Our Louisville Trip

My husband and I attended the 15th United States Australian Football League National Tournaments in Louisville over the weekend.

I never realized how many Footy teams there actually are. And they came from all over, too. Next year the tournament is in Houston. We’ll go if our daughter is still playing. We’ll apparently use any excuse to travel!

I believe there were six women’s teams competing, where there were 4 Divisions for the men. Women’s Footy is still relatively new and not everyone could make it to the tournament, so cities/teams were combined. The team my daughter was on was a combination of her Columbus team (the Jillaroos) and the Arizona team (the Hawks). They called themselves the Hawkaroos. Unfortunately, they didn’t win any games (and they played in three).

If you’re wondering what Footy is like, I think it’s a mix of football, soccer, and basketball. The ball resembles a football and they are allowed to tackle, but there is no clear offense or defense (except in their position). The set-up resembles soccer (and so do their uniforms). The basketball part? If the player runs with the ball, it must touch the ground after so many steps, either by bouncing it or touching it to the ground. Otherwise, they punt the ball to a teammate (hopefully) down the field. If it’s caught, that player gets a free punt down the field. If it’s not caught, then it looks like a bunch of people going after a greased pig!

By the end of the third game, I was starting to understand some of the penalties and rules. Because we weren’t familiar with the sport (and unprepared as to what to expect), we didn’t watch any of the men play. That was bad on our part and we’ll have to rectify that next year (provided the Columbus team goes, that is).