Former World Team players & coaches represented at IFAF Senior World Championship

Several players and coaches competing in the 2011 IFAF Senior World Championship will be familiar names and faces, having been members of the 2010 and 2011 World Team that competed at the Team USA vs. The World event.

The Team USA vs. the World game featured a World Team made up of the best under-19 players from around the world taking on the U.S. Under 19 National team assembled by USA Football. This year, the World Team was led by head coach Greg Marshall and was narrowly defeated by USA 21-14 in Austin, Texas. The previous year, the game was held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and USA was victorious again defeating in World Team 17-0.

Coach Greg Marshall

2010 World Team head coach Greg Marshall will add to his international experience as he has been named Offensive Coordinator for the Canadian Senior National Team. Marshall is head coach of University of Western Ontario Mustangs which competes in Canadian Interuniversity Sport and Ontario University Athletics conferences. Marshall has won national titles as both a player and a coach.

As a coach in the CIS, Marshall has amassed a 78-28-2 record with the Mustangs and McMaster Marauders over 10 years, winning six Yates Cups in the process and reaching the Vanier Cup in 2008 with Western. As a player, he was drafted by the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League (CFL) earning a Grey Cup ring in 1982.

Alongside coach Marshall on the 2010 World Team coaching staff was defensive line coach Salomon Solano from Mexico and wide receiver coach Jakob Dieplinger from Austria. Both Solano and Dieplinger have been selected to their countries 75-man senior national team and will compete against each other at the IFAF Senior World Championship.

Dieplinger is one of Europe’s prominent wide receivers starring for the Swarco Raiders where he has won the coveted Eurobowl championship. He represented Austria at the 2010 European Championships and was named to the All-Star first team having scored two touchdowns as Austria won the tournament’s bronze medal game. In addition to coaching with the Raiders, he is the Offensive Coordinator of the Austrian junior national team and works as a full time athletic youth director for the Raiders, Austria’s most successful youth organization.

Salomon Solano

Salomon Solano was on the staff of the Mexican team that took fourth place at the 2009 IFAF Junior World Championship and also was a coach of the World team in 2010. In 2008, he was a member of the Baltimore Ravens practice squad and has represented Mexico as a player at the junior national team level. He was the defensive coordinator of his alma mater the University of Tamaulipas in 2009. He also played with NFL Europe’s Rhein Fire in 2006.

He is currently playing in the Professional Indoor Football League for the Green Bay Blizzard.

Michael Habetin

Two offensive linemen from Austria – Michael Habetin and Alexander Milanovic – were part of the 2010 World Team and recently selected to the Austrian Senior National team as two of the youngest players on the team. Milanovic plays for the Vienna Vikings and has seven years of football experience. He began playing in 2004 in the Vikings rookie program and quickly impressed playing in the 2008 U19 Junior European Championship at the age of 16 named to the First-Team All-Star team. He also played at the 2010 European Championship and was the youngest starting player for Team Austria at the age of 18.

Michael Habetin is a 6-3, 309 pound lineman who plays for the Swarco Raiders Tirol. The Raiders reached the EuroBowl and will play the Berlin Adler on June 18 in Innsbruck, Austria.

Two players from the World Team development team have been selected to their senior national team – Running back Shingo Maeda from Japan and Australian Adam Gotsis. Gotsis plays for the Warriors in Gridiron Victoria league and also was captain of the Junior Australian Outback team that played in the Samoa Bowl VII. Maeda is an 18-year-old running back who plays for Kansai University.

The Mexican senior national team will have another player with Team USA vs. the World experience, linebacker Jovanni Carrillo. Carrillo was a member of the 2010 World Team that loss to Team USA 17-0 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Carrillo currently plays in the ONEFA for the White Eagles and also played on the Mexican junior national team at the IFAF Junior World Championship in 2009.

To learn more about the Team USA vs. the World event visit the official website at [url]www.usavworld.com.