American football: Mud sweat and touchdowns beyond the NFL – grassroots gridiron in the UK
Wembley Stallions, based in Sudbury Hills, was founded in 2013 by American rugby fan and coach Warren Smart and his wife Jackie.
Smart took up the sport in the 1980s after medical discharge from the Royal Air Force (RAF) and worked as a coach within two years.
After his playing career ended in 2007, he became manager of Sussex Thunder before quickly moving to London Olympians in Croydon.
The journey from North London to South London and back every weekend was long, so the couple decided to start their own club closer to home, with Warren in charge of the playing side and Jackie in charge of administration.
“You come out here on Saturday and see them all playing, it’s awesome — it’s a packed house,” Warren said.
The couple quickly decided they wanted to have their own equipment and make the sport as accessible as possible to interested players.
Helmets range in price from £200 for the cheapest to over £1,000 for the top of the range.
The club now has around 100 helmets and 120 pairs of shoulder pads, funded by grants from agencies including the Wembley National Stadium Trust, which is open to sports clubs in the London borough of Brent.
“It’s a bit of a barrier to ask parents to pay £450 for equipment (shoulder pads and helmet) when their son or daughter may only want to attend a few sessions,” Jackie said. “So we said ‘no, we’re going to tear down this barrier’.”
