The Beginnings if the Helvetic Guards … well maybe.

How did all of the ELF stuff get started with me?  I’ve been asked that several times over the past year. Well let’s see…

Let’s jump into the “Wayback Machine” … come on many of you are old enough to remember Mr. Peabody and Sherman on the “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show??”  Ok those of you a little younger think about Marty McFly gets into the time traveling DeLorean automobile and goes back in history in “Back to the Future.”

Same thing guys I’m going back to look at the future.

It’s June of 2022 and I was helping coach the Thun Tigers (our first year in the top level of football in Switzerland).  My time in Switzerland was coming to an end and I was getting ready to head back to the states.

An old friend who I worked a football camp with back in 2018 sent me a message saying we should get together.   JC Williams – a Canadian – wanted me to come down to his home and talk to him about a football project.

So, I hopped on the train and went to visit him at his house somewhere out in the countryside past Wintherthur.  Now this was a good hike for me leaving out of the Thun Bahnhof.  Probably more than two hours.  But, I had time and a train pass – so off I go.

JC had played wide receiver for a few teams in Europe and was pretty well known – especially in northern Switzerland.  He had married a Swiss girl and now was a fulltime resident.

He picked me up at the small train station and we set off for his house.  He was planning on getting the grill going and I sat down for a beer.  Well, that’s what I do – sit down for a beer a lot!

JC told me that he was part of a group that was going joining the European League of Football.  He explained that he and three other guys had put together half the finances and that they also had a majority owner at 51%.  All five of these guys were friends and had played together in Winterthur at one-time.

In my mind…. I am thinking friends and business don’t end up being friends or in business eventually.  Sorry to say I was right – but that’s another story.

The team would be called the Helvetic Guards and be based in Zurich.  That makes sense because if you think about Switzerland and major cities (with airports) you have Zurich, Geneva and Basel (I guess you can count Bern as well).

He told me that he and Matt Hammer (another acquaintance) were going to be “Athletic Directors” and they would be charged with developing a roster and finding coaches.  This is where I would come in.

They wanted me to coach with the team.

I shook JC off by telling him I would help – but my heart was in Thun with the Tigers and their club.  I’d help them build the team and use my contacts to help them build a coaching staff as well.  But my intentions were to stay in Thun.

I must have a giant “S” on my forehead that stands for “Sucker!”

A few nights later I am in the Radison Blu Hotel in the Zurich airport (which is an extraordinary place by the way).  Matt and JC come over to spend some time with me before I leave.

We do an interview via zoom with one of the bigger sports personalities in Switzerland – Manuel Aeberli.  It was fun and as it moved along I swear the “S” on my forehead was pulsating.

But, in my mind I figured I get on the jet the next morning and fly home and in the following weeks things would just go away in regards to the Helvetic Guards.

“Not so fast Kemosabe!”