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Münsingen is a municipality of about 12,000 people that is nestled along the Aare River as it leaves Thun and heads northward towards the capital of Switzerland – Bern.

The city developed from a Celtic village that had its origins around 400 BC.  Yeah … that’s pretty long ago!  Think about it … 400 BC!

As I looked at the cities along the Aare – you see so much information about the Romans and also the Celts.  But, given that Switzerland is bordered on the south by Italy I guess it only makes sense.

The powerful Roman armies and the fact that their civilization conquered so much of the known world in the early ages.  Well, naturally their history is intertwined with the country of Switzerland.

Münsingen is also the location of USM … the international company that produces office furniture.

After passing through Münsingen the Aare pushes into the city of Bern.

Now, Bern is the capital of Switzerland.  Obviously, many people think that the larger cities of Zurich or Geneva might head the Swiss government … but this distinction falls to Bern.

With a population of 400,000 (660,000 in metropolitan area) this vibrant city is really well worth a visit anytime.  It is really a beautiful place that was built around a bend in the Aare River.

When you visit, you can see how the Aare literally snakes about the city and is a major attraction.  In fact, people will float the river from place to place (some people literally will pack their clothes in a plastic bag and float to work!)

I am told it is a great way to bar hop during the summer months.  Now, if that’s the case I need to find out how this works.

                      

Many people know I am a very seasoned veteran of river floats.  My summer days in Arizona were literally spent on weekly tubes down the Great Salt River.  I am one of the few to navigate this river at night … even saw a rattlesnake on that trip!

When you wander the streets of Bern you can quickly find yourself in the famous Old City.  As you enter you will see the world renown clock tower or “Zytglogge.”  The tower rings every quarter hour with the main bell being struck on the hour by the giant brass figure with a hammer.  (This is Chronos – the Greek symbol for time.)

Trust me, you won’t miss it.  It always attracts a crowd as the top of the hour approaches.

There is some beautiful scenery there.  You can stroll down the “Promenade” with its great shopping and the famous fountains set in the middle of the boulevard.

Don’t miss the Cathedral (Bern Münster) as you walk down towards the river.  Well, actually it would be hard to miss as it towers above the storefronts along the “Promenade.”  As you check out the Church you can look down into the old city and the blue-green of the Aare.  Quite a view.

As you continue down towards the bridge over the Aare you can see the famed bear pits on the opposite side.  I’ve been to Bern and the Altstadt (Old City) many times over the years.  But, rarely have I seen the bears wandering around their huge confines.

However, the last time I was in Bern, the bears were out and swimming in their rock pool.  Pretty cool stuff.

Bern has a lot to offer with its architecture, stores and restaurants.  A great place to spend a day.

 

Here is the third part of the journey of the longest river in Switzerland – the Aare.  As the glacial ice melts the water then speeds through the Aare Gorge (Aaereschlucht) and empties into the waters of Lake Brienz.

The Aare then splits Interlaken and Underseen crossing then she (not to seem sexist … is a river considered masculine or feminine?) pours into Lake Thun.  On the northern banks of the lake where the Aare exits the Thunersee stands the beautiful city of Thun.

 

You can see the magnificent Thun Castle.

***It’s kind of old – built in the 1100’s – that’s 300 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue or the Vikings or whoever landed on the shores of North America ***

The castle overlooks the city and across the lake.  As you begin entry to Thun the Schloss Schadau stands along the river – the second Thun castle.

You can get a good look at the entire area from the top of Thun Castle.  It’s a very impressive panorama.

Although I am biased (well, I do live here a few months of the year) it is a really beautiful place.

It is also home to the Thun Tigers American Football Club which plays its home game in one of the best stadiums I have ever seen.  The Lachen Stadium  … right on the lake itself.  Throughout the country it is considered the most attractive place to watch sporting events.

                     

Outstanding game day experience.  Definitely one of the best places to watch football.  The view of the mountains – the lake and beach.  A great place to spend a weekend afternoon!

Thun’s total population is around 80,000 when you consider the outside villages and municipalities (11^thlargest in Switzerland).  With its first-class public transportation, you can use a bus or train to get anywhere in the Thun area in a short period of time.

Thun also houses a large Swiss army garrison…which specializes in training tank crews I think.  There is certainly a significant army presence on the one side of the town.

In this part of the canton of Bern and you look out towards the southern end of lake Thun you can see the beginnings of the impressive Bernese Alps.  From here you can get to various other villages and towns that have great sight-seeing, hiking and winter sports.

I’m not a skier because it looks dangerous to me.  But, friends who do this assure me it’s great and exhilarating!  Fantastic time!

Then they explain to me how they broke their ankle or ruined a knee on a ski slope.  Not so fast Kemosabe – I’ll stay off of those ski’s and sit at the lodge in front of the fire looking up the hill (in Michigan) or mountain (in Switzerland) with a beer in my hand.

Here in Thun I have lived in a few different areas.  The first few times I stayed in Gwatt (where I consider myself the mayor … hah – that’s what I tell my Swiss friends anyway!).  I’ve also lived in Lerchenfeld and now in the pretty village of Uetendorf.

They are each all a little different.  But equally as attractive.

It’s hard to find anything wrong with the city … it’s vibrant without being crowded and overrun.  Plenty of nice places to eat, shopping is easy.  Plus, you have the lake with the beach and boating opportunities with the mountains just a short distance away for winter sports.

It’s just a great place to be.

After the Aare runs through Thun it heads northwest towards Bern the capital city of Switzerland.

That’s – next up on the cities of the Aare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

River Aare (Part 2)

Again, this is a story about the River Aare (longest river in Switzerland).  And, this is the second part of the journey it takes through Switzerland.

So, last time I talked about how the river left the two glaciers in the Bernese Alps and had its rising there.  Pushing through the Aareschluct creating that gorge.  Then, heading into Lake Brienz and past the village of Brienz.

From there the Aare squeezes through Interlaken and Unterseen and empties into Lake Thun (also called the Thunersee).

The town and municipality of Spietz which includes another of my favorite settlements along Lake Thun – Faulensee.  Both are right on the lake and have beautiful views of the lower lake.  They both have great marinas and beautiful bars (well, imagine that) where you can purchase a very expensive beer – or six.

(My friends Reudi and Ulrich would take me on hikes around this area.  Well, I walked behind them and they would stop every 50 or 60 meters [that’s a European measure in case you don’t know] and talk about a lot of things in German … which left me out of it… probably talking about the dumb American behind them.

Yet, they included me and I was able to build up my step count even if we were on a stop and start sojourn (college word).

Faulensee is a nice little community that is located a few kilometers south (I think it’s south anyway) of Spietz.  My friend Ulrich and his wife have a wonderful apartment overlooking the lake.  It really is  fantastic place to live.  They have the lake-view on one side and can see the mountains from the opposite side.

Ulrich, Reudi – who happened to be my landlord) and I would just wander around the area enjoying the wonderful views and enjoying the camaraderie.  Ulrich speaks a few languages and has lived in several different countries.

An interesting trio we made.  Again, I’m pretty sure they made fun of me in German at various times!  Well, who could blame them?

I’d imagine Faulensee has a few thousand people there … it is not big, but it does have a nice marina and a few pretty good looking restaurants.  It would be a great place to have an apartment without a doubt.  But, wonder what the winters would be like there.

Spietz (SCHHH PEETZ) is a larger town and although similar to Faulensee is just spread out more and has it’s own Bahnhof (train station) which is a jumping off point into the Bernese Alps in several directions.

It too has a nice marina setting and also a place where you can catch one of the large tourist boats that traverse Lake Thun bouncing from town to town along the lake.  (The Boats are wonderful and covered by my travel pass – so I have checked them out on several occasions.)

Did you ever notice I use a lot of parenthesis ()?

                

Anyway, back to the Aare.

The river enters the Thunersee from Interlaken and it pops out on the northern end at my favorite place – Thun!

That’s next (part three) on our list of towns along the River Aare!

 

 

 

 

Well, I’ve taken a year off from messing around with my Blog – so I figured I’d take a shot at it again.  What the heck … thought of an idea.  Follow the Aare River from beginning to end and turn some of this into tour of Switzerland.

Well, why the Aare?  Well … why not?

Seriously … it’s a pretty interesting story about how it wanders along through the country.  I also live in one of the most beautiful areas in Switzerland – Thun. This place is located right on the Aare near it’s rising in the Bernese Alps and it’s glaciers.

Let’s be upfront here … this is not the Mississippi River by any stretch of the imagination.  But, it is really impressive in it’s own right with it’s truly blue water and meandering path through Switzerland

Also, the Aare is the longest river (295 km / 183 mi) that is entirely in Switzerland.   Notably there are obviously many noteworthy cities that are located along the waterway.

**Just to mention – there are 40 hydroelectric plants located on this river**

In south central Switzerland the river rises from the two Aare Glacier (Aaregletschers) in the Bernese Alps – cutting through the Aare Gorge (Aaereschlucht) and then empties into Lake Brienz (a glacial lake by the way – well, look it up!  Learn something today!).

The Aare then passes between Interlaken and Unterseen into Lake Thun (Thunersee).

Here are some shots of some of the cities at the start of the Aares’ journey.

The Aareschluct is the Gorge and Brienz sits on Lake Brienz.  Interlaken and Unterseen are the towns that the Aare divides as it enters into Lake Thun.

Brienz is a small city on the northern shore of Lake Brienz in the Bernese Oberland and is part of the canton of Bern.  It includes the mouth of the Aare.  

There is actually a “wood carving” school located in Brienz (The Cantonal Woodcarving School) .. think Swiss Cuckoo Clocks!

 

Shots of Brienz

Interlaken is located south of Brienz and between Lake Brienz and the Thunersee (Lake Thun).  The Aare divides Interlaken and the village of Unterseen.

 

About 5000 people liven the surrounding area of Interlaken which is a big tourist stop.  Any trains heading from Bern south thru Thun and Spietz are generally loaded with tourists headed for Interlaken.

It is also a great jumping off point for people heading deeper into the mountains to Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen which are beautiful areas.

People also travel to “The Top of Europe” – Jungfrau ( “Maiden” in German) which has the highest railway station in Europe – over 3454 meters above sea level.  Surprising to many people the Jungfrau is not the highest peak in Switzerland – it is third behind Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa!

For people looking for places to eat – there is a “Hooters” on the main drag. I’m not kidding you.  It even looks like the Hooters in the US.  But, trust me – not worth the trouble.

However there is a great Hungarian place in Interlaken – Hopplá Bistro.  It’s excellent.  My coaching compadre from a few years ago Pete Metzelaars convinced me to travel with him from Luzern to Interlaken to eat there.

After Pete got us lost a few times following his phone’s map device we found Hopplá.  It was a small place with a few tables .. real Hungarian people working there.  It was great!

Now, Pete’s wife Barb is Hungarian and speaks the language fluently.  So, as we got to know the owner and his Mom we mentioned the Hungarian heritage connection.  Then, Pete FaceTimes with his wife and her Dad connecting with the owners and they are all speaking Hungarian and yucking it up.  It was great.

Pete and I kept eating … that was great too!

Well, that’s a quick look at the beginnings of the River Aare.  Following it’s path we well continue on to Spietz and my second hometown of Thun next.

 

 

I’ve always been a fan of the late country singer Jerry Jeff Walker.  He sings a

song (written by Billy Jim Baker .. a professional rodeo Clown –  in the Clown Hall of Fame by the way) called “Contrary to Ordinary.”  Most people haven’t heard the song … nor do they know who Jerry Jeff was – but nonetheless it is a good tune.

In the song there is a line “You live life in episodes.”  I think that is really a great statement.  Because as we bang around life there are segments.  This latest football (mis)adventure in Switzerland is no different.  Just another (mis)adventure or an episode.

Building a new franchise (Helvetic Guards) to compete in the European League of Football is certainly a challenging “episode.”  But, with all challenges there are going to be good times and some … well, not so good times.

So, as we work through the end of the year we have a really good handle on the roster.  We’ve lost a few coaches… but fortunately we have been able to replace them with some quality guys. So, we are feeling pretty good about the foundation of the team.  But… undoubtedly, we have some serious headwinds ahead.

Obviously, with our ownership now in a state of flux we have perhaps the biggest problem a team could face anywhere and in in any league!   Finances.

As in any business – the money is going to define what we can do.  In my opinion it seems like most of the franchises in the European League of Football (ELF) have underestimated how much money it takes to operate a team.

*** (I’m not sure any teams … well, maybe the Rhein Fire and Hamburg Sea Devils break even or are a little ahead… the other fifteen teems appear to be operating in the red…. How long can that be sustained?  ***

Plus, I think the league itself has not paid out the money that was owed to the teams.  Not sure how transparent the ELF is with their finances.  Remember Seth Blatter and the FIFA (soccer) scandals in the late 90’s into the early 2000’s

We can’t possibly play next year if we don’t get this situation corrected.

But, the show must go on until … well … until it can’t.

We continue on with our plan to have a two-day minicamp capped with a February Super Bowl party in Zurich.  One problem is still – we don’t know where we can practice … but Norm Chow and I are assured that it will be handled.

Well … we have to have some trust … or faith I guess.

Norm gets after a practice schedule and planning what is going to go on when we get to Switzerland in February.

Honestly, the Guards are lucky to have Coach Chow.  He is always working on the team.  Constantly trying to create a plan for our start up-club.  It’s hard to get organized when you are literally an ocean away .. and you aren’t sure if this operation will even get off the ground and fly.

Also, a very encouraging sign … the Guards management added Dan Frey to the staff.  Dan is a very good friend who was at one time the president of the Thun Tigers.  He had a lot to do with organizing my association with the Tigers club several years ago.

So, he has experience in two of the problem areas that the Guards would have with the six import coaches and our four American players.  We need extended visas … work permits – and that ever increasing problem of housing for ten Americans and six European imports.

Again … this was my main concern way back in June of 2022.  Here we are six months later and we are still standing on “START” waiting on “GO”!  We don’t have the visas, permits or housing.

Dan knows how to get these things done.   But whether we have the finances to get it done is going to be the issue.

But, one way or another we arrange our flights into the Alps for February and place the rest of the stuff in the hands of our fractured management team.

Later in the week the club held an introductory party in Zurich for the team.  Obviously, we weren’t there but Norm put in a zoom call with the group.

Toni Zöller (acting GM) was excited with the attendance and the interaction of the players.  It sounded like everyone had a pretty good time (not sure where the money came from to pay for this extravaganza??!!)

Now, not to seem like we felt like we were on a rollercoaster ride or maybe feeling like we were “yo-yo’s” Toni tells us Mukka is coming back on board as the chief owner.  Hmmm!  We will see about that.

What…me worry! (Alfred E. Neuman!)

 

 

We get closer and closer to having 50 Swiss players on our roster for our expansion team in the European League of Football (ELF).  Our head coach Norm Chow  and I talk with the management squad and feel we have honed in on the best players we can get from our country in the Alps.

We are feeling pretty good about the Helvetic Guards franchise!

As December rolls around and we work through the first few weeks of the month …things are looking pretty good.  Players are signing and we are zeroing in on a few new coaches to fill our staff.

The guys heading up the management group wants to have a welcoming party for the team in Zurich.  Sounds like Mukka Erdönmez (primary owner) wants to get some publicity about the Guards.

He also wants to inform the players … and perhaps the media… that the US coaches would be coming to Switzerland for a minicamp and also a Super Bowl party in February.  Should be quite an extravaganza!

Well not so fast Kemosabe!

Just a few days before the party is about to take place …  our acting GM Toni Zöller asked Norm and I to join into a zoom meeting.  So, Norm and I join JC Williams, Matt Hammer, Zeki Öztürk with Toni.

Notably missing is Mukka (owner) and another investor Ferhat Kahraman (Director of Administration).

Well here comes the tidal wave of manure!

Toni … quickly gets to the crux of the matter (college phrase by the way).  Our million dollar (supposedly) owner Mukka is going to pull his money out of the franchise.  I nearly get up … not to throw up …but to get another beer out of my refrigerator. (Coors Light of course!)

Now I truly am beginning to regret pulling Norm into this (mis)adventure.  Hell … I am beginning to have some eerily similar flashbacks of the failed league I was involved with in Australia a few years ago!  What a load of BS!

Mukka was supposed to be the golden cash cow.

The guys want to know how Norm and I feel about just hanging on and seeing if we can find some new lead dog for the franchise.  Well, what the hell – it’s no skin off my teeth (seriously what does that phrase mean??).  I say I am in it til we can’t function.  (Remember I have no money invested.)

Norm agrees stay aboard as well.

So… Toni asks us to keep this between our group and not to tell anyone of our problems.  No sense in  exposing Mukka at this point.

He says he has some investors who might be ready to replace Mukka.  We all agree this is best for everyone to keep this quiet.  Why create a problem if we might be able to fix it before it becomes public?

Immediately after our zoom call ends Norm and I get on a phone call here in the US.  To say we are surprised about this occurrence would be an understatement.  We had no clue about this train coming down the track to run us over.

Aside from our trust being eroded… we were just wondering what other fallout would occur. But, we both agreed that we had nothing to lose with hanging on and seeing where the path might lead.

So… we just shut up and continued forward!

As we pushed our way into the latter part of November thru December of 2022 and into January of 2023 the Helvetic Guards roster was nicely coming together.  But unfortunately, we were losing a few coaches from our staff.  But, at the same time we had some logical answers.

Norm had contact with a friend of his … Dave Campo.  Yup, that Dave Campo – formerly the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.  Longtime college and NFL coach.  A very good coach and also a solid guy.

So, Dave and I connected on a call.  He was looking for something to do and Europe sounded like an interesting opportunity.  I explained the situation with the Helvetic Guards and the ownership structure.  So, we agreed to talk about the situation in a few days.

In the meantime, I had a call with a friend – Greg Brown.  I’d known Greg since the 80’s.  He was with the Tampa Bay Bucs when I started in Detroit.  He is a very accomplished coach – mostly working with the defensive backs.  But, he was also a coordinator.

Greg told me he was intrigued because he had thought about going overseas for a little while.  I told him about the job and he had a definite interest.  I also told him about Dave Campo in respect to honesty.  So, he told me about his interest in remaining in coaching in college.

Well, we now had two possibilities for defensive coordinator … plus Bob Palcic had been calling about Jim Ward.  Bob had worked with Jim for a short period in Hungary.  He felt that Jim would be a great fit.

I trust Bob and I did a lot of work seeing what Jim has done as a coach.  Jim has been in Europe for a number of years as a head coach and defensive coordinator.  His resume is really good.  I’m thinking we should move in on him.

However, as per instruction by Mukka Erdönmez (out team owner) we need a defensive coach with NFL experience.  One thing about Mukka … he wants the attention and likes to be in the public eye.

So, unfortunately Jim would have to wait in the background because the first two guys in line for the job were going to be Dave Campo and Greg Brown.  As I said they were both more than capable to be the lead dog for our defense.  In fact, they are superstars on defense.

But, as all of this is going on I was trying to prod our management group into understanding there were a lot of other things that needed to be attended to.  Given Mukka loved his lists … I had one for him.

It was a long list of things that needed to be done to get the franchise ready to roll.  Many things that should have at least been discussed … but hadn’t been.  Mostly because no one in our administration had ever done anything of this scope.

I have to say that Norm told me to dial everything back a little.  He didn’t want this to turn into a acrimonious (college word for my friend Betsy) for our group.  We would have enough problems going forward.  Trust me he would be right!

 Some of my biggest concerns were down to my first several points I had made to my friends JC Williams and Matt Hammer many months ago in June of 2022.

The hardest things to get done were going to be extended visas, work permits and apartments for the coaches.  Here it was more than six months later and we still had no progress made in these area.

As I have said before … what would Alfred E. Neuman of Mad Magazine ask …”What me worry?”

Who cares if we don’t have a city for the team to work out of…no practice field…no stadium and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

The short list of things we need.

• The six US coaches and four American players need extended visas and work permits. (This is difficult to accomplish in Switzerland.
• This same group needs housing. (Apartments are at a premium and expensive in Switzerland)
• Where will this housing be located?
• What about travel from housing to practice and games? Cars, Bus and train pass?
• Where are we going to be located …is it Zurich or is it Luzern. Or will it be elsewhere?  When will it be finalized?
• We still don’t have a practice area.

This field has to be lighted.  Need lights!  We practice at night!

We need goal posts … these are soccer fields throughout Switzerland.

Who will line the field?  (Pro hash marks.)

• Do we have equipment to line the practice field or stadium? (which we don’t have yet.)
• What about practice equipment … dummies, pads, cones, step over dummies.
• We don’t have a stadium.

We need a football scoreboard … soccer scoreboards are way different.

We need a 40 second clock as well.

Goal Posts … these are soccer stadiums.

So no practice area…no stadium – do we even have a team?

• What are the locker rooms like in the stadium. (These are soccer stadiums so the lockers are a lot smaller because of the size of the rosters.
• What about video equipment?
• Do we have cameras? People to take the practice and game day videos.
• Who will upload the video to the computer.
• MEDICAL STAFF … we need to develop and create this group of people.
• We will need to find a bus company. (Finances top get this done.)

 

Gradually the Helvetic Guards football team is coming together.  As we move forward we are seeing other teams build themselves as well.

The Wroclaw (Poland) Panthers have hired Dave Christensen and their head coach and the Paris Musketeers signed Marc Mattioli in a similar position. Other teams continue to add to their coaching staff and roster as well.

John Shoop becomes the first head coach of the Munich Ravens and longtime NFL offensive line coach joined the Fehérvár (Pronounce that one) Enthroners in Hungary as an assistant.  As we move through the year you can see more and more influence from the US.

We also add a coach.  Pete Metzelaars, a longtime NFL tight end became our TE/WR and Special Teams coach.  I had known Pete a long time and he was a welcomed addition.  In addition to being a very accomplished player (16 years as an NFL player) he has a great rapport with players.

Pete eventually became our offensive line coach in our ever-shifting coaching staff.  He was invaluable to the team.  Plus, we shared an apartment and had a hell of a time on our time together.  We traveled extensively throughout Switzerland … made a lot of friends and took in many sights.

Pete had the ignominious (college word Betsy!) distinction of playing for the Buffalo Bills with Jim Kelly in four losing Super Bowls.  When he started coaching he did get to win one with the Indianapolis Colts.  He ended his career playing with the Lions while I coached there.

We added some more players as well.  Filip Kovljenic a big offensive lineman from the Calanda Broncos along with Fabio Rothmund a linebacker from Winterthur who was playing in Germany both signed on.

We added two more linebackers … Adrian Fielder and Timmy Schürmann.  They were both Swiss tags and were playing in Germany for the German Football League champions – the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns.  The Unicorns have been a perennial power in the GFL.

Robert and William Harvey both became members of the team as well.  I had known the Harvey family since 2017 as they played for the Swiss National Team and were players for the Thun Tigers.  Both had been in the US finishing college and agreed to become part of our roster.

One of the best catches was Nils Jonkmans as our kicker.  He would prove to be one of the best kickers in the 17 league conference.  His ‘real” job was as a doctor!  Yes, not only a proficient player … but an MD as well.

As we saw our squad begin to take shape … it was apparent that we faced a lot of problems off the field. Although since early October we had been told … “don’t worry about it”… many things still had yet to be addressed.

We formulated a list of things that needed to be attended to that had nothing to do with the roster.

Not much … if anything had been done to address these issues.

 

 

I have to drop back here for a second in regards to the Helvetic Guards of the European League of Football.  We started off on this “facebookmentary” a few months ago.

Just a reminder … this is a look back at last year and our building of a football franchise in Switzerland.  For instance, a lot of this “chapter” is about October.  BUT, it is October of 2022 … not this current October.  (Think time machine backwards!)

Flashback to October of 2022:

Well, back here in the states Norm and I continue to work closely with our counterparts in Switzerland as we put our team together.  Ninety percent of this team building has to be done by looking at Hudl videos that are basically highlight films put together by the players and forwarded to us via email.

 

…..In case you didn’t know – Hudl is a relatively inexpensive system used by most high schools, small colleges and clubs worldwide.  The major colleges and pro leagues have a much more expansive (and expensive) video system…..

 Hudl is very user friendly and is really an excellent application for clubs that have small budgets….

 

Now, personally I hate highlight videos that are put together by individual players and coaches.  I’d much rather watch a game video that has every play for you to see.  Hell, if you don’t look good on a highlight film you put together well, come on!

Even I could make myself look good on a highlight film … hmmmm …well, maybe not!

It took a little while but we started to get it together as a functioning team model.  So, now that we kind of put together a system for evaluating players with a grading scale we could actually put together our roster.

Norm devised a system to put a “grade” on each player we viewed and we all stated using it.  Norm and I in the US.  Matt and Darius in Switzerland and we started getting help from Brian Bowles in Germany.

We started to build lists position by position … really concentrating on the Swiss players who would be the bulk of our team.  After we developed our offense and defense by category we would forward the names of top players we liked to Toni Zöeller (General Manager) and Mukka Erdönmez (financial guy).

They in turn would figure out how much to pay the guys and keep things straight with the ELF salary cap.  Let those guys figure that stuff out…it was hard enough finding quality players with these “Highlight” films.

We already had Dom Liechti, a very good defensive end from Bern signed up …he was working hard to help us get more players. Much of the early ground work could be attributed to Dominik’s efforts.

Coach Chow had a sold start with two A-Tag players.  He had lined up a very good quarterback in Collin Hill and a hard-working pass rush/linebacker from USC in JR Tavaii.  Great cornerstones to build on … we also had a line on a solid corner and a speedy wide receiver for our other two A-Tag  imports.

Norm was working hard to get Swiss QB Rici Wartmann from the Winterthur Warriors.  He was really interested but was battling a shoulder injury which would eventually cause him to leave the team before we started playing.

All European Defensive End – Tim Hänni was going to sign with us.  This was a very big splash since he had played two seasons in the ELF with the Hamburg Sea Devils (one of the stronger teams in the league).

Then John Falk a fantastic linebacker would “un”retire to play for his homeland.  John (Swiss citizen) had already won a German League championship and coached as a defensive coordinator.  He would join one of his former Bern teammates Andreas Buri to start to build the linebacker position.

Things were also looking good for another Bern Grizzly linebacker Faubian Strahm as well as the Marty brothers from Zurich.  Oli (CB) and David (WR) seemed to be eager to join the squad.  Should all be solid parts for our Swiss roster.

We had also zeroed in on three European (E-tag) players.  Versatile defensive backs Maceo Beard and Chaska Perron from France and Swedish receiver Anton Jallai all appeared ready to get on the Helvetic Guard train.

At the same time all of this going on … we started to see a few cracks.  Otis Smith (one Super Bowl) our defensive coordinator and wide receiver coach Mike Wilson (four time Super Bowl champ) were wavering in committing to coach the team.

Eventually, both would decide to quit and did not sign on to the coaching bench.

Meanwhile we still did not have a practice field, a stadium or equipment for out fledgling team.  It may seem like things that should be easy to secure – trust me that isn’t the case in Switzerland!

Another vital area that I was told “not to worry about” – we still hadn’t found a pathway to extended visas and a work permits for the American coaches and import players.  Oh yeah then there was the small problem of finding apartments in a small country with limited housing.  (“Don’t worry” was beginning to ring hollow.)

For you Mad Magazine fans … think Alfred E. Neuman… “What me Worry?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

I jump on a jet to get back home to the US.  The rest of the coaches stay behind and tour Luzern and potential apartment possibilities (good luck with that – because they are extremely limited).

Norm and his family rent a car and begin to see the sights of Switzerland!

After leaving Zurich for home I realized that this new (mis)adventure would be a little more serious and complicated within the European League of Football (ELF).  I’ve watched the games and this is a serious league with the best players throughout the continent.

We now have a lot more people who are involved and especially on the coaching staff these are pretty high-level guys.  People who have all contributed to successful teams and franchises by designing offensive plays, defensive schemes.

This franchise building is going to be very challenging because there are so many unknowns.

For instance …. to this point we have no extended visas for US coaches and the four A-tag players (trust me this will be an issue, having gone through it before in Switzerland), no housing secured (I repeat this will be a lot harder than our management team thinks), No practice facility, no video equipment, no stadium (well, that’s a problem)!

Then let’s look at the very shaky front office set up.  I love the guys … but, they have no idea how this will work out.  Really inexperienced … not their fault obviously.  But, they will have to learn fast!

I keep hearing the word “professionalism” … let’s hope we can find it.

Oh yeah, most importantly … well we still haven’t signed our roster for the first version of the Helvetic Guards!

I furnished them with a list of things they should look at.  Ideas that we had put together as a coaching staff. Just common situations then would have to face.

Months later … many of these things had not even been addressed.  It’s like they lost those vital points.

Our management is young and full of energy.   But, they will have to learn fast because there are a lot of things to get done before we can even start practicing.  Obviously, the experience of the coaching staff will be invaluable … but at some point they will have to carry the load.

It will be challenging … but all good things are difficult to attain!

Well, no one said it would be easy … and no one said this would be fair.