TOLEDO – Andrea Fimiani had a premonition about the final score heading into Italian Bowl XLIV Saturday afternoon at the University of Toledo’s Glass Bowl.
“I predicted a 40-20 game,” said Fimiani, the star quarterback for Firenze Guelfi. “I knew we were going to score 40.”
And they did, thanks to Fimiani, who threw four touchdown passes and ran for three scores in Guelfi’s 49-14 victory over the Ancona Dolphins in 87 degree weather.
Fimiani, who was the quarterback when Firenze (Florence) lost the Italian Bowl XLII championship game to the Parma Panthers at the Glass Bowl in 2023, earned game MVP honors. He was also the MVP of the 12-team Italian Football League this season.
“This means everything,” Fimiani said. “We wanted this so bad. We had a chance to redeem ourselves, and the score says it all.”
Both teams have head coaches from the U.S. – Rik Parker for Ancona and Byron McAdams for Firenze. The IFL has a 10-game regular season followed by playoff wild card games, championship semifinals and a title game.
The age range for the players is 16-48, and each team is allowed two American players or two foreign players, and one player with dual citizenship.
The IFL uses NCAA football rules, the only difference being 12-minute quarters instead of 15-minute quarters. Americans are the only players to get paid by the teams. In fact, most of the Italian players love football so much they actually pay the teams to play for them, according to Massimo Foglio, 61, who has been the IFL statistician since 1983.
“I was a football player beginning in 1980,” said Foglio, who lives in Turin, Italy. “I played a few years and injured my elbow. I was 100 pounds, very small. That injury changed my mind (about playing). They asked me if I wanted to be a statistician and I said, why not?”
Foglio said most IFL games, played on Saturdays and Sundays, attract around 300 fans.
Toledo bound
Ancona, an Italian town located on the Adriatic Sea, and rival Firenze players arrived in Toledo on Tuesday. They kept busy. Both teams toured the Big House at the University of Michigan; held a youth camp; and Fimiani and Ancona quarterback Blake Eaton, an American, threw out the first pitch at Mud Hens games on Thursday and Friday.
Firenze, the only IFL team to go undefeated this season, finished 12-0. Ancona, which did not play Guelfi during the regular season but had the top-ranked defense in the league, finished 10-2.
“This season was not a surprise for me,” said Parker, a native of Neenah, Wis., who has been with the Dolphins for six years, one as the head coach. “We had the talent. It was about getting the right quarterback and we did.”
Parker, the IFL Coach of the Year, said the Dolphins practiced three times a week this season.
“We’ve got guys who live three to four hours away and they would make every practice,” said Parker, adding he knew beating Firenze “wasn’t going to be easy.
“Our expectations were we could keep the game close and maybe win at the end,” he said. “Two turnovers killed us, and it was hot and our defense was getting gassed. But, they never quit.”
Reaching the Italian Bowl was especially sweet for the Dolphins’ veteran players and coaches. They had lost their previous four IFL championship games before breaking through this season.
“They are our Buffalo Bills,” Foglio said, referring to Buffalo’s four Super Bowl losses from 1991-94.
The players
Many of the players have unique situations. For instance, Fimiani, 28, works as a banker in Milan and drives 3.5 hours to Florence to practice every Wednesday.
After standout Guelfi defensive end Andrea Poglietelli, 25, plays in the games, he quickly showers and goes right to work as a waiter.
American Colin Schooler, 26, who has played linebacker, fullback and slot receiver for Firenze, led the IFL in tackles this season. A native of California, he began his college career at the University of Arizona but transferred to Texas Tech during Covid and became an all-league performer before playing for the Arlington (Texas) Renegades of the United Football League.
Schooler’s brother, Brenden, a safety, has been playing for the New England Patriots for three seasons.
Playing football in Italy, Colin said, “is different.
“I’ve had much more of a player/coach role, sharing my knowledge,” he said. “These guys play for the love of football, which is not promoted as much as soccer in Italy. They love this game. To see us improve from our first practice to this game, I’m proud of them. We lost a lot of players from last year, and to have a perfect season … It’s a proud feeling.”
Big fans
Dominic Garcia and his wife, Arrica, both from Toledo, watched the game from The Clubhouse, located on the first level of UT’s press box. Dominic was proudly wearing an Ohio State ball cap and he, like everyone else in attendance, was impressed with Fimiani’s brilliance directing Guelfi’s offense.
“This quarterback is doing all these numbers (passing, running),” he said during halftime. “What if people in the United States notice him? Imagine putting on this kind of performance where they have to notice.”
Garcia said he only heard about Saturday’s Italian Bowl XLIV last week.
“Five minutes later, I was buying tickets,” he said. “If we don’t support stuff like this, we might get overlooked next time. I would like to see Toledo standing up more for Toledo.”
Garcia, who said he attends a couple of Ohio State football games and one NFL game every year, admitted he was technically rooting for Firenze Guelfi, a team that made traveling 4,500 miles from Florence to Toledo pay off with its first Italian Bowl title since 2022.
“I have friends in Miami who are Italian and I said, ‘which team should I root for?’ ” Garcia said. “They said, ‘not the Dolphins.’ My friends are from New York and they’re Giants fans, and so am I. I love football.”
