Football, The Real stuff with a touch of wine and cheese!

We landed in Paris on January 6th, hopped on a train that took us to Lyon, transferred and finally arrived in Grenoble. It was a long trip, but well worth it. We finally arrived to our destination that we are going to call home for the next 5 months or so. Charles-Antoine Sinotte and myself signed one year contracts to play US Football for the Centaures of Grenoble. Charles-Antoine will be our QB and has also taken the responsibility of being the OC. I will be playing Strong Safety, RB and long snapper, as well as helping our DC with game planning.

We arrived in Grenoble around 4:30 and were greeted by a few players and our Team’s President, Cedric. From that moment we have been very well received and our transition into the team started off very smooth. I came to realize that making friends here would be very easy. We are many miles away from home and we are speaking to the French, who are in a soccer driven country, about football. Yes, the Real Football! I was already excited and the long trip seemed like a distant memory. With about 3 hours of sleep, after a long trip, we got to unpack in our new home at La Chantournelle in Corenc, and had to quickly pack our football gear because we were scheduled to practice at 7pm. So we grabbed our gear, practiced, then got to know the guys over a beer and when we finally got to bed at about midnight Grenoble time. Let me tell you this, I have never slept in so late. I woke up and it felt like 8 am. The sun was low, and it felt like a brand new day was starting. Little did I know it was 4pm and the day had already gone by! C-A and I grabbed a bite to eat, met up with some of our teammates and our journey began.

My transition to the team was fairly easy. I had already received the defensive playbook from our DC before leaving and I was on the plane with our OC. Once I hit the field I was already aware of what the plays were both on O and D. The part I found difficult was playing both ways. During practice I had to be in two places at once. Team one D and team one O. I managed my time by prioritizing with the offence so I can get the timing down with C-A. Our coaches also planned O priority and D priority team sessions so I could roll with both team one O and team one D. The coaches put that in place, not because of me, but because there are a few of us who are playing both ways.

We played an exhibition game against a D2 team and won 60-0. Although the score makes it seem easy, I had to adapt to a new set of rules. Playing the 11 man game is slightly different then the 12 man game. The field on which we practice on looks very big, but once they paint the lines in it is a very small different reality. The FFFA, Federation Francaise de Football American, plays by the NCAA rules. A field 100 yards long, about 50 yards wide, goal posts at the back of the endzone, fair catch and grey gloves.

The FFFA is split into 3 divisions. The Centaures are part of D1 after winning D2 last year and beating the last place team in D1 in a “match de barrage.” The league works in a way that the last place teams need to fight for the right to stay in D1. The champions of D2 get a shot at making it to D1 by playing the last place team. The same goes for D2 and D3. D1 is split into 2 conferences. There are 8 teams in total, 4 in the North and 4 in the South. We are part of the southern conference and will play each team twice. We play the northern teams once, totaling a 10 game season.
Our first game is Sunday February 6th against the Dauphins de Nice, in Nice. This will be our first real test in D1. Looking forward to telling you all about it and giving you a little insight on life in Grenoble.

Thanks,
Until Next Time

Anthony Lukca
SS/RB #22 Centaures de Grenoble