Sioux City Bandit on Team USA in World Championships of American Football
June 27, 2007 - United Indoor Football Association (UIF) News Release
Omaha, NE - A United Indoor Football (UIF) Player will playing in the World Championships of American Football to be held in Kawasaki, Japan, July 7-15. Sioux City Bandits offensive lineman Shawn Robinson is in training camp with Team USA on the campus of San Jose State University. Robinson is looking forward to the experience and says wearing the red, white and blue for your country is "almost unreal, something you think you'll never have the opportunity to do."
The team is made up of players who completed their college eligibility in 2006. The 6-4, 320-pound Robinson was an All-American offensive lineman at Morningside College in Sioux City, IA. He is one of only two NAIA players chosen for the squad and will play mostly tackle, a little guard, do some short snapping and protect the punter on special teams duty. "Everybody's here to have fun. Everybody's here to represent the United States."
Team USA, led by head coach John Mackovic, will leave San Jose, CA, July 4. The United States is one of six teams in the tournament. Team USA will face Korea on July 10 and Germany on July 12 in a round-robin style tournament. France, Japan and Sweden comprise another group. The top teams in each group advance to the championship game July 15. "We're going to go over there and play hard and hopefully be in the championship," Robinson said.
The opponents Team USA will face are those countries' professional teams. Robinson says the players on those teams are very good. If there's an advantage for Team USA he says it's from having played at an early age. "We have an advantage of instincts we've been taught since third grade. Other than that, it's a pretty even playing field."
Robinson is a guest on the June 27 UIF webcast This Week in the UIF. It is available at www.uif.ezstream.com. He is also journaling his experience for UIF:
Tuesday, June 26
Today was another interesting day. We installed most of the special teams today, so being an offensive lineman, naturally I am not on a whole lot of special teams. However, we are using the Utah style punt where the line is spread out across the line and then there are three, typically bigger athletes, sitting back in front of the punter waiting for the rushers to come attack them. I get to be the lucky one in the middle so I am looking forward to having some Korean or Japanese player who has never seen it try to come run through the wall that we are setting up on our protection scheme. Our second practice, later in the afternoon, went pretty smoothly. We installed our two minute drill and are running it pretty effectively for the first time out. Tomorrow we get the morning off of practice because we are going to scrimmage in the afternoon. That should be fun.
Monday, June 25
Today was another "double day" and the California sun decided to shine a little brighter and a little warmer today which made things a little more interesting. One thing I can say is that the California "hot" is definitely a lot nicer than the Midwest "hot". Even though it was in the upper 80's the lack of humidity and the cool ocean breeze running through San Jose is definitely a blessing and a big change than the fall camps that I am used to. Another drastic thing that is different when comparing this camp to a typical fall collegiate camp is the fact that the 45 guys that are here are picking things up a lot faster and more efficient. The terminology and the blocking schemes are a little different than what I am used to but in the end it is about playing ball. We are working hard and sweating a lot but in the end it is going to be worth it.
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United Indoor Football Association Stories from June 27, 2007
- Sioux City Bandit on Team USA in World Championships of American Football - UIF
- Hunter Pingston Named UIF Defensive Player of the Week - Evansville BlueCats
- Week Fourteen Players of the Week Announced - UIF
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