GRIMM INTERVIEW - PART 1

Maci Gian

The other night I had the privilege of interviewing Senka, a resident of Feratuvia and a fan of their home team, Grimm F.C. This has been planned for some time now, and to finally meet someone as knowledgable as her has been an absolute delight. Any photos and/or clips you see in this article have been provided by Senka. We tried our best to scan and enhance them, but there was only so much we could do without the risk of damaging anything. Thank you for your understanding and please enjoy!

So! I wanted to thank you so much again for agreeing to this interview. We’ll get right into it with the first question: How long have you been a fan of Grimm?

Oh, since the beginning! I’ve lived in Feratuvia my entire life, and I’ve been a Super League fan for as long as I can remember, so when a football team started forming here? We were over the moon! The girls ’n I attended just about every game we could!

Do you remember what it was like when they started out?

They got a lot of attention really fast, even though they were in the little leagues. It was exciting, because here, Feratuvia, we’re mostly known as ‘the scary place’, and that’s fine! Really, I love that we’re the ‘scary place’, but a lotta outsiders think there’s hardly any people living here, and whoever is living here is supposedly cooped up in some old, rickety house in the middle of the woods, but there’s a lot to love about this place. It’s history, the castles, the ’haunted’ monuments, our festivals, the crows, and we love anything that’s different, no matter how ’scary’ it is, so when Grimm happened? It was like watching the true embodiment of Feratuvia come to life.

Grimm wore all black, they had a cross bone sorta pattern on their jerseys, they had messy hair, wonderful make up and markings, they’d chop themselves up and throw each other around just for the heck of it, they were freaks, and that was the best thing to us. They didn’t try to look nice, they didn’t try to dress like the other players, they didn’t even act like regular players to other players. The amount of times Dray would hiss at the opposition, oh! Oh, he was such a riot.

When everyone saw how lively and weird they were, the Cauldron got filled instantly. I remember sleeping outside the stadium’s doors with my friends so we could be the first ones to get tickets.

How were they when they were still active? They were close to joining the Super League, weren’t they?

They were good, real good, especially Spike. He’s what actually got them close to joining the Super League! And you know what, I think that drove some figures in the League crazy, not just Spike, but Grimm’s entire existence.

I remember Coach Belmont trying multiple times to get into the Super League, we’d see it in the paper every now and then, where they’d be going up against tougher and tougher teams—and they’d invite people from the League to watch—and they’d win… And I think they didn’t want Grimm to win. It’s—well, it’s kind of hard to explain, you really had to have been there watching it all unfold, but there was this air of ‘You can’t do this’ to the Super League figures whenever they watched the games, or more like: ‘You shouldn’t be ABLE to do this.’

Feratuvia was for the outcasts, it’s that scary place in the distance where the strange folks hide, so when Belmont and his players went out there and showed what they could do—what Feratuvia could do—I think it scared the League. They watched a bunch of freaks play football and play it good, Spike and his friends were basically saying: ‘We’re here, we can do what you do, and we’ll do it being just the way we are.’

And what do you do when you see something you’re afraid of? You avoid it.

That’s what the League tried to do. Belmont would invite them over constantly, but they only attended a couple of games. Any other time they got ‘held back’ by ’random’ severe weather, or suddenly got ’preoccupied’ by another game, and when they did arrive? Oh, did they have a lotta nits to pick.

Bunch’a little excuses as to why Grimm ‘wasn’t fit’ for the League, and I know a lot of other fans out there—not Grimm’s, but fans of other teams—they didn’t like how Grimm looked. ‘Too scary’, ‘Think about the kids’, and my favorite: ‘Nobody likes a team in dark colors.’ Ha! As if Invincible United isn’t right there! Belmont didn’t care though, he really wanted to show his players’ skills to the world, they all wanted to express themselves, they wanted to represent Feratuvia, and Feratuvia had their backs.

The Super League didn’t want to look at them, but Grimm took every chance to stand in front of them, and the League? The League didn’t like that.

The community was so important back then. Still is! Even if they didn’t end up getting into the Super League, the way Belmont brought so many people together was amazing. You know what, I hope the Super League’s still scared of us. I hope anytime they glance at us on the map, they shiver.

Could you tell me a bit about the former members? Spike Dawson, their coach, your favorites?

You already heard me ramble bout Coach Belmont, he was fantastic, my friends and I were obsessed with him—same with Spike Dawson and Dom Né Baal! They’d host fan meet-ups outside of the Cauldron, and show up to a lotta other events that were happening in the area. They were so much fun to talk to, they’d show off ’n play with some of the fans, oooh, I’m gettin’ all giddy just thinking about it!

Spike and Dom would always try to one up each other, they’d rough house, and then they’d get Hadi roped in even when he complained, and—and it was so great. We went to so many games that Belmont actually remembered our faces! One time—oh, oh—one time, I got sick and couldn’t make it to a game, and apparently he noticed I was missing in my group and asked where I was, how sweet is that?!

During games, though, they were such beasts. Spike ’Awesome’ Dawson, he had such powerful strikes, and man was he fast. Edwin had the skill, El Arriette had the guts, but Spike, he combined those two and added his speed to the mixture. He was unstoppable. He was so fierce, we absolutely loved him, hehe!

Dom, he was a fantastic defender, and took hits like a champ. If someone rammed into him, he’d take it, and then he’d ram back into them even harder. You should’ve seen the ways he’d plow through oppositions, just a full on charge straight through the field knocking down anyone who was in his way.

Hadi Less, he was was much more quiet compared to the rest of the team, but you could see him hanging around the two often—not sure if it’s because he actually enjoyed being by them or if he wanted to make sure they wouldn’t get into trouble, but he was always close by. He was a midfielder, very serious, kept to himself a lot, one of my friends was obsessed with him, she’s a sucker for the whole ‘dark, brooding, mysterious’ type. Even during interviews he didn’t say much.

And, oh, a couple others I liked were Dray Gahn and Nessie Lock, they were alllwwwaayyys together. Nessie was another defender, Dray was a striker, and even if they were on polar opposite sides of the field, if Grimm won a match they would beeline to each other to celebrate. They did just bout everything together, both on and off the field. They even got their tongues split together.

Woah, they split their tongues? That sounds painful!

Yeah, but it looked cool! Looked like a snake’s tongue! They showed it off during an interview, stuck their tongues out at the same time and made some faces, and Belmont seemed fine with it! I think he just liked showing off his boys, he definitely showed off Spike whenever he could.

So Spike Dawson really was as ’Awesome’ as the nickname implied.

Absolutely. Fast, strategic, demanding, and that attitude of his, oh, I love a nasty player. Nothing was better than watching him trash talk another guy all while destroying them on the field, made the game more exciting! The thing was—if you saw him for the first time, you’d think he’s all talk, that he was playing a character, but no. No, no, no, he gotta kick outta pushing buttons, he hyped himself up constantly, and he had the skills to back the attitude, especially when it came to goal keepers.

He had this strategy, something that looked real stupid at first, but made sense real fast once you noticed it, but at the beginning of every game, he’d immediately sprint to the other team’s goal. He’d be running across the field, sharing kicks between Dray and Hadi, and he’d kick the ball as hard as he could into the goal—and the goalie would always stop him. They’d catch the ball, deflect it, knock it away, you get it, and then he’d do this again a few more times, and they’d keep stopping the ball, but after those first few attempts? It’s like something ’clicked’ inside of him, like he saw enough of the goalie to know what to expect, and suddenly he was able to get the ball into the net every time.

It was crazy!

So much of what he did was a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’, and I’m tellin’ you, if they had gotten into the Super League, I bet his speed would’ve rivaled Liquido’s and Twisting Tiger’s!

And man, if only you had seen the Dawn of Dawson craze back when Grimm was at it’s peak, fans would start screaming the second he was on the field, I know I fainted once when he waved at me. There were posters and signs of him that people would collect, but because we didn’t have a lot of official merch, we’d end up making our own trading cards, keychains, shirts, one of my friends made a plush of him, it was the best!

Sorry, off topic for a moment, but who’s the player behind Spike in that photo? Do you happen to remember them?

Ah, hm… No, no I’m so sorry, dearie, I don’t. They might’ve been a sub.

Going back to Spike Dawson, how did you react when the incident with Big Bo happened? How did all the fans react?

It was a shock, but when we watched it happen, we thought he was going to be okay. He was able to hoist himself up to get onto the stretcher, he was trash talking Big Bo, it actually got so bad that they had to cut the cameras, haha, but then we were told the injury was so bad that he couldn’t play ever again.

And we were thinking… ’What do you mean?’

What do you mean Spike couldn’t play anymore? That was Spike Dawson, that was the striker the Super League needed to see, that was Feratuvia.

It wasn’t like—it wasn’t like the other players weren’t skilled or amazing, they were, but Spike had that energy, he had the eyes on him, he was the guy that’d keep shooting his shot over and over again until he finally got the goal. What do you mean he ‘Can’t play anymore’?

A lot of us were hoping he’d recover, that he’d surprise us by being back on his feet, but that didn’t happen.

And did Coach Belmont make any announcements after the incident?

He was the one to actually announce that Spike wouldn’t play again. He looked devastated, and so did his teammates, but you know what made the whole thing worse? Super League figures were there, that included some of the agents. I dunno if Belmont was alright with that, if they just wanted to show up for support, or if they had to discuss something afterwards, but all I could think about was how mad I was.

They had all this time to show up before, but they waited until now. Part of me thinks they knew how much their reputation sucked in Feratuvia, and they wanted to try and make themselves look better by attending.

It was like, “Why now?”

Why’d you wait till now? Why are you acting like you care about Grimm all of the sudden?

It was such a feeling of “Too little, too late”, both for their ’support’, and for Grimm.

I think they still would’ve had the chance to make it into the League without Spike, but Belmont said that they were putting all of their focus into supporting him and helping him recover, so they were cancelling all future games and… And that was it.

How’s it been since your favorite team’s been inactive? Do you think Grimm will ever play again?

A part of me hopes so, I think a lotta people in Feratuvia do.

It’s really strange, one moment they were everywhere. You’d see papers about them hung up on every wall of every building you went into, people holding onto the few pieces of official merch they had, promotional posters for upcoming games were on every lamppost, they were starting to get attention from outside the country, and then they were just… Gone.

Everything was gone.

Nobody thought about saving anything, we didn’t think we had to, we just thought they’d be here forever and everything about them would stay with us, but it didn’t.

It’s like their entire existence got scrubbed off the face of the earth. I’m thankful my past self actually took a couple of photos and clips, but if I had known they would’ve disappeared? I would’ve taken a hundred more.

I know some other fans have bits and pieces of Grimm’s history as well, but it’s still so scarce, and whenever you pass by the Cauldron? It really does feel abandoned and haunted.

Do you hold any resentment towards Big Bo ever since the incident?

Oh, there’s a good handful of fans that hate him, and they hate Supa Strikas too, but honestly, he’s just a name mentioned in Spike Dawson’s story to me. Even now, even when he’s in some big Super League team, I can’t bring myself to hate the guy, I just feel… Neutral, I guess? Ha!

I’ve never been a fan of Supa Strikas, they’re too, ah, what’s a good word? ’Clean’? They play it too safe, they look too normal, where’s the excitement? Where’s the danger?!

I don’t keep tabs on them, but I’ll know when Big Bo’s done something risky when I hear other people mention him around town. Usually criticism over whatever stunt he’s pulled, how he’ll create another ‘Spike Dawson incident’ by being so reckless, how the Super League should suspend him until he ‘knocks it off’, it’s a little fun to listen to the gossip from time to time, I won’t lie.

Do you know if any of the Grimm players are still active? Or what they’re doing now?

Dom’s a wrestler, and a great one at that! He’s still got that Feratuvia spirit and he always gets excited when he sees fans watching his matches. Real sweetie. Hadi works for Refab, last I heard. Dray and Nessie, I’m not too sure, but I hope whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it together.

This was a nice question, I really liked this one. Thank you.

Refab? The massage place? Huh, who would’ve thought!

Ah, as long as he’s happy, that’s what matters.

Before we wrap up this interview, is there anything else you’d like to share? Thoughts, feelings, how you feel about the current state of Grimm’s community, anything, really!

Oooh, well, I hope the Grimm spirit is still out there! Even though there’s so little that remains of the team, I hope there’s just enough of it for people to discover and get excited over. And if you’re ever in the area, really, don’t be afraid to talk to us, we love seeing new faces, and there’s a lotta great stories here we like to share.

And, ah, I’ve talked a lot about how Grimm kept getting shot down from ever getting into the Super League even though they tried so hard, and I feel that’s a bit discouraging, but I really mean it when I say: Keep going. Even if it feels like everything’s going against you, and you’re struggling to get to where you want to be, you keep going. Promise you, there’s great people you’ll meet along the way who’ll love what you are and what you’re doing. It might take a while to get to your goal, but it’s worth it. My love for Grimm is what brought me closer to my friends, my community, and those connections haven’t wavered one bit despite everything!