American Football takes off in the Philippines!

The year of 2012 sports was full of great events. The New York Giants wins in the NFL Super Bowl XLVI against the New England Patriots. LeBron James finally wins his first NBA Championship with the Miami Heat. The San Francisco Giants wins 4-0 over the Detroit Tigers in the MLB World Series. Bradley Wiggins wins the Tour De France. In London, the 2012 Olympic games were held with records being broken and cementing the legacy of Michael Phelps and in Asia, the Philippine Punishers American Football Team burst into the American Football scene.What? Wait. The Philippine Punishers ? Who in the world are the Philippine Punishers The Philippine Punishers is comprised of Filipinos, Americans, Australians, Chinese and Canadians whose age ranges from 18-43. Despite the misconception that American Football is only for big people, there are players as small as 4'11" up to 6'7" with the biggest Filipino player being 6'1 and 365 lbs.The team was created to introduce and popularize American Football in the Philippines where the sport is not yet familiar and to be played at the local and international levels. It was built simply by word of mouth among those expressing interest in learning how to play American Football.The Philippine Punishers came into international scene in Asia in a big way by playing against established organizations such as the Beijing Guardians, Hong Kong Cobras (twice), Guam All-Stars and Saipan Sharks. They had a very successful year by posting a 4-1 win/loss record even though 85% of the Filipino players have less than 1 year of playing experience.The Head Coach of the Philippine Punishers is Tim Beasley . He has played and coached in 3 different continents over the past 20+ years. He got his first coaching job while playing in the Netherlands. After spending 4 years coaching and playing with various Dutch teams from the Nederland American Football Federation, Coach Tim moved back to the USA. He spent 17 years playing and coaching in Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.After arriving in the Philippines in 2010, Coach Tim and a few Punisher founders saw the potential and recognized the need to help Filipino players improve their basic fundamentals and techniques, this after observing pick-up football which was played by some on weekends.As a member of the American Football Federation of the Philippines (AFFP), the Punishers are serving as mentors for new players in the American Football Developmental League (AFDL). The mission of the AFDL is the development of Filipinos as American Football players and as Game Officials. They hold weekly fundamental trainings and the AFDL league will be starting its inaugural season on 3 March 2013.