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Local football star begins fourth year on Czech squad
Jake Shrum headed back to Prague, Czechoslovakia, Feb. 15 to begin his fourth season playing football with the Prague Panthers.
The 1999 Mountain Home High School graduate played college football at Montana-Western in Dillon, Mont., and spent two more years there as a graduate assistant in football. Over four years ago, Shrum got a call from former Mountain Home Tiger football coach John Srholec asking him if he would like to play for him in Czechoslovakia.
"After I got done doing my graduate assistant work, I got a phone call from Coach Srholec, and he asked me if I wanted to go overseas and play football for him. He said he was going to go over there and coach a team in Prague in the Czech Republic. I told him he was crazy and I told him I had no idea where the Czech Republic was. But three seasons later, going into our fourth season, we're ranked number six in Europe, and it's been a great experience over there as well."
Shrum compares the competition level over there to being similar to what he faced at Montana-Western.
"I'd say the competition level is about the same as the NAIA. The speed's just a little off. The guys over there don't have the American coaches like we have, and they've been playing for as long as I have."
Shrum said the team does not practice every day.
"This is more like their hobby, but it's their favorite thing to do. We practice maybe two or three times a week. In the past three years, they've been coached better and better and better. That's probably been one of their pluses for that team -- being able to have an American coach over there, with Coach Srholec, and with me as well, being a GA. I know a lot more than I would have known just playing the game, going from the coach's standpoint."
Shrum indicated road trips generally run anywhere from an hour to six hours on a bus, but this year will include a plane trip.
"I think our farthest trip this year we go to Stockholm, Sweden, and play a team called the Stockholm Mean Machine. I think we actually get to fly over there, and then we've got to take a ferry boat somewhere across the small little lakes, and we play a game over there, so that will be really fun to go. It'll be the first time I think that we've got to travel by plane. I think our farthest (bus trip) we've gone is six hours, and that's within the Czech Republic itself."
Last season Shrum's Prague Panthers went undefeated and won the EFAF Cup, beatings teams from Amsterdam, the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland.
"This will be the first year we're not going to compete in the Czech Republic League," said Shrum. "We're going to the Austrian League looking for a little better competition. It will give us a taste of what it's going to be like to play championship-caliber teams."
Shrum is one of four American's on the Prague Panthers. He indicated only three American players on one team can be on the field at the same time.
"They let three Americans on the field at one time, and you can have four on your game-day roster, so it really helps keep the competition with the European guys. We're really lucky to have a lot of European guys that are good, otherwise our team wouldn't be as good as it is, so that's really helped out a lot, too."
When one thinks of Europe and football, one thinks of soccer, but Shrum said American football is alive and well in Europe.
"It's been a great experience. I had no clue that football even existed over there, even at this level. I think there's six or seven teams in the Czech Republic alone, and tons and tons more in Germany and Austria where it's really big, so it's been really exciting to see how our sport has become somewhat of a popular culture over there.
"We've got great fans and they get nice and loud and they follow us to pretty much every game we have. We've had a great following and they've got bigger and bigger the last few years. You know, the more you win, the more the people are going to come."
The Mountain Home graduate indicated he also helps coach a youth football team in Prague.
"I was the offensive coordinator for the junior team, which is the equivalent of a high school varsity team, kids between 15 and 18 years of age. They've also incorporated in the last couple years a flag football team for kids even younger than that, so they can get involved in learning and being a part of American football over there."