American Football – Portimão Pirates Project
In a region greatly affected by the financial crisis and where the main sport is soccer, a group of innovative and motivated young men gave rise to an ambitious project in this sport and created an American Football team. It is a sport that is expanding everywhere, and for many decades it part of a million-dollar industry in the United States.
Nationally, the Portuguese league is going into its 4th season and there is significant growth of the sport, visible especially in the sprouting of new teams all over the country and in the growing number of pages related to the subject of American Football in the social networks.
The plan in Portimão came from two American coaches who reside in the Algarve and in a period of 3 months around 40 young men have already joined the team. Recently a Portuguese coach, Pedro Viana, American Football commentator for the SportTV channel for 4 seasons, also embraced the project and is now part of the coaching staff as well.
The team is still in the development phase and is looking for new players that reside in the Algarve, who are strong and/or fast, and are interested in playing the sport. Others with playing or coaching experience are also invited to help. Equipment for getting practice experience and rides to practices are provided to help get the team established.
The project has received financial support from the VidaMAIS network in this start-up phase. The team is available for and seeking potential partnerships and sponsorships that can collaborate for the development of the team, offering in exchange, visibility/advertising, special promotions/media exposure and/or others kinds of mutual help for the institutions that see potential in the team and in the sport.
www.facebook.com/PortimaoPirates