Istanbul Cavaliers


Istanbul Cavaliers is one of the strongest American football teams in Turkey. The team is a semi-pro club team attending national league, the American Football First league of Turkey. It was founded in 2005. The team's head coach is John Douglas Harper. Its colors are navy and white. The team practices at sport fields of Maltepe and Fikirtepe, Göztepe on the Asian part of Istanbul. The club has three teams, A-team, B-team and U19 team.
In the 2005-06 season, the team finished the league 5th. In the 2006-07 season, the team achieved playoffs by finishing second place in regular season in Istanbul Conference before it was eliminated by Ege Dolphins by 20-14 in İzmir in May 2007. In the 2007-08 season, Cavaliers were eliminated in regular season competition, and the team did not make it into the playoffs. In the 2008-09 season, Cavaliers had a 7-2 run, and qualified for the playoffs. The team played 2008-09 season's final game but lost to Boğaziçi Sultans 22-20, and became the runner-up. In the 2009-10 season, the team won the championship title after a very exciting bowl game against Ankara team Gazi Warriors with the score of 18-13. The team finished regular season at the top spot with a 7-1 score.
In 2008, the Cavaliers won against the Bulgarian Team Sofia 28-0 in a friendly match in Sofia after its win by 22-16 in Istanbul.