By Bo Thygesen and Brian Woodward, editing by Mikkel Winther.
2015
After 2014, when the team came close enough to the trophy to touch it, expectations were high for 2015. Although the team lost some key players from the previous year, including Jonn Mathews, Mathias Lilhauge, Stefan Bundgaard Meyer and Niclas Klixbüll, there still was a sense of optimism. The Tigers had acquired a new import player from the University of Hawaii, DB Daniel Masifilo, to replace the team’s impact player from the previous 3 years, Jonn Mathews, and Masifilo made a good impression from the start. As a replacement for Lilhauge, who’d chosen to play professionally with the second division German team Elmshorn Fighting Pirates, the Tigers managed to recruit former Odense Swans QB, the young Jacob Karkov, who would move to Aarhus and become starting QB. A new HC was also in place after Jesper Christensen’s two years at the helm. The new HC was an internal choice, Thomas Pedersen, an assistant coach in the club since the summer of 2010.
The team started with a comfortable win against Herlev Rebels but lost a close game in Vejle in the season’s second game. The week after, the Tigers squeaked out a close victory against Amager Demons and followed that with a win over the Horsens Stallions in a game where the Tigers were big favorites from the start.
In the fifth game, the reigning champion Copenhagen Towers visited Tigers Field at Bøgeskov in Aarhus. The result mirrored the previous Autumn’s Mermaid Bowl loss, and the Towers team returned to the capital with a 30 – 13 victory. The tigers did, however, get back on track with a big 39 – 0 victory over the Aalborg 89ers.
Next up was Triangle Razorbacks in the two clubs’ second meeting of the season. The first half evolved into a defensive battle and the teams went into the locker room with Razorbacks on top 7-0. With Karkov still new in the NL, the second half showed how he still lacked top-level NL experience. The Razorbacks intercepted three passes from Karkov after the break and the momentum shifted completely to the Razorback side and allowed Vejle to claim a well-deserved 34 – 7 victory.
Following the summer break, the fall season’s first game against the Herlev Rebels saw the return of QB Mathias Lilhauge, who was back in Denmark after his German adventure, but Karkov got the start and Lilhauge was moved to wide receiver. After a comfortable win in the season’s first game against Herlev, the Tigers players thought they’d won the game before the coin toss. This backfired badly. The Tigers never managed to get out of the starting blocks and Herlev took full advantage. By the final whistle, the Rebels eked out a 14 – 13 surprise win over the heavily favored Tigers after Aarhus missed a field goal in the game’s final seconds.
Next came was the Søllerød Golddiggers at Tigers Field. The game was something of a historical milestone for the club. First of all, the club officially celebrated it’s 25-year anniversary with a “homecoming” of many of the players from the previous two-and-a-half decades. As part of the celebration, the Tigers Hall of Fame was inaugurated and the club’s three founders: Morten Hertz, Claus Elming and Kim Møller were inducted as the inaugural class of 2015. On the field, the team grasped the atmosphere and celebration too, and came into the game with a renewed attitude and fire. The players elevated their play significantly and, especially, WR Frederik Oldenburg and running backs Marco Rysgaard and Lasse Lykke were in top form, all of which resulted in a secure 40-13 thumping of the Golddiggers.
The season’s final regular season game was against the Copenhagen Towers. Here it was important that the Tigers continued their momentum from the Golddiggers game, and the Tigers rose to the occasion. A solid defensive effort and strong play from QB Jakob Karkov meant that the Tigers could return over the Storebaelt bridge to Aarhus with a 16 – 10 victory.
The Tigers ended the regular season 6 – 4, placing them fourth in the standings and giving a home field advantage in the wildcard game against the Amager Demons. It was a game in which the Tigers welcomed back several players from injured reserve, and it showed on the scoreboard with the Tigers trouncing the Demons 57 – 18.
Both of the 2015 Danish semifinals would be among the closest played in recent Danish football history.
In the first, the Søllerød Gold Diggers won 3 – 0 against the Copenhagen Towers at home. Aarhus made the 45-minute trip south on E-45 to meet neighbor and nemesis, the Triangle Razorbacks. Like the Gold Digggers/Towers game, this semifinal would be low on points, but high on intensity.
Triangle put points on the scoreboard first, jumping to a 7 – 0. Following the kickoff, on the Tigers’ first play from scrimmage, WR Frederik Oldenburg caught a deep pass and took it to the house – equalizing the score. The 7 – 7 score stood in a game where the teams went blow-for-blow through the four quarters. At the final whistle, the game was sent into overtime.
In overtime, the Razorbacks quickly jumped to a 14 – 7 lead, but the Tigers kept coming – again answering the Razor score on the first play from scrimmage at the Razor 25 yardline, adding 6 points with a huge touchdown when RB Lasse Lykke caught the ball right in front of a Razor LB before juking and stumbling his way into the endzone. The drama didn’t stop there, but the celebration quickly turned to tragedy when the Tigers’ ensuing extra point was blocked and returned to the Tigers endzone. After one of the most dramatic and emotional games in Tiger history, the game ended, once again, in a close 16-13 loss to the rivals from Vejle, who would go on to win the 2015 Mermaid Bowl.
As in 2014, the Tigers U16 team went through the season without a single loss, except in the Challenge Bowl against the Søllerød Gold Diggers, who pulled out a 36 – 20 victory. The U19 team played in the U19 National League and ended up third in the standings, which meant they would travel to Copenhagen to meet the Herlev Rebels for the semifinal. The team lost the semi 14-9, though, ending their season just short of the national championship game.
2016
The 2016 season brought a new import player in the 23-year-old starting WR from Tulane University, Justyn Shackleford, who the Tigers had contacted through Europlayer. Justyn decided to come to Aarhus after a long talk with former Tigers player Jonn Mathews, who only had good things to say about the Tigers family. The hopes were that Justyn would become a true leader on and off the field for the Tigers team, but, unfortunately, the arrangement never lived up to those expectations.
The year’s first game was against the Danish champion and archrival Triangle Razorbacks. Unlike the previous season’s semifinal, the Tigers were never really to get started and suffered a 36 – 12 loss. Yet another loss came in the season’s second game to the Amager Demons before the season’s first convincing victory against Horsens Stallions.
The Tigers suffered another loss to the Aab 89ers in the season’s next game before hosting a rematch against the Amager Demons at Tigers Field. Here the Tigers could claim a little revenge and came out on top in a 28 – 13 victory. The last two games of the spring season were against the previous year’s Mermaid Bowl contenders, and both resulted in losses for the Tigers.
The fall season started with two solid victories against the Horsens Stallions and Herlev Rebels, before a loss to Copenhagen Towers concluded the regular season. This meant a 5 – 5 regular season, the same record as both the 89ers and Demons. Following a great deal of administrative confusion regarding the tiebreaker rules from the Danish American Football Federation, the official outcome was a sixth place for the Tigers and a trip to Rundforbi Stadion outside of Copenhagen to play against the Søllerød Gold Diggers.
The Golddiggers were big favorites in the game. But, in the first half, it was the Tigers who had all the momentum and dominated at the halftime break with a 19 – 7 lead. In third quarter, the game went from one end of the field to the other, mostly without a score, but the Goldiggers managed to reduce their deficit to 19 – 13 shortly before the fourth quarter . In the middle of the fourth quarter, the Tigers extended the lead to 26 – 13, and with under two minutes to the final whistle, the Tigers thought they had tied up the game.
After confusion regarding time management and timeouts, however, the Tigers were forced to punt on a fourth down. An errant snap went over the head of the Tigers punter and the Golddiggers picked up the ball and returned it for a TD, reducing the lead to 26 – 20 after a successful PAT. With one-minute left on the clock, the Gold Diggers lined up for an onsides kick – and, miraculously, recovered the ball. The momentum was palpable for Søllerød. A couple Gold Digger plays later, all hope went out of the Tiger’s balloon when they missed a big interception opportunity that would have ended the game in the Tigers favor. The Gold Diggers went after the jugular and shortly afterwards, Golddigger WR Marcus Bennett caught a pass in the endzone to tie the game 26 – 26. The following PAT was good, ending the game 27-26 and capping the Tigers season on a sad note.
The 2016 U16 troops, lead by QB William Becher Veis Nieslsen, RB/LB Valdemar Henriksen and WR Magnus Urth, had an indisputably great season on the other hand, and the U16 team managed to lift the national championship trophy in the Challenge Bowl with a 14 – 6 victory over the Kronborg Knights after two years of playing the runner up. The U19 team also had a good season lead by QB Severin Emil Bjerre, CB Marco Ilic and LB Marco Busk Jørgensen played the squad into the U19 Danish final, known as the Development Bowl. The team met the Søllerød Gold Diggers and were overmatched in a 28 – 10 loss, but the silver medal bode well for the coming years of Tiger football.
2017
After a disappointing end to the 2016 season, the goal for 2017 as a minimum was to come back and at least be a part of the semifinals. To get that chance, the Tigers had chosen to boost the defensive side of the ball, by signing DL/LB Jarrel Mckinney from Division 1 Western Michigan University. Jarrel, however, chose to go back to the US after just a few practices with the Tigers to try out for an Arena football team. A star Tigers profile through several years, WR Frederik Oldenburg also left the Tigers due to a new job opportunity in Copenhagen. Frederik would instead join the roster of one of the Tigers’ biggest opponents, the Søllerød Gold Diggers. It was a big loss of a dangerous threat on Tigers air attack.
Without imports in the season opener in Vejle, the Tigers seemed to pull together though. In a game against Triangle Razorbacks, whose several import players made a big difference for Razor, the Tigers troops was able to keep it close. And although they lost 19 – 15, the margin was less than expected and the game was considered a moral, if not a scoreboard win for the depleted team.
The next game was against the new team in the Danish National League, the Copenhagen Tomahawks. For that game, the Tigers had been reinforced with the return of WR Jonn Mathews. It was a game without any question of who the new kid on the block was, as the Tigers pummeled the newcomers 63 – 6 and used the game as a warmup for a rematch from the previous year’s loss to Søllerød Gold diggers.
Before the referee’s whistle started the game, it was time for the two newly inducted members of the Tigers Hall of Fame, Forman Peter Friis and Team Leader Helle Seiersen to flip the coin. The flip fell to the Tigers advantage but was not an omen for the outcome of the game. The Gold Diggers showed up with a strong roster of imports, including RB Robert Burton III and former NFL player Desmond Cooper (S), plus former Tiger Frederik Oldenburg. The trio made it difficult for the Tigers who couldn’t stay with the Gold Diggers, dropping the game 40 – 17.
The Tigers picked up a pair of comfortable victories against the Amager Demons and Herlev Rebels in the games that followed, but in the Rebels game, the Tigers lost WR Jonn Mathews to a badly broken leg; an injury that ended Mathews’ season and would create a big hole on the Tigers’ roster.
Before the summer break, it was yet again the Gold Diggers, and, this time, the Tigers had a better grip on the game and kept it close to the finish. Without their starting QB Morten Forsbøl on the roster, the Tigers stayed within reach of a win, but ended the game with a tight 14 – 7 loss.
The fall season included three more regular season games: against the Towers, Tomahawks and 89ers. The outcome of these three games was two victories and one 14 – 8 loss against the Towers. The last four games showed that Tigers were a team that belonged among the 4 top NL teams. Tigers had hereby qualified for the wildcard game against the 89ers at Bøgeskov in Aarhus. It was a game where former Tigers WR Jens Ole Kaae Jensen had some impressive plays, but it was not enough for Aalborg. The Tigers team was on top from start to finish and advanced to the semifinal with a 34 – 22 victory.
In the semifinal, the Tigers met the coming Danish Champion Copenhagen Towers. The team was challenged from the start due to the absence of three-year starter Jakob Karkov at QB. Backup Troels Andersen took over the starting QB position, but Troels had not seen many snaps during the season and the offense never really found its timing and momentum and the result was a lopsided 62 – 12 loss.
The U16 team had yet another great season in 2017 led by QB Carl Wagner Lübeck Christensen and WR Magnus Urth. The 13-player roster was again able to reach the Challenge Bowl but lost the final to Frederikssund Oaks 26 – 12. The U19 team was also able to reach the Development Bowl again, where they met the Copenhagen Towers on a rainy day at Herning Athletic Stadium in which it was difficult to pass the ball, and Tigers starting QB Christoffer Bay Carstens was injured in the first quarter and not able to come back on the field. Unlike last year, however, the Tigers managed to overcome these adversities and pull out the championship with a 10 – 6 victory.
2018
Up to the 2018 season many thoughts had been given to what import positions could make the team stronger and the choice ended on the offensive side of the ball with the recruitment of RB Ricky Stevens, who, during his college career, played for the University of Maine, Div. I FCS.
Stevens caught the attention of HC Thomas Pedersen and Club Chairman Peter Friis in the spring of 2017, when Stevens played for the Wroclaw Panthers in Poland in a Champions League game against the Triangle Razorbacks. Ricky started his European adventure in 2016 with the Finnish team Turku Trojans before continuing on to Poland for two seasons. Shortly before joining the Tigers, he had been back in Finland to play for the Porvoo Butchers and helped them reach a playoff spot. So, it was a real scoop for Tigers to get Ricky’s signature on the contract. On the defensive side of the ball, the choice was import DL Kori Hurd from Arizona Christian University, of the NAIA division. Kori would strengthen the already strong defensive front with the hope of offsetting the loss of National team star LB Timmi Rysgaard, who had signed a contract with the Swiss team Carlanda Broncos.
The Tigers would get off to their best start of the season in years with 5 victories in a row. The most important coming against the Triangle Razorbacks on April 29th. The game had been much awaited by the entire Tigers organization, because a victory would mean an advantage if the two teams should end up with even standings after the regular season.
The first quarter contained of two drives, a short one for Razorbacks that ended up with a punt to the Tigers 10-yard line and a subsequent length-of-the-field drive for a Tigers TD. Stevens showed his talent on several third down conversions, keeping the drive alive. TE Jesper Kold put an exclamation point on the drive with a eminent catch deep in the endzone. Shortly into the second quarter, Razor QB Peter Linneman found playmaker Jairus Moll on a deep route from the Razor 30-yardline for a touchdown. The very next drive, Moll took a catch deep without scoring and, just like that, Triangle was back in it. The Tigers managed to stop the Razorbacks on the 1-yardline on the drive, holding them to a field goal and the halftime lead 9 – 7.
On the Tigers first drive in the second half, QB Jakob Karkov connected once again with TE Jesper Kold on a short route that Kold broke away with. Just before reaching the goal line, however, Razorback speedster Niko Lester caught Kold and knocked the ball out of his hands for a Razor recovery. Shortly after, Kold took his revenge again, this time catching another long pass and bringing it to the Razorback 10-yard line. Karkov took the ball to the endzone for a 14 – 9 lead on the following play. The Tigers extended their lead after a Lau Hartoft (DB) interception on the Tigers 25-yard line which led to a solid Tigers drive that was capped with a great catch deep in the endzone by Aarhus WR Jens Sandberg.
In an exciting fourth quarter, Razor RB Geoffrey John Lewis took the ball to the endzone on a 20-yard run up the middle before Triangle’s Jairus Moll intercepted the ball on the subsequent Tigers drive and returned it to the Tigers’ 12. With that, the Razorbacks had the opportunity to go in front, but the Tiger defense held strong and shot the Razor offense down on fourth down when CB Ricky Steven prevented Jairus Moll from catching the ball in the endzone. The Tigers went on to close the game with a 21 – 16 victory.
The season’s first loss came against the reigning champion Towers, who’d inherited former Tigers WR/TE Jesper René Hansen who moved to Copenhagen during the winter. It was a game where the Tigers had a difficult first half with only one Ricky Stevens TD. The Towers put 19 points on the scoreboard. The second half was a bit more even, but the game ended in a 35 – 20 Towers victory.
The three games in the fall season brought a win against Frederikssund Oaks and losses to both the Towers and Gold diggers. This meant the Tigers ended with a second place in the standings at 7-3 and advanced directly to the semifinals. The opponent would be the winner of the Wildcard game between the Razorbacks and Gold Diggers, and that game ended in a comfortable win for the Razor.
Unfortunately, the semifinal did not go the Tigers way and there was no ticket to Mermaid Bowl. The Razorbacks were one step ahead throughout the game, and their experience in post-season play was evident. Even veteran Kenneth Suhl was dressed up and played QB, shifting duties with Jairus Moll and Peter Linnemann. The game started well with a pick six by Ricky Stevens in the first quarter, but the Razorbacks managed to come back in the second with a safety after an intentional grounding by the Tigers from their own endzone. Razor RB Geoffrey John Lewis was then able to run the ball to the other endzone for a Triangle halftime lead of 9 – 7.
The third went from one end to the other until Lewis was able to extend the Razorback lead to 16 – 7. The Tigers were able to reduce the lead to 16 – 14 just before the start of the fourth with a TD pass to WR Frederik Daugaard Andersen. In the fourth, the Tigers were not able to get close to the Razorbacks endzone and Triangle could inside the last minute take the victory formation on Tigers 5-yardline and head for the Mermaid Bowl XXX in Slagelse.
The Tigers U16 team, which in previous years had been among the country’s top teams, hit rock bottom during 2018. Despite a roster of dedicated and developing players, their numbers were too small to field a team in several games and too small to overcome injuries in the games they did play throughout the season. A core of dedicated coaches like Glen Damholt Larsen did it’s best to patch a team together from week to week, but declining numbers continued to be a problem.
The U19 team, on the other hand, brought home the 2018 Jysk/Fynsk championship by defeating the Herning Hawks 56 – 6. The spirit dissipated a bit in the fall, when the team only managed to have about 10 players on the roster and ended with a 2-2 record.
2019
The preparation for the 2019 season started shortly after the 2018 season was finished with the re-signing of Ricky Stevens and Ricky’s former teammate QB Timothy Morovick from the Polish league’s Wroclaw Panthers, which was a real scoop for Aarhus. Unfortunately, the Tigers already thin offensive line lost three experienced players in the offseason who chose to finish their career or take a break. Two others decided to change clubs. So, in spite of the signing, it was uncertain how the Tigers new QB would use his talents behind an inexperienced line. Luckily, former Tigers youth player and lineman Mads Højen Hansen returned to the Tigers after two years away playing with BGI Academy and at Bristol Academy. Additionally, OL Stéfan Númi Stefásson from Horsens Stallions and Jonas Petersen from the Tigers DS-team, could also bring a little stability before the season opener and help reinforce the O-Line. The season’s opener was against the new team in the NL, the Odense Badgers. The Tigers and their new QB started strong by putting 20 points on the board in the first quarter. And then the catastrophe struck. On a scramble to the left, Morovick twisted his right leg and tore his ACL, putting an end to his season before it ever really got started. It was a tough situation not only for Timothy, but for an entire Tigers NL team that had had very high hopes for what Timothy could have brought to the 2019 season. The show must go on, though, and backup QB Troels Andersen stepped in to put up almost 20 more points in the remaining three quarters and ensure a 39 – 0 victory.
Jakob Karkov, who had been the starting Tigers QB since 2015, had from the beginning of the season announced that he would concentrate on playing WR, but for the coming two games against the Towers and 89ers, Karkov was again behind center. It was far from an ideal situation, though, with the team trying to recover from the shock of losing a star import, and both games ended in losses.
Seen from the board’s perspective there were no doubt that an Import replacement was necessary after Timothy’s injury. This required funding, though. To help raise money, the first Tigers Run was established, in which players, parents and volunteers collected money through donations based on how far each participant could run. It was a success and helped resupply the coffers.
After an intense recruiting effort, the choice of a new import fell on 22-year-old QB Isaiah Daniel Weed, who had played for Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Isaiah was chosen because he had similar playing skills as Timothy, which meant no major changes would be necessary for the playing scheme already in place. A few days after Isaiah’s arrival, he was at the helm against the Danish champion Copenhagen Towers. Despite a 49 – 20 loss, his performance impressed the coaching staff and Isaiah proved he had the ability to lead the team.
Before the summer break Isaiah and company could collect victories against both the Frederikssund Oaks and Odense Badgers before closing with a 16 – 6 loss to the Triangle Razorbacks.
The second part of the season would be the real test that would prove whether or not the Tigers team could reach their goals behind Isaiah. Game one was against the Triangle Razorbacks, which had recently been reinforced for the fall season with the return of star Jairus Denzel Moll. The Tigers showed they had become a better team and were able to keep up with Razor in a first half that ended even at 20 – 20. The momentum broke in the second half, however, and the Razorbacks ran away with a 41 – 26 victory.
The year’s best game came 14 days later, when the Aalborg 89ers visited Tigers Field. A small hope was still alive for the Tigers to reach a fourth place in the standings and secure a homefield advantage in the playoffs first wildcard game. This hope required a victory of at least 15 points and a victory over the Søllerød Gold Diggers in the regular season’s final game. The 89ers had an explosive offense and had become more two dimensional and more threatening after the arrival of US import RB Breon Allen. Tigers star RB Lasse Lykke had an explosive game, though, and several others Tigers also elevated their play in the Aalborg game to a level that kept the game close. And by the final whistle, the Tigers team pulled out a 48 – 38 victory, though the team fell short of the 15 point win it needed to secure homefield advantage. But that didn’t matter much in the end, as the season’s final game against the Gold Diggers also ended in a loss.
The wildcard game was a rematch with the 89ers. Injuries’ to several vital defensive players, however, meant that the game had a completely different tone. The 89ers offense moved up and down the field with ease. The game ended with revenge for Aalborg and a trouncing end to the Tigers season with a 60 – 34 loss.
The Tiger DS team had a terrific spring with 5 wins and 2 defeats which resulted in a second place in the DS West and hereby qualified for fall’s Elming Bowl playoff. The spring also added a little extra reinforcement to the DS team as three former NL players, Jonn Mathews, Mathias Lilhauge and Marco Rysgaard, had chosen to dust off their armor once again. Unfortunately, as positive as the spring had been, the fall playoff were unfortunately just as much a disappointment as the team had to pull the team after only 2 games due to injury and lack of players.
The Tigers women’s team participated in several joint trainings with other clubs during the year and got a thorough introduction to the game’s tactics and refinements by the two dedicated coaches Alexander Jørgensen and Asbjørn Rohold.
The Tigers youth program had another difficult year. As a result of declining U19 members, Aarhus was not able to field a team for the season, so the players that wanted to play had to move up and play with older players at the DS- or NL level.
U16 managed to enter the season with a short roster that required all players to play both ways and take on several positions. This again proved to be a challenge in the hard games and the spring season ended with just one victory and five close defeats. The season after the summer break was even tougher ending with four defeats and no victories.
In contrast, the Tigers U10/12/14 teams flourished with over 40 players and this year’s two home events were a huge success, with over 200 players signed up for the last event on Tigers field. A development that the Tiger’s eminent youth coaches and super team leaders Charlotte Harder Olsen and Jann Holmgaard can take all the credit for.
