The heartbreaking story behind the two brothers playing in BUCS National Final six years apart

Photo: Bottom right image credit - Finetime Photography

The BUCS final will be a proud but poignant moment for Keith Schofield as a second son in six years will take to the field in Uniball’s showpiece event.

As a dad, and often as a coach, Keith has been beside his sons on every step they’ve taken in American football – from introducing eldest, James, to the game as a nine-year-old and this season cheering on youngest Dan, a 20-year-old fresher starting on the Nottingham University Gold defense.

Playing careers are time limited but for the Schofields there is an awareness of just how precious each passing season is, and win or lose, the value of memories formed as a family sharing a game they love.

“I was diagnosed with an incurable blood and bone cancer in 2022, I've had, and continue to have, a lot of chemotherapy and other cancer treatment,” said dad Keith explaining the importance of seeing his sons competing having stepped down from his own coaching commitments that finished with the under 19s regional side.

“By late 2024 it was getting difficult to stay healthy enough to coach properly so after a spell at Team North I retired. I want to focus on watching my two boys as much as possible for 2025, and for however long I can after that.”

The condition has given Keith a new perspective: “To be honest it's given me focus to make sure I fully appreciate the good things happening in my life.”

On Tuesday Keith is planning to travel with wife Sue, from the family home in Bolton, to Loughborough where they hope to see youngest Dan go one stage further than James had on the same field, during his final season with the University of Hertfordshire Hurricanes in 2019.

To do so Dan and the Nottingham Gold must overcome three times defending national champions the University of the West of England (UWE) Bullets in what will be their third meeting in the BUCS final in four years.

“We should all be attending the final - me, Sue, her sister Katherine, James,” said Keith: “I've not missed a game this season, even with my health being a bit up and down, and I certainly don't want to miss this one.”

Over the past decade the dad estimates he’s attended some 75 university games, having fitted them around his own coaching commitments with the Chorley Buccaneers, now the Lancashire Buccaneers, where he coached cadet, youth flag, u19s contact and Ladies.

Keith’s first involvement with Britball, sparked by Channel 4’s NFL coverage in the 1980s, was with the Bolton Buccaneers but he couldn't take the field in a competitive game as a semi-professional soccer contract prevented him from playing “dangerous sports”.

Spells with various clubs in the North-West continued until Keith and Sue started a family in the late 1990s. Keith retained his interest in the NFL and James was keen to play, and joined the Chorley Buccaneers, as a nine-year-old in 2007, after seeing his dad watching a game on a laptop. Dad was coaching two years later and five-year-old Dan joined the club in 2010.

“I only coached James for a year or two, he was mostly in different age groups than I was coaching but I had Daniel for a lot of his time at the Bucs, probably 13 of his 15 years there I was either his head coach or a coordinator,” said Keith.

Both brothers have earned representative honours. James faced the Mexican national team, in Mexico City, for the Europe Warriors in 2017 and Dan has played several games for Great Britain at u17 and u19s, captaining the team twice.

In Uniball James captained the Hurricanes in the 2019 final, finishing on the wrong end of a 57-13 scoreline to Leeds Beckett Carnegie. That was the last championship played on a Sunday before becoming the Tuesday night curtain raiser for the BUCS Big Wednesday when multiple university sports crown their champions.

Since then, the university game has evolved with UWE, which every season fields a team loaded with players with experience in America’s NCAA and European semi-pro leagues, having become its biggest beast. There is also a fierce rivalry with Nottingham who lost a nail-biter, 28-21, in the 2022 final and failed to match the West Country outfit’s high-powered offence in a 34-27 defeat the following year.

“What the Hurricanes achieved in 2019 was outstanding, they had a small roster, with no scholarship or international players, and they were perhaps the last team like that to make the main championship final,” said Keith of the team sports science student James started for from his first university game, in 2016. He would eventually play five seasons at the top of Uniball, completing a business and marketing master's at Birmingham University and playing for the Lions.

“The standard of football in the BUCS National League now is light years ahead of where it was back then. I've been at every Gold game this season and seen some outstanding football, rivalling anything I've seen in Britain over the past couple of decades.”

The National League launched this season to bring the top teams from north and south together in one conference and kicked off with Nottingham recording a statement 21-20 victory at UWE in October, though the Bullets won the reverse 28-20 in February.

“Dan made the Gold roster for game one, the amazing win down at UWE, and has stayed there all season, starting at either cornerback or safety since game three,” said Keith of his youngest who was a young teenage spectator when his brother was in the national final.

While criminology student Dan will be part of a collective effort seeking Nottingham’s first national championship, and a first for the family, Keith believes he will have his now 26-year-old brother’s backing.

“I don't sense any rivalry between them, they are happy for each other's success and supportive of each other,” said Keith: “Being separated in age by six or seven years takes that edge away. James played against both UWE and Nottingham Gold several times for both Hertfordshire and Birmingham, I've seen those teams progress over the last decade to the level they're at now.”

Keith, a BAFA Level Two coach who was also Chair of the Chorley Bucs from 2015 to 2020, is an admirer of the standards UWE have set for Uniball, and their impact on others including Nottingham who have Dartmouth College alum Dylan Cadwallader at QB. Over three seasons, from 2021 to 2023, Cadwallader completed 151 of 252 pass attempts with four touchdowns and five interceptions, for the Big Green.

“I know that UWE get criticism from some of the football community for how they put together their roster - who they recruit, the age group they recruit from, the places they recruit from - but what they have done is really force other teams to improve and get more professional in the way they practice and play,” is Keith’s assessment of the team standing between his son and a national championship.

“The BUCS league at the very top is stronger for their presence, the best young 'ballers have something to aim for, whilst there are still plenty of teams in other tiers for players who want to play football without sacrificing half their week for practice, gym and film study.

“Nottingham have seven American import players, all in their early 20s, and I've seen firsthand how they have helped and encouraged the young British players on the roster. They host extra film study sessions, extra practice and gym sessions, they have really helped bring a great culture to the group. This season, Gold have regularly started multiple British guys on offense and defense at 20 years old or younger. It's testament to the trust the coaching staff and the senior players have in these players of the future.”

After the whistle is blown on Tuesday night Dan will turn his attention to the senior contact season where he will play for Coventry Phoenix in the BAFA Premiership North alongside James who lives and works in Birmingham.

Whatever Tuesday and the summer season brings, there will be no greater reward than creating more cherished memories for a family steeped in British American football.