First US born and raised player to play pro Australian Football

[DUB]

Jason Holmes to make debut and will become first US-born and raised player to play AFL football

WHEN Jason Holmes first answered a phone call in April 2013 inviting him to an Australian football talent spotting camp in Los Angeles, he thought he was being pranked.

Then a 203-centimetre college basketballer, Holmes thought it was one of his buddies on the phone, ribbing him with the knowledge he was trying to get from Chicago to LA to visit family.
“I thought it was an April Fool’s joke,’’ Holmes chuckled.
Instead it was a DraftExpress scout called Jonathan Givony, who assured him there was a chance to forge a career in the foreign game.
“It looked like something fun and something worth having a crack at,’’ Holmes explained.
He had a vague recollection of having seen AFL football on ESPN2, but had watched it with the same mystified curiosity that he would have regarded hurling or jai-alai. “I would have had no clue what I was looking at,’’ he laughed.

But to prepare for the camp he began watching online videos, and the moment he saw a clip of West Coast ruckman Nic Naiatanui pull in a towering hanger against Carlton, he knew he wanted to give Australian Football a red hot go.
“Seeing him do that, in front of 50,000-plus people at a stadium, I thought ‘whoa man, that looks amazing’ and I wanted to be part of that.’’

On Saturday, when the 25-year-old runs out for St Kilda against Geelong, he will become the first US born-and-bred athlete to play AFL football. West Coast’s Don Pyke and Sydney’s Sanford Wheeler were both born in the USA, but moved to Australia aged three and five respectively.
Holmes has edged fellow code-hoppers Eric Wallace (North Melbourne) and Mason Cox (Collingwood) for the honour, although both are friends with whom he has compared notes along the way. Both men texted messages on congratulations on Thursday.
“I think it’s one of the dreams they sell us when they try to get Americans over here,’’ he said.
“I’m just really proud to be a cog in a machine that’s going to help the sport grow internationally, because I think it’s an amazing sport and I want to share it with everyone.’’

He has been playing in the reserves (minors) but this is his senior debut. He plays ruck (like center) which is the least skilled of the positions.

Every year the Australian Football League (AFL) holds a combine in the US of A targeting college players (mostly basketballers) that haven't made it to the pro US leagues. Basketball players seem to adapt very well to Australian Football, I think it's the 360 degree nature of both games.

 

[GriLtCheeZ]

Cool.

 

[DUB]

Seems they're quite the sporting family.

COACH Kevin Holmes first watched an AFL game more than 25 years ago on TV.

“They used to show obscure sports on ESPN,” Holmes said, speaking from his office at Central State University, Ohio.

“I had no idea what it was but I thought it was interesting. It had a lot of action and they were hitting each other with no pads and I thought it was the oddest thing in the world so I sat and watched it”.

So in 2013, when his son Jason told him he was going to an AFL combine, his dad asked him the obvious question.

“I asked him whether he was tough enough to play that sport,” Kevin Holmes said.

“I knew he was a pretty tough kid but I didn’t know if he understood what he was getting into.

“They don’t wear pads, you got guys jumping on each others necks, people are getting bloody.

“I said, ‘Can you handle that?’ because that’s what that’s about.”

“I can’t really fathom how big it is for Australia. Whenever you say the first in the history of the sport that’s something — you’re the first you can’t get away from it, it goes down in the history books.

“Does it mean in somebody’s Trivia Pursuit that comes along will his name be in there? He’s the answer to a trivia question! It’s just amazing, I’m trying to get a grasp on it.”

The sporting pedigree runs in his family: his father Kevin played professional basketball in Europe, his brother Mark plays professional basketball in France and older brother Andre is a wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders in the NFL.

“I don’t know if there’s anybody in the world that has a situation where they have three sons playing, playing three different professional sports in three different continents.”

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/am...ory-for-st-kilda/story-fndv7pj3-1227493065004

 

[Sinobas]

I wonder what the concussion rates are? Ironically, I don't think they are any higher, and might actually be lower than the NFL, because of the moral hazard of the helmet. The helmet itself generates a lot more head impacts.

 

[Mediocre Man]

First hockey, now Aussie rules football.