Last season was a season of many suprises, good and bad, and the best one were possibly the Ljubljana Silverhawks. For years, they hoped to have a good season, but the season was usually over after just a couple of games. Last year wasn’t much different early on, as they lost 3 straight games.
The Silverhawks ended the season on a five-game winning streak. Most of the success came in the second part of the season, when the unstoppable running back Joseph Moncur signed for the Silverhawks. But, the Silverhawks also showed improvement as a team, turning their season around before, in the spring, when they beat the Cowboys in Budapest.
“Of course, Bo Moncur was a talent like was not with us previously and in the second part of the season the team looked quite different … But the most critical wins in the first part of the season, we got solely with our local players and of course that shows that we are working well in our team”, says the Silverhawks’ coach Uroš Valant.
Since there are no easy games — at least not on paper — this year, the thinking is that the Silverhawks will still need an import this year to seriously contend, and Valant agrees. The Silverhawks were looking for a long time, but it looks they found their guys. On offense, they’re going with a running back again signing Jordan Capitanio who last played in 2008 in NCAA Division II, and on defense they’ll get help from a linebacker/safety Keithshone Dantzler. Dantzler played at Southeaster Louisiana college.
And they arrive just in time for the start of the season.
“I think we will fight for the last spot that takes us to the playoffs … The league is really tough this year, even though only 4 teams play. Simply, there are no easy games, and also, that it will be played in just one part will be a real challenge for us. If we are realistic, we are still the smallest club in the CEFL and for that we need to be realistic in expectations concerning our CEFL results.”
The years of play in the CEFL by the Silverhawks didn’t go unnoticed in other ways. The Silverhawks now finally have a domestic league — they’re uncontested at the moment, but that’s a start.
“For us, the CEFL comes first, because all the tough competition made us a better team out of us … Maybe the Silverhawks are too good for the competitors this year, but of course, with more games played other Slovenian teams progress also. I think they all work to beat us one day in the Slovenian league, and that it will be harder for us each year to defend our ranking as the best.”