The next season is finally a season in which the Ljubljana Silverhawks finally don’t have to be described as a team that might have a chance, but as a team with as good a chance as any other team. Years of hard work payed off last year when they made it to the final, in actually the first year ever they made the playoffs.

And they didn’t wait long to prepare for 2011.

“Nonobligatory practices started in November. Since January the 15th we’re practicing three times a week regardless of weather. We also established a basic fitness facility for our players, so they can work out by their own wish”, says their coach Uroš Valant.

“The biggest problems were of course financial issues. We had the agreement with the one of the biggest online betting systems for sponsoring the team in the 2011 season. But unfortunately State office for gaming supervision blacked out all the foreign online betting sites, so our sponsor pulled out of Slovenia and also canceled the contract with the Silverhawks. We lost another two sponsors due to recession and the economy slump, so we had to start looking for sponsors from scratch. The financial concerns are still there but with great efforts we’ve managed to secure this season. We are still looking for sponsorship money and hope we don’t have any unexpected expenses that would put additional financial strain on the team.“

Adding to the team’s problems, several of their experienced players, like Dejan Rep, Jure Bezica, Samo Virant or Primož Štolfa will not be joining the team for the 2011 season. And although they were one of the teams with the least number of changes in the last years, losing players is hard to overcome for any team in the CEFL.

It’s also true that their success from last year coincided with the team having full time import players for the first time. The players will not return, but new ones come. After a lot of years, the Silverhawks will have an import quarterback, for the first time ever. Quarterback Vinny Gay will join the team, after a year in Austria, where he played for the St. Pölten Invaders, passing for 10 touchdowns and 1 interception.

“Of course, the quarterback is the most important part of the team. We have a real general on the field now and can build our offense on the ground and in the air. Ideally we would have one more running back, but we don’t have the funds for it.”

Desmond Hendricks is a linebacker who played in Div III and this will be his first year playing European football.

The rest of the team stays mostly unchanged. That gives hope to the Silverhawks that they can reproduce the success they had last year. The addition of a quarterback is something they hope could make them even better.

“We hope to repeat the success of last year, but we know pretty well that it will be a hard task. While most of the teams can still compete on a very high level without import players, we cannot compete with only Slovenian players since we’re still the smallest team in this league.”