There is the ok of the Fidaf (Italian Federation of American Football) to the resumption of sporting activities in the particularly difficult 2021 season. The Eagles Salerno, the Salerno eagles of American football, are ready to get back into the game from April 24th in the championship of Third Division. The joy of having returned to breathe the air of the green field of the Donato Vestuti stadium in Salerno already last January, when training resumed, is followed by that of having a certain date to kick off CIF9, albeit with a completely different format than to that of the past seasons. “The championship will start in just over a month, time that will serve us to fully acknowledge the many changes that, in particular, as regards the programming, await us and all the other teams involved, declares the president of the Eagles Salerno. Ciro D’Amato -. The organization magazine foresees several groups with three teams, for a total of four matches, two first legs and two second legs, in the first part of the championship ».
In addition to the new format, there will then be a strict protocol to learn. This is how American football is reinvented, a contact sport par excellence: «This year Fidaf brought us together to tell us that it was necessary to resume – explains D’Amato -. For sports like ours, in which the income is very low, this restart requires a lot of effort. However, we wanted to be there so as not to lose a job that, in Salerno, has been going on for 38 years, with passion ». A return after a championship, the 2020 one, never really started for the Salerno Eagles who were forced to stop, due to a pandemic, on the eve of the trip to Bari, valid for the first match of the season. 365 days later, in the temple of city sport, a maximum of 24 will meet to face an iron group: the one that will see the Salerno team engaged first against Naples and then against Barletta, respectively finalist and semifinalist of the 2019 season.
«It was difficult to put together a team because many guys, who we considered as our pillars, will not be there. Each of them has particular needs at home that do not marry, given the moment we live, with a routine made up of training, competitions and travels », says the president of the Eagles. The seasonal objective, therefore, is to be able to complete at least the regular season, without too many interruptions and avoiding the early closure of the championship. Few means, a lot of heart, the economic investment that this year must concern everything that has to do with health (for the Eagles Salerno a first purchase of 300 tampons for a total of 1300 euros), but above all the great desire to go back to sports.
(o.s.)