no position to be playing football. On July 8th we suited up to play team USA the eventual winners of the tournament.
Standing on the field wearing green and gold and hearing the Australian national anthem being played was one of the proudest moments in my life and all the motivation I needed to forget about my ankle for the next 4 hours. Only 7 years earlier I was learning the game and now here I was on one of the biggest stages I will probably get to play on, representing my country and the feeling was overwhelming. I didn’t get an opportunity to play until the end of the 2nd quarter. By this stage we were losing pretty badly 27 to 0 and my coach sent me out on the field to face the world’s best.
I ran into the defensive huddle and the captain was trying to give us the play. The music and crowd are so loud I can barely hear him. This is when I realise that I am not in Australia anymore playing in front of 100 people, this is the World Championships and I am about to face the biggest test of my life. So I get the play and walk to my position in the middle of the field. I look over and see the down and distance and it is 3rd and 3 so I am expecting to see run. The Quarter back walks up and positions himself under centre and begins his cadence. “Down, colour number, colour number” he says as he signals a man go in motion to my left, “set, hut” he says and the centre snaps the ball to start the play.
The entire offensive line move to my right telling me it’s a zone run and I have seen this a thousand times before. I take my two read steps and begin to scrape towards the play. The centre then takes a step up field to block me and I realise I have to engage him then get rid of him to make the tackle. I run down hill to hit the centre knowing that I have to hit him harder than anyone I have hit before, this is the world level and he isn’t going to let a little Aussie push him around. I’m about 2 meters from him now and I’m low ready to engage him. It is at this moment that I realise he is not trying to stand up and block me he is going to cut me. A cut block is when an opponent dives at your legs to block you so you fall over him and this only works on aggressive players. So down he goes with perfect technique and it’s too late I have gone too hard, I was too aggressive and I fall over him, my first play at world level I get cut out by the centre I was shattered.
The entire offensive line move to my right telling me it’s a zone run and I have seen this a thousand times before. I take my two read steps and begin to scrape towards the play. The centre then takes a step up field to block me and I realise I have to engage him then get rid of him to make the tackle. I run down hill to hit the centre knowing that I have to hit him harder than anyone I have hit before, this is the world level and he isn’t going to let a little Aussie push him around. I’m about 2 meters from him now and I’m low ready to engage him. It is at this moment that I realise he is not trying to stand up and block me he is going to cut me. A cut block is when an opponent dives at your legs to block you so you fall over him and this only works on aggressive players. So down he goes with perfect technique and it’s too late I have gone too hard, I was too aggressive and I fall over him, my first play at world level I get cut out by the centre I was shattered.
I bounce to my feet and chase the ball carrier. I chased him 40 meters until I realise that I’m not going to catch him and he is going to score. It is then that I see out of the corner of my eye the centre that cut me running down the field celebrating, just running along fist pumping and not paying attention. I instantly think PAYBACK and charge at him. He doesn’t even see me coming until it is too late and I give him everything I have right in the side of the head. CRACK he is now airborne and he hits the ground with an almighty thud. He just lays there for a second stunned at what had just happened. He may have cut me out and the ball carrier may have scored but he has a big green and yellow mark on his helmet that will last him a life time.
I now knew what it took to play at this level. I had to be faster, smarter, stronger and more focused than I have even been before. I played sparingly for the rest of the game, against Mexico and Germany due to my ankle and our defensive system. They mainly wanted to use me for my run stopping ability so against passing teams I got limited time. I played for most of the game against Austria and had 2 solo tackles 4 assists and 2 tackles for loss which was easily my best game. During the tournament I made 6 solo tackles, 4 assisted tackles and 2 tackles for loss which and was 5th overall in the team. I believe that if uninjured I could have done more, but for the plays that I was on I was happy with my performance.
I now knew what it took to play at this level. I had to be faster, smarter, stronger and more focused than I have even been before. I played sparingly for the rest of the game, against Mexico and Germany due to my ankle and our defensive system. They mainly wanted to use me for my run stopping ability so against passing teams I got limited time. I played for most of the game against Austria and had 2 solo tackles 4 assists and 2 tackles for loss which was easily my best game. During the tournament I made 6 solo tackles, 4 assisted tackles and 2 tackles for loss which and was 5th overall in the team. I believe that if uninjured I could have done more, but for the plays that I was on I was happy with my performance.
I made a lot of friends while I was away from all over the world and even though I had many ups and downs it is one of the best experiences in my sporting career so far and I am now in training for Australia vs Canada on home soil in late February and the next World Cup in 2015 were we can hopefully achieve a better result. We lost every game while over in Austria at this campaign but we earned the respect of the IFAF and the world.
Layke
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