Nestled in the mountainous ranges of the Midwest USA is the state of Utah. Independent, beautiful, and proud, founded by pious pioneers, and home to a brilliance of difference landscapes from mountains, to desert, to the famous salt flats in the state’s west.

In 1896, Utah became the 45th state. In 2019, it becomes home to the USAFL’s 45th club.

The league is proud to welcome the Wasatch War Gulls to the family, taking its name from the mountain range that dominates the central part of the state.

The Wasatch (WAH-satch) name represents a number of major municipalities in the northern part of the state, including Salt Lake City, Provo, and Ogden, from which their players hail. The War Gulls name is an homage to the Willamstown Seagulls of the Victorian Football League.

“There has been a building interest in the community for a while,” co-founder Danny Cowser told USAFL.com, “especially among a few of us in the area who had played with USAFL teams in different cities prior to living in Utah (Baton Rouge, Wisconsin, Arizona, etc.). Cameron, one of the veterans, and I connected through Facebook and [USAFL Operations Manager] Doren James got us in touch with Lucas Hanover. We all wanted to be able to play footy in Utah, and after some brainstorming and a little back and forth, we decided to go ahead and organize a team.

“I reached out to Doren about what official steps needed to be taken. My brother and I put together the team name, logo, and jumper designs and started spreading the word about Aussie Rules.”

Recruiting so far has been brisk and encouraging. Cowser reports that they have had between seven and ten people come to their trainings in the early going. “We are still in the very early stages of recruiting, and we have mainly reached out through Facebook and word of mouth. So far we have been able to get good numbers out to the first few practices. There are some really keen folks who want to get out and have a kick. Now that we are a formal team, we are going to start focusing our efforts on getting the good ‘War Gull’ word out.

“This week, we had 3 Australians kick around who had seen our Facebook group page. The other players so far have been American.”

The War Gulls are hoping to get enough in terms of numbers to start playing metro games this season with the hope of getting a full-on game against the Las Vegas Gamblers or Denver Bulldogs, Wasatch’s two closest geographical rivals. Both are around seven to eight hour drives.

“We've got great momentum, and we'd like to put together a travel team by the end of the season to take on one of these teams,” Cowser said.

“It's been a lot of fun getting the ball in our hands and play again. We're looking forward to building a footy team here on the Wasatch front.”

For more information about the Wasatch War Gulls, visit their Facebook page, their Twitter, and their Instagram.