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May 10th, 2008
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Panthers ready to roam

American football champs set for tourney

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 26th, 2008 issue

Two concerns haunt the Prague Panthers as they prepare for EFAF Cup play.
First, and perhaps least troubling, is the lack of a detailed scouting report on their opening round opponent, the Crew, from Breslaw, Poland.
“It won’t affect our offense,” said second-year coach John Srholec. “We know what we want to do.”
Last season the Panthers’ offense shredded Czech league defenses, winning the championship and earning the team a berth in the prestigious European tournament.
“Defensively, we’re concerned they’ll come out with something we haven’t seen,” he added.
The Panthers seem capable of advancing from the EFAF’s group phase, especially after drawing the Crew and Austria’s third-place team, the Danube Dragons, for the opening round.
The EFAF Cup pits top American football teams from around Europe in a tournament similar to soccer’s UEFA Cup — teams with names like the Parma Panthers, Bern Grizzlies or Berlin Adler. Last year, the Prague Lions failed to emerge from group play after a loss to Switzerland’s Winterthur Warriors. The Graz Giants went on to capture the championship.
“The guys really believe we can do some damage in this,” said Doug Youngberg, an assistant coach for the Panthers. Most observers believe, he added, enough local talent exists to compete on the international level.
Quarterback Jake Shrum, a master of Srholec’s veer offense, returns this season, as does Miloš Hildebrand and most of a team that waltzed through the 2007 ČLAF season unbeaten, destroyed Příbram in the playoffs and dominated the Lions 28-13 in the Czech Super Bowl.
Should the Panthers win this phase, they advance to face the winner of Group C, either Denmark’s Triangle Razorbacks, the Amsterdam Crusaders or Berlin Adler in elimination rounds.
“They’re not going to win if we play them,” Shrum said about Berlin. Some bad blood exists between the two squads after a tough scrimmage last year.
“It’s a point of pride,” Srholec added. “We’re really representing the Czech Republic — and West European teams don’t expect much from Central and East European players.”
To raise the profile of Czech football, they’ll have to deal with a second, more daunting concern: the road jerseys they ordered for the first game, April 5 in Breslaw, were set to ship from a warehouse in the United States — a warehouse that was completely destroyed in a fire.
But, in football, it’s not how you look.
“The players still have to make plays,” Srholec said.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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