This is part two of the six part series on the USAFL Season Preview as we preview the Southeast Division.

Southeast Region

The southeast regional has the most dynamic teams in the nation as three of the top ten teams in the nation Nashville (#5), North Carolina (#9) and Fort Lauderdale (#10) are in this region. This is a potent region and will have a big say in the Divisional makeup on the road to Columbus.

This week we run a special 6 part series as Alex Benjamin looks across the whole of the US and back at their 2013 season and gives his predictions on the 2014 season.   Looking at each team you will see a summary with their final 2013 record, points and where they finished in the unofficial standings last year, Alex then gives his prediction where he thinks teams will be ranked ahead of the 2014 Nationals based on how he thinks they might perform this year.  The summary for each team begins as follows:-

Team (Win-Loss record 2013, Points for 2013 based on wins, Finish Rank: Where the team finished 2013 on Alex's USAFL Weekly Report unofficial ladder)

Over to you Alex...

The third official AFL USA combine will be held from 25-27th April this year. As with previous years there is expected to be college athletes (and recently graduated) from baskeball, gridiron and soccer put through their paces in LA.

The American athletes are available for clubs to sign up on an international scholarship or rookie deal immediately at the Combine or wait until the athlete goes through the Australian combine if they like what they see in April.  International recruiting is first in best dressed without having to face being gazumped in the Draft.

 Former Seattle University basketballer Eric Wallace was the ultimate success story of the first year's combine being awarded an International rookie spot with North Melbourne in 2012. Wallace features in this year's slightly updated recruitment video on Youtube that can be seen below.  Last year the success stories were Patrick Mitchell and Jason Holmes  (who feature briefly in this year's video below) who were given International Rookie spots by Sydney and St Kilda respectively.

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Some of us, like me, are frustrated that we cannot do enough for the development of Australian Football. Well, here's the chance to do something incredibly simple.
 

We were all excited by the Renee Tong story where she (eventually) won $10,000 to enable her to contest the 2014 AFL International Cup to be played this August in Melbourne. 

Now, we have Aussie X with a chance to win $50,000 to run their sports programs in Southern Toronto. Aussie X came to prominence when they won backing in the TV program "The Dragon's Den".

Since then they have brought Australian Rules Football, cricket and netball to Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and London. Aussie X were instrumental in establishing junior footy in Toronto. Now they have a chance to do the same in Southern Toronto. There is more information at this link.  All you have to do is "Like" their video.

 
 

The USAFL will bring a second women's team with them when they head to Australia for the International Cup in August.  The team to be known as "The USA Liberty" which is a development team made up of players who missed out of a place in the Freedom squad. 

The Liberty will play against local metropolitan and regional Victorian women’s teams to gain valuable experience and game time.  It is expected their games will be played during the International Cup but on non-IC14 match days and they will share the same staff as the Freedom.

On Presidents Day weekend here in the USA (17 February), I had the distinct opportunity to interview the first American female President of an USAFL club, the Boston Demons Andrea “Andi” Williams.  In the following interview, we discuss the road to becoming an trailblazer and pioneer, what drives her and talk about the US Revolution and Freedom teams as well as the 2014 season for the Demons.

Alex Benjamin: First of all, congratulations. Accordingly to my good friend and historian, Lisa Albergo, this is not only you being the first female president of a USAFL Eastern Regional team, but the first American female in USAFL history.

Andrea Williams:  Thank you very much. I am honored to have been elected to this position and excited to lead the Demons this season.

We welcome Alex as our first dedicated US reporter for some years to WFN.   Alex is a long time servant of the Nashville Kangaroos and in 2014 begins his 10th season as goal umpire including numerous matches officiating at the US National Championships.  2014 is also his 6th season as host of "USAFL Weekly" live webcast which can be seen on Ustream and the 5th season of his footy blog . 

Recently a number of the USAFL teams gathered for the traditional Australia Day Weekend to celebrate with our Aussie mates.  While some teams gathered at several local establishments for purely social events (the New York Magpies, Boston Demons and Tulsa Buffaloes, among others), other teams took to the streets and the fields for fun. 

Four of the teams, the Fort Lauderdale Fighting Squids, the Sacramento Suns, Golden Gate Roos and Nashville Kangaroos went for their first games of the year in Metro competition and in the case of the Sacramento Suns and Golden Gate Roos, it was history in the making as well.  

St Kilda flies home from Colorado today after an extensive two-week high altitude training camp in Boulder.

The Saints trained at University of Colorado’s elite training facilities, while also embarking on several demanding hikes throughout the scenic yet challenging Colorado mountains.

St Kilda high performance manager Adam Basil set the squad a number of difficult challenges that they relished and completed despite being subjected to weather as cold as -20 degrees celcius.

Stateside Footy presents coverage of the USAFL women's footy with Minnesota vs Boston and then Minnesota vs New York . These games took place at Rogers Field on the site of the former Fort Devens in Harvard, MA in July this year.

Stateside Footy is a cable access TV show produced with the assistance of WCTV - Wilmington Community Television in Wilmington, MA. It features Aussie Rules Football as it is played in the U.S.A.

Stateside Footy's Bill Robert is well known as a big Geelong fan. Possibly lesser known is the mayor of Beverley Hills - John Mirisch. You can read the article on John on the AFL website here.

Alex Starling was awarded an international scholarship with the Sydney Swans after the first unofficial US Combine in 2011. He was to continue his studies and basketball at a US college and return to the Swans at the end of 2012.  He also played a handful of games with the Florida Redbacks in the USAFL.

Unfortunately though injury meant he was unable to come to Sydney to fulfil his AFL destiny with the Swans. Starling left the radar, and the Sydney Swans did not respond to questions as to whether there was any chance he would get another chance with them after saying they would not list him as an International rookie at the end of 2012.

But he has now popped up in yesterday's Leader community paper having signed with AFL club Frankston.  Coach Simon Goosey has been in contact with Paul Roos who first found Starling at the US combine and set him up with the Swans and told Goosey that Starling was "one of the best athletes he's ever seen" .