Florida Redbacks

The Florida Redbacks were born when New York native Marc Karver moved to Tampa and met up with Australians Jason Eustice, Ben Hancock and Steve Darlington at an AFL Grand Finals Party in Sarasota. At 5am on that fateful day, Marc, Jason, Ben and Steve decided to start the Florida Redbacks. With training starting off as 4 guys having a kick every weekend, the team started to grow as they slowly gathered other Australians who were missing the sport they grew up with, and Americans who were being taught how to play.

The club grew fast in it's first year (2003), having enough players to host a game in Sarasota against the Atlanta Kookaburras. Due to the novelty of the sport and successful advertising, this first game drew a large crowd.

On April 16 2005, the Redbacks played in their inaugural EAFL (Eastern Australian Football League) game against the Baltimore-Washington Eagles.

April 2005 also marked growth for the Redbacks and Australian Football in Florida alike by the formation of the Ft. Lauderdale Fighting Squids where a group of Aussies got together in South Florida to form a social and sporting club to promote Aussie Football and culture. This club is an independent sister club of the Redbacks that has its own board and schedule, but joins the Redbacks as a united Florida team for the USAFL Nationals.

Club Snapshot

Logo:
City	Tampa
Home Ground	Fowler Fields, University of South Florida, Alumni Dve, Tampa
Established	2003
Nickname:	Redbacks
Team Photo:
President:	Mike Gamache
Coach:	Trevor Stokes
Email Contact:	degamache1-footy@yahoo.com
Website:	http://www.rmatlack.com/aussierules
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2317327659