By Josh Cook
They’ll be throwing more than another shrimp on the barbie this weekend around Louisville.
That’s because the city is hosting the United States Australian Football League’s 2010 National Tournament on Saturday and Sunday.
The event will attract more than 1,000 players, officials and coaches to Louisville Champions Park on River Road. It will feature 32 men’s teams spread through four divisions, as well as six women’s teams, representing over a dozen cities from across the United States and Canada. There will also be juniors exhibition games and clinics, under 23 and women’s development seminars as well as umpire clinics, a national administrators conference and the USAFL’s annual general meeting.
Australian rules football (a.k.a. “footy”) is a sport (which can sometimes be seen on one of ESPN’s networks) that resembles rugby and also has some recognizable parts of American football (i.e. punting the ball) mixed in too.
This is the 14th annual national tournament, the city also hosted the inaugural tourney in September of 1996.
“We are once again excited to return to Louisville after the huge success of our 10-year anniversary championships back in 2007,” USAFL president and tournament director Richard Mann said. “We can’t thank the city and sports commission enough for the support, including the upgrading of the fields by having them fully irrigated since we were last here.”
Play will run simultaneously from 9 a.m. through 1 p.m. both days on five fields with over 60 games to be play. The division championships will begin at 1:30 p.m. Sunday with the Division I final set for 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
For more information visit www.usafl.com/nationals/2010/central.
