John Watts

John grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, a Sturt supporter in the SANFL and Adelaide Crows fan after their creation in the early 1990s. While he played some Aussie rules in primary school, he focused on soccer during high school. For the next decade his Army reserve commitments limited opportunitites for organized sport, and moving to Darwin and Canberra limited his ability to follow the AFL closely.

When he moved to Washington D.C. in 2011 for work, he got involved with the then Baltimore-Washington Eagles. He played with them sporadically throughout the 2010s - seeing them fall from Div 2 to Div 4 and split into two teams - until successive injuries and changed priorities saw him give it up. Over this time, improved international sports streaming and social media made it easier than ever to stay engaged in AFL in Australia - providing a bridge to home.

In 2019 John and his daughter Zoe became involved with the Washington Junior Australian Football Club (WJAFC) - the Eagles affiliated, and longest running youth footy "AusKick-style" group in the US. WJAFC runs an annual 'Saturday Morning Footy' program consisting of 4x 1.5 hour Saturday morning sessions across the Summer.

2019 proved to be one of the clubs most attended programs in the clubs 5-year history. In early 2020, John and Chris Adams - the founder and champion of the WJAFC - joined members from the Washington Eagles, Baltimore Dockers and Richmond Lions in becoming foundational coaches. Weeks later, the pandemic hit US shores, eliminating the possibility of a 2020 program. John and the WJAFC team created stay-at-home Auskick style videos to try to keep people engaged in footy and fit during the lockdown. In 2021, WJAFC cautiously returned to an in-person program and had attendance close to that of 2019.

In 2022, Chris, John and long-time WJAFC supporters including Seth Sternberger and Steve Carty will be looking to grow the program and profile of Aussie Footy in the capital even further.