The London Warriors, one of the United Kingdom's top American football clubs, are turning a spotlight on a sport many in Britain do not realise has taken root here. Based in South London, the club was founded in 2005 as a single juniors team. Since then it has grown into seven teams, and those behind it now speak openly about wanting to help American football become a major sport across Europe.
The Warriors describe their work as reaching well beyond the field of play. Alongside their achievements on the pitch, the club says it helps people off it, supporting them socially and assisting them as they progress to university or work to secure employment. That dual focus, on sport and on life chances, was presented as central to what the club is trying to build in its part of the capital.
Kevin Quijone, part of the coaching team, explained how he came to the role. He is the offensive line coach for the London Warriors, having previously played for them between 2012 and 2017, when the side was still an amateur team. When the opportunity arose to set up a professional team, he said, head coach Tony Allen, along with Marvin Allen, reached out and asked him to come in and coach the offensive line, an offer he said he was honoured to accept.
He was joined by James Famineau, who plays the game himself. Famineau said he started out with the London Blitz in 2018 before being spotted by European scouts who took him across the Atlantic. He ended up in Texas, where the University of Houston offered him a scholarship to play for the team, opening the door to several years inside the American college game and a very different standard of competition.
Famineau said he spent the last six or seven years in the United States, an experience he described as a great one, before returning to England just three weeks ago to play for the London Warriors. The time abroad has left its mark even on the way he speaks, with the interview noting a hybrid American and London accent that now colours his voice as he settles back into life at home.
His route into the sport began elsewhere. Famineau said he was originally a rugby player, spending around five or six years at Chingford Rugby Club, which was his first introduction to sport. Always a big and tall child who, in his own words, ballooned up, he switched to American football after seeing someone online simply wearing a helmet, something he said just spoke to him and tapped into a long-held wish to try the game.
Asked about the game itself, Famineau pushed back on the idea that American football is a softer version of rugby. He argued it is in fact more aggressive, suggesting the padding can make players feel more protected than they really are, even though, as he put it, it hurts just the same. For the Warriors, the conversation kept returning to a larger ambition, growing a sport still unfamiliar to many in Britain into something far bigger across Europe.