Coventry Jets

The Coventry Jets are an American football team based in Coventry, England, and were the 2008 National Champions. They currently play in the BAFA Community Leagues Premiership and are based at Coventry Sphinx Sports & Social Club, Coventry. The Jets have been one of the most successful teams in the UK during their short history, having competed in six bowl games and four national championships over eleven years. They currently offer teams at all levels of American football in the UK - senior, university, junior, youth and flag football.

The Jets reached four consecutive BAFL Britbowl finals from 2007 to 2010, winning the trophy in 2008 and also winning the BAFL Premier Division championship that year to secure 'the double'.

History

Coventry and American football

The first American Football club in Coventry was formed as the Warwickshire Bears in February 1984 by two local men with a lot of assistance from the head coach of the United States air base team at Chicksands. The Bears played their first season in the American Football League's Midland Division, which was arguably the toughest division in the Country. That year the Bears only posted one regular season victory, however, friendly games proved more productive, with the best result coming when they travelled to London to take on the unbeaten and eventual Summer Bowl finalists, Streatham Olympians. The Bears ran out easy winners with a 26:0 scoreline.

Coventry

Coventry (ⁱ/ˈkɒvəntri/) is a city and metropolitan borough in the centre of England. It was the capital of England more than once in the 15th century when the seat of Government was held in Coventry. Coventry's heritage includes the Roman Fort at Baginton, Lady Godiva, St Mary's Guildhall (where kings and queens were entertained) and three cathedrals.

Coventry is located in the county of West Midlands but is historically part of Warwickshire. Coventry is the 10th largest city in England and the 13th largest UK city overall. It is also the second largest city in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham, with a population of 337,400 in 2014.

Coventry is situated 95 miles (153 km) northwest of central London, 19 miles (31 km) east-south-east of Birmingham, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Leicester and 11 miles (18 km) north of Warwick. Although harbouring a population of more than a third-of-a-million inhabitants, Coventry is not amongst the English Core Cities Group due to its proximity to Birmingham. Approximately half a million people live within 10 miles (16 km) of Coventry city centre.

Coventry, Vermont

Coventry /ˈkɒvəntri/ is a town in Orleans County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,086 at the 2010 census.

Local government

A waste system company paid the town about $800,000 in "tipping fees" in 2009. This allows the town property tax rate to be zero. However, the town still pays school taxes.

Town

School District

History

Etymology

Town was named for the birthplace of one of the founders, Major Elias Buel, who was born in Coventry, Connecticut.

Post bellum

A record exists from 1860, showing that the "Artillery Company" of the 3rd Regiment mustered for annual drill on June 5. An inventory shows they possessed one six pound brass cannon.

In 1861, the 3rd Vermont Infantry, Company B, was recruited in part from Coventry.

Coventry Festival

In 2004, what was billed as the final concert of the band Phish was held in Coventry on August 14–15. The concert was the single largest gathering of people in the town's history. Some fans had to be turned back due to heavy rains. Even so, with 65,000 attendees Coventry's augmented population was the largest in the state at that time, outranking Burlington, Vermont, which had around 39,000 people in the 2000 census.

Coventry (comics)

Coventry is an unfinished Fantagraphics comic book series by Bill Willingham. Coventry is a fictitious state in an alternate history version of the United States of America in which magical and legendary powers, creatures, villains and heroes are real and a part of everyday life. Coventry ran for only 3 issues, from November 1996 to July 1997. Two short novels set in the same universe, detailing the exploits of the legendary hero Beowulf, were written by Willingham and published by Clockwork Storybook in 2002.

The Coventry comics and the following novels have been praised by critics as "a delicious blend of horror, offbeat humor, great characters and cat-and-mouse plotting" and "sharp, stark and needle-point powerful".

Coventry may have served as a prototype for Willingham's later series, Fables (published by DC Comics, under the Vertigo imprint), which deals with various characters from fairy tales and folklore who have been forced out of their Homelands by a mysterious enemy known as the Adversary.