Ryan Howard

Sports Award

Age:

21

Biography

Hi, my name is Ryan Howard and I am a current American football player based in Leicester. I currently play within the university BUCS division 1 league for American football for the University of Liverpool Raptors where I have played 3 season for them. In addition, I also play for the Leicester Panthers which is an adult team within the BAFA premiership division. In addition to this, I have previously played for the U19 Great Britain team who competed in the 2022 IFAF European championship.

I have always been a very active and sporty person, having played rugby since I was aged 5/6 years old until I went to university at 18. I first started playing rugby at my local rugby club down at Belgrave RFC and played there until I was 11 years old when I decided to move teams in pursuit of playing at a higher level and playing in a more competitive environment. From 11 years old I played the rest of my rugby career at Syston RFC. Two seasons after joining, I became the team captain which is one of the main reasons I have always assumed a leadership role in any setting I am placed in. In the team's final year before we progressed to Colts rugby, we managed to make it all the way to the county plate final where we fell short of winning it all. I then continued to play for Syston RFC in their Colts team which is the U18 team. The year prior to me joining, this team had won the league and county cup and also had multiple players to represent the county of Leicestershire. We had a successful campaign that year by winning the league and launching a strong claim for the county cup once again. However, COVID struck which put a stop to that opportunity of winning the county cup that year and the year following. Once COVID had passed, I was approached by the 1^st team coach at Syston RFC who wanted me to play under him but this was only limited to their pre-season training and games due to me going off to university at the end of September. However, the university team was not what I had anticipated. I was used to a highly competitive environment both in training and matches, but this was not what the team had to offer. Therefore, I stopped playing for the team and rugby as a whole due to a lack of local teams in the area of my university accommodation.

So, I tried out American football towards the end of my first semester of university in 2021. I played for the university American football team from January 2022 through to the end of the season in April 2022. Through this time, numerous experienced and high-level players/coaches on the team expressed how impressed they were with my ability in the sport and stated I have a bright future. Shortly after finishing my first-year exams in May 2022, I was contacted to attend a trial training session for the GB U19 American football team before the team travelled to Bologna, Italy in July 2022 for the 2022 IFAF U19 championships. Following this trial, I was selected to represent the country after only playing the sport for 6 months. At this tournament, the team managed to finish 3^rd overall which was one of the highest finishes for the team in recent history since the team had not won a game since 7 years prior to this championship. This is one of my most important

Since then, I have trialed multiple times for the adult men's GB team whilst also playing in the University All-stars game in 2023 which is one of the highest levels within university American football due to only the best players from around the country being selected to play. Due to my continued success on the pitch, I have been recognized as a promising player in Canada and Europe and received offers to play abroad in the CJFL which is one of the highest levels of American Football in Canada. This is a massive step in my career as it is the next step towards me achieving my dream of becoming a professional Football player either in Europe, Canada or America.

I train approximately five to six times a week which is made up of team training sessions (one/two times a week depending on whether it is a game week) as well as individual field work and gym sessions where I develop my explosiveness, speed as well as general strength training. As well as training, I am also studying towards a degree in Aerospace Engineering. This is a full time course at the University of Liverpool meaning I am on campus studying 9-5 therefore I have to be very conscious of my time management in order both my athletic performance as well as my academic performance.

I am very grateful for receiving this grant from the JHMT as it has allowed me to increase my budget to fund the travel to Canada to play in the CJFL as well as fund the purchase of the kit which I will need once I am out there. As a full time student, balancing the finances of my day to day life is hard and often leaves very little to save for expensive experiences like these. Therefore this help me a lot in the long run to accrue the budget required for this next step in my career.