Cluj Crusaders
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| Full name | Club Sportiv Cluj Crusaders |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2010 |
| Coach | Rafael Ruiz |
| League | CNFA |
Cluj Crusaders is an American football and Powerlifting team in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The first official American football and Powerlifting team, with legal status in Cluj-Napoca, founded in February 2010 by a group of American football fans. Crusaders are the 2012 and 2013 Romanian American football champions, also runner-up champions in 2010 and 2011 editions of the National American Football Championship of Romania.
Crusaders was founded on February 13, 2010, when they had the first training together as a team and the coach Rafael Ruiz met for the first time face to face with the team, finding only a group of individuals who did not know about football, but had a desire to learn and become an organized team.
The first months were difficult for the new team, not having a field where to train, usually renting small synthetic football fields and having new people in training, without equipment (shoulderpads, helmets and training equipment), but the team was lucky with the organizing of the coach who managed the team in difficult times.
The first training was hard, the players learning from scratch, but they found true joy of American football.
After a month and a half of training with the team, they experienced their first Scrimmage (non-Special Teams) in Bucharest against the Bucharest Predators on April 10, 2010, which they lost without scoring a point and being stopped at the 1 yard four times, the final score is still uncertain.
After two weeks, the Predators came to Cluj on April 24, 2010, to return the visit with a Scrimmage (Special teams, but no extra points or field goals due to the absence of posts). The match was played on the field of Baciu, Cluj and the score was Bucharest Predators 24-6 Cluj Crusaders, Crusaders scoring their first points on a blocked punt, the performance was much better team than the one in Bucharest showing a steady development.
In July 2010, Crusaders became an NGO association, Club Sportiv Cluj Crusaders was born. In the same month along with Warriors and Lions, began to organize the first National Football Championship (CNFA) being played in three stages, Timisoara, Cluj and Bucharest.
Crusaders played the first official match of the Romanian Championship against Timisoara Lions winning by a score of 42-0 and scoring the first touchdown of a National Championship with a kickoff return.
The team participated in the first RoBowl, the championship game was played against the Warriors in November 2010 and lost 51-12.
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