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Wyatt, Hack reunited with Rage

February 17, 2006 - National Indoor Football League (NIFL)
RiverCity Rage News Release


RiverCity Rage Head Football Coach Mike Wyatt will tell you up front, no hesitation at all. "It's great to be reunited with Sven Hack after an absence of several years. The one thing I've always appreciated about him both as a player and coach is the fact that he is a real student of the game of football, a guy who not only knew his assignment, but everyone else's too. As a person, he's a lot like me in the sense that he doesn't let his ego get in the way of doing what's necessary to get the job done. I think that's something we both learned over in Germany. You have to wear a lot of hats, there's not the infrastructure of a team here in the USA overseas so everyone has to pitch in, and no job is beneath you. Simply put, Hack gets it."

And get it, he did. After working for Wyatt's Show-Me Believers in 2004, Hack (pronounced ‘Hock') is now once again teaming up with the coach he credits with "teaching me so much about the game of football and more importantly, holding fast to the friendship we've developed over the years. I watched him turn the team around when we worked toge ther in the German Football League, I saw him do it here in the NIFL, and now I get the chance, again, to be part of what I know will be a championship calibre team this year." Newly appointed by Wyatt to be the Rage Offensive and Defensive Line Co-ordinator in 2006, Hack says he "can't wait to get working with these players, practices and games, both giving me a chance to see who's ready to step up and make the big play for the Rage game after game. I never pre-judge anyone, so it's a level playing field when we hit the turf for the first time later this month. I'm excited, I'm getting to do once again what I love most and I'm doing it for a coach I respect and believe in." When asked what he foresaw for the RiverCity Rage in 2006, Hack had the ready answer. "What we all see, a championship trophy lifted high at Savvis Center come end of summer."

A lofty goal for the 28 year old Raunheim, Germany native who did not play high school or college football; and whose coaching career was filled with peaks and valleys until this recent reunion with his mentor.

" Germany doesn't offer high school football, so I played in a Pop Warner type league from the ages of 14 to 18, mostly on the defensive line and a little fullback from time to time. The school structure there is such that when you graduate from high school, you leave with the equivalent of an Associates Degree in junior college here in the USA. I actually went straight from high school to playing for Coach Wyatt."

That was in 1998, when along with attending automotive trade school in Frankfurt; Hack laboured on the defensive line for the Russelheim team in the GFL, and got his first taste of coaching later that year helping Wyatt developed the Junior team in the highly popular German league. "That was the first time anyone ever called me ‘coach', although I did work as a 16 year old ball boy in the NFL Europe. Coach Wyatt was there, too, and I got great experience helping to run the player tryouts for the nationals (local players in the NFL Europe) as well as attending clinics and finally ending up on the Team Services Staff. It was instrumental in getting me focused on the coaching aspect of the game, because the playing days were numbered."

After a 4 year run in the GFL, Hack's dream of playing in NFL Europe came to a sudden, jolting halt. A torn Achilles tendon, an injury he says may have been mis-diagnosed, and an on-going romance with the team's female trainer, gave him new perspective and direction. "It was tough to give up playing football, we had been to the playoffs every one of my 5 years, but I met my wife Anika overseas in this league. She was a volunteer trainer for Coach Wyatt's team, and in the military at the time we were married in the year 2000, but even that proved to be a means of destiny for coach and myself."

Funny sometimes how things work out for the best....out of football for the first time in years, Hack worked at a golf course and held various o ther jobs while stationed at his wife's barracks in Arizona, yet he and Coach Wyatt "always stayed in touch. Coach was still running teams overseas and when he finally came back to the USA to take over the Believers in 2004, I actually came to St. Louis to work for 6 months on his coaching staff. I stayed all season at the Holiday Inn- Riverport and it was great and for the first time, that NIFL team had a winning season. I know in my heart it was primarily due to the efforts of Coach Wyatt."

Staying just one season, Hack returned to Arizona to be with his family and again threw himself into the coaching game at the middle-school level. He coached youngsters on the military base and says, "I had a great time, it was a throwback to the German Football League Junior League days. The kids were quick learners and very receptive to new techniques and really wanted to learn how to play the game. For me, it was therapeutic, because once again I felt like a coach."

The final chapter was written just months ago when Anika was selected by the Army to be a recruiter and was scheduled to be transferred to Oklahoma City. Just five days before that was to take effect, new orders came through, and Hack, Anika and their two children were on their way to St. Ann, Missouri. Close enough to warrant a call from Rage Head Football Coach Mike Wyatt. The wheels were soon in motion to once again bring the two toge ther. Again!!

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National Indoor Football League Stories from February 17, 2006


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