The Footy

We received this entertaining missive from sophomore Kyle Schick, one of the twenty students in Fremantle, Australia, on the University’s program abroad in that lovely burg, and who are we not to excerpt from such energy with a smile?

“Aussie Rules Football, or ‘footy’ as it is called here, is sort of soccer, basketball, rugby, and American football combined, all tossed in a blender to create a sport with eighteen players on a side sprinting on an oval twice the area of a football field. To pass to another player you must kick or punch the oblong ball; to advance on your own with it you must dribble it like a basketball, albeit on grass, which is really hard to learn, which is why when we Americans walk from our dorms to the oval and try to look cool by dribbling the ball on the sidewalk, invariably the ball goes shooting out into the street as the locals fall down laughing.

As headlong energetic young American sports enthusiasts, of course we started our own footy team, the Yankeroos, who practiced twice a week, wore brilliant shocking uniforms featuring a kangaroo wearing an American flag, and played our first game against a team of Aboriginal lads, who were amazingly skilled and friendly and kicked our team to pieces. My American football instincts took over immediately; as soon as I got the ball I passed it to a teammate, so I could block for him, but the guy I was handballing to was thinking of blocking for me, so the ball flew away past his head, but then he and I together hammered an opponent, much to the delight of the fans, although that may have been the only reason to cheer for the Yankeroos, to be honest.

We played a second game against Clontarf Academy, and those games were one of the highlights of my time Down Under. I will very much miss our Fridays walking through the streets of Fremantle in a pack of Minnesotans, and our bantering with our coaches, and earning that delicious pint of ale after practice…

—Kyle Schick