They're called the Yankaroos. They are the St Johns University Footy Club and they have two teams, one in based in Minnesota on the St Johns University campus and the other based at the South Fremantle Football Club in Western Australia. The club began a couple of years ago when USFooty’s Tony Fairhead and former Chancellor of University of Notre Dame Australia, Terence O’Connor, worked out a program for St Johns students on study abroad at Notre Dame in Western Australia.

(PHOTO: Danny Hansen lays a tackle during the NCC.)

The program has been a great success with the Yankaroos contributing to the Minnesota Freeze’s Division II National Championship in 2007 and the St Johns National Collegiate Championship in 2008. USFooty is working to develop the program at other universities across Australia.

Yankaroo Secretary, David Slifka, was in the second group of St Johns students to play for the Yankaroos. He first heard about the sport from Tony Fairhead, who gave a talk about the game and the program at St Johns. Slifka and the other Yankaroos were put through an intensive program with professional coaches and the use of the first class South Fremantle facilities. “The program was amazing. Our coaches were really able to get us playing the game in a short period of time and also have a lot of fun doing it. We were set up with two practices a week at the South Fremantle Oval where the Fremantle Dockers and South Fremantle Football Club practice. It was amazing to be able to play on such a nice ground, especially one where a professional footy team practices. Since we were only the second group of guys to have gone through the program, they still didn't have a specific program built and we were able to give our input on it quite frequently. Through the program we were able to play against Clontarf, an Aboriginal school, and also in a couple country games south of Perth.”

Two Yankaroos, Mike Busse and Danny Hansen, were

recently named to the Revolution squad to compete in the International Cup. Hansen was also named MVP in the recent USFooty National Collegiate Championships. According to Slifka, “We're extremely excited that the guys we have played with are going to represent the United States in world competition. The guys selected to the Revos are great guys and it is awesome to see the people that you learned the game with just a year ago, be able to travel back to Australia representing the United States.”

Hopefully, this is the start of bigger and better things for the Yankaroos and graduates of the program. “The overall goal is to continually build the program. Hopefully the team in Australia would be able get into competitions down there so that the Yankaroos can be competing both in Australia and in the United States. At St. John's, we would like to keep growing our club, developing more interest on campus, and hopefully expand it to other schools across Minnesota. Having recently played in the National Collegiate Championship, it's great how many schools have teams and to realize that there is a great potential for the growth of footy in the United States,” says Slifka. For Slifka, himself, he is not sure exactly what he will be doing after he graduates in May, but he does know that he will be playing footy. “Regardless of where I end up, I still plan on continuing my involvement in footy. It's such a fun and exciting sport that I am hooked for life.”

(PHOTOS: National Champion Yankaroos in US and victorious Yankaroos in Australia)

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