After only two years of league play, maybe it doesn’t mean much to say that Belgrade has been the most successful team. In accomplishing that, they went with two different head coaches in two years, and now they again have a new coaching staff, consisting of two import players from the US, William Blocker and Jordan Green. Of the two, Blocker is the more experienced one with five years of playing in Europe, more years than most of the players on the team have of playing football.
“It’s rewarding. You see cultures, get to live in a foreign country, experience things and mentally become better. I can go to Germany and have a place to stay or get a job, because I have friends for life there. It’s a beautiful thing, and we’re helping”, says Blocker who will be working mostly with the team’s defense.
The problem with going through different coaching staffs every year is that every year the team has to adapt to a different way every coach operates, from running practices to different playbooks. The Vukovi started practicing just this week, after a couple of weeks of individual practices, and already, Blocker is visibly excited about one part of the team.
“The defense is already installed; it took us three practices and it usually takes a month”, he says.
“You’ll see a big change. We’re going to be doing a lot of different, exciting things on defense and then maybe get the crowd excited as well. These guys play with a lot of heart, pride, they yell Vukovi, but it can’t all be about that. To them, this is a hobby; they have to enjoy doing what they’re doing.”
And it’s true. While the defense was practicing, Blocker called defensive signals and said if somebody doesn’t know what to do to raise their hand. There weren’t many raised hands. The offense however…
“Little slow”, says Green. “Because you have 15 different run plays, 15 different quick pass plays, 15 different long pass plays, the blocking, receivers running routes; teach every route to every receiver. A lot more detail. But we’ll be ready.”
Blocker emphasizes not only having a good time, but also looking ahead.
“I’m trying to build this team for the future. My focus is to make this team famous; be like basketball, football. I want everybody to know who these guys are.”
To get where they want to take them, they both say things similar to everyone else from the outside coming into Serbia or CEFL — players are currently three or four steps behind the best in Europe, but they love the game, the talent is there, they learn fast and because of this they’re easy to coach.
One thing they to differ is the expectations for next year, although not by much.
“Everybody wants to win. My expectation is… We know last year, but that was last year. I want to build for the future. You were good, but let’s be great in the future”, says Blocker.
“I want to build too, but in a positive way. Anything less than last year would be a disappointment. To take a winning team, to have time to work with them and then do less, I wouldn’t feel good about myself”, says Green.
The Vukovi start the season April 19th against a new team from Zagreb, a team they will be heavily favored against and for this reason they might not play as much. They’re here to play, but more importantly to get everyone ready and the Vukovi expect a lot from them, on and off the field.