After the great success that the Youth Team achieved, we now have the third team within the club, the Flag Team, who have now been successful in their campaign for associate status!
It’s a great time with the club, even enduring the lockdown, we have worked tirelessly to ensure Darlington Steam moves forward.
The Steam had a great time for the two years they were in the flag Leagues, especially their first-ever win, coming against Calderdale Knights. Numbers were tough during those days, even the three coaches had to kit up!! However, it was the catalyst for the senior team you have in front of you now!
The club decided to bring the flag team back three years since their last game in order to bring more people into the sport. Contact isn’t for everyone, so we now have the non-contact version in place. Our greatest disappointment is when someone walks away from the game and if it’s because they don’t like the contact or see it as a risk, we want to keep them around and now we have that ability.
We have a great coaching team in place, starting with the appointment of former Newcastle Blackhawks Head Coach, Drew Magnet. Coach Magnet was already in the club as the Senior Teams Offensive Coordinator but when the opportunity arose, there wasn’t a second thought as to who was best for the role, and we are already seeing the results from that.
Everyone within the club has been pushing hard during the pandemic to get everything sorted, so we were ready to leave the station on time and getting associate status was the last signal to get us rolling out.
The work behind scenes by the committee has been phenomenal and I can’t thank them enough for it.
The squad has grown, even during the lockdown, thanks to our online playbook sessions on Discord, and we have a great core of players. Our main goal for our associate year is obviously to gain entry to the league for 2022, the previous iteration of the flag team won 3 league games in 2 seasons, that is the team that paved the way for the entire club, so I’d love to be able to build on that legacy and get 4+ wins this year alone, which I know is a big ask, but I know I have the players to make it happen. #TeamworkMakesTheSteamWork(the terrible puns were for Coach Howitt, you’re welcome…)
Head Coach, Drew Magnet
“This is an amazing turnaround, people were worried clubs could fold due to the pandemic but having a great team of people running the club has enabled us to push on further. As a committee, we are extremely happy with the work everyone has done to get the three teams going. A pleasing moment for me is that former players are wanting to come back into the game and new starters are wanting to sign up. Also, thank you to BAFA for working with us to get this project onto its next phase. And now… let’s see the guys perform on the field, we can’t wait!”
Chairman, Darren Mitchell
If you wish to attend a session with the Flag Team, please get in touch and we will be more than happy to bring you onboard…
