Coventry Jets

The first American Football club in Coventry was formed as the Warwickshire Bears in February 1984 by two local men with a lot of assistance from the head coach of the United States air base team at Chicksands. The Bears played their first season in the American Football League's Midland Division, which was arguably the toughest division in the Country. That year the Bears only posted one regular season victory, however, friendly games proved more productive, with the best result coming when they travelled to London to take on the unbeaten and eventual Summer Bowl finalists, Streatham Olympians. The Bears ran out easy winners with a 26:0 scoreline.
1986 saw the Bears in the Anglo Conference Central Division where the proved to be too experienced for the others and won the division with an 8 won and 2 lost record. This includes a British American Football League record victory of 100:0 over the Black Country Nailers. They also played host to International opposition when they played the top Norwegian team, the Oslo Trolls, losing the match by one point on the last kick of the game. The following year, in an effort to improve the overall talent levels and make the next step up, the club merged with Milton Keynes to form the CMK Bucks. It was a disaster. The team folded and lost a lot of talent to neighbouring teams, but reformed again as the Coventry Bears. At the end of 1990, a successful merger with the Walsall Titans once again transformed the clubs fortunes, with a dynamic new team called the Coventry Jaguars.
The Jaguars imported two US players, QB Travis Hunter from East Carolina University and Tight End Craig Otto of the University of Minnesota. This was the trigger for great things, the Jags winning every game in 1991, finishing 10-0, NDMA Division II Coca-Cola Cup Champions and also inflicted the first defeat in 7 years on the reigning USAAF Champions Upper Heyford Skykings.
In 1992 the Jags were loaded with talent, despite Hunter leaving for the formidable Birmingham Bulls team. Mark Cohen joined the team and he went onto a glittering career, culminating in playing professional football for the London Monarchs. The Skykings were beaten once again, this time on their own airbase. A semi-final defeat to the Kent Mustangs was disappointing but a narrow defeat by the Bulls showed just how good the Jags were. The following year the team had high expectations. After years of trying a Coventry team had finally made it into the big time NDMA Division 1 Superleague and mouth watering games against the Birmingham Bulls, Glasgow Lions, Nottingham Hoods, Leicester Panthers, Northants Storm and the great London Olympians. At QB the Jags brought in Cleveland Brown QB Clemente Gordon, LB Steve Donlin from the Toronto Argos and Head Coach Bruno Waldner had all the right credentials (former assistant coach of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings). An opening day defeat at the Bulls 14-6 signalled that the Jaguars were not out of their depth and even a 44-8 defeat at home to the reigning National Champion London Olympians was encouraging. However, Gordon and Donlin were to return to the USA, meaning the Jags had to go with an untried QB in young Jamie Kilby. Other key losses meant that by the end of the season the team had to fold. Key players from this season went on to play elsewhere and some would later return to form the new Jags. Jon McNulty, Kilby and future Birmingham Bulls Head Coach Chris Cunnane returned to Birmingham along with Karl Burgess, current Jets Head Coach Gerry McManus and RB coach Graham Huber, while Dave Cowen signed for the Leicester Panthers.

The Jets have been able to attract players from all over the Midlands and indeed England. In the short time that the team has been in operation there have been many changes in the roster, many of the original 2004 squad not returning for the 2005 season, an indication on how tough 2004 was for the team. From the 2004 Jags roster there are only James Hossacks, Scott Morgan, Steve Mills, Dave Cowans and Paul Newey on the squad. Other squad members Kieran McManus, Alvin Messam and Lawrence Grugeon are on IR and Chris Hartley has moved into coaching. The Jets have also had some success with developing players. James Hossacks, Dom Olney and Michael Achola all received invitations to NFLE National testing days in 2005. Achola, Andy Steadman and Xin Xu were invited to NFLE training camps in 2006 and 2007. Andy Steadman is still involved with the NFL as a member of their NFL International Player Development squad. 2007 Centre Tyla Matia, fresh from winning the 2008 New Zealand Championship with his home town club and Jets New Zealand partner team Papatoetoe Wildcats, has been signed by Rio Grande Valley Dorados, an af2 team for the 2008 season.[4] There have also been links with BUAFL teams before, with Jets personnel coaching with the Warwick Wolves and Loughborough Aces before assisting in the creation of the Coventry University Jets over the past few seasons.