Hart High School football alumnus Thomas Bambrick isn’t ready to hang up his cleats quite yet.  After spending a few years away from the gridiron following a spell at Cal Lutheran, Bambrick has signed with Stockholm Allmanna Idrottsklubben in Sweden, more commonly referred to as AIK.  “I ’m super hyped. It’s such a cool opportunity,” Bambrick said in a recent phone interview. “I kind of told myself when I was coming out of retirement, like, ‘Oh, I’ll take any opportunity I can get.’ I mean, there’s teams wherever. I’m like, ‘I’ll play whatever, play wherever.’ It’s super cool and I’m really hyped to, you know, bring my experience to the game.”  A defensive lineman throughout his career at Hart, Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, and Cal Lutheran, Bambrick decided to quit football following the 2020 season due to some injury issues. But shortly after, he picked up rugby and started playing for the club team at Cal Lutheran.  That led to Bambrick wanting to get back to American football, but eligibility issues didn’t allow him to play at the college level. He had a few friends who played with him at Simon Fraser who were playing in Europe, and they told him that he could reach out to teams and see if they are interested.  That’s how AIK found out about Bambrick. The team offered him an apartment and a side job coaching youth teams when he isn’t playing so that he can impart some of his wisdom having grown up playing the game in America.  “Obviously, they can watch the NFL games and kind of get the gist, but technique and the footwork and drills, stuff like that is the kind of stuff that they really appreciate having Americans around for,” Bambrick said.  Hart High School football alumnus Thomas Bambrick (99) leads the Cal Lutheran football team out before a game. Photo courtesy of Thomas Bambrick. Playing his last full season in 2019 at Cal Lutheran, Bambrick played 10 games and racked up 28 tackles, half a sack and 5.5 tackles for loss.  Now, he’ll be playing with guys from all over the world.  “We have guys from all over the place: Sweden, Norway, Denmark,” Bambrick said. “They have guys from Canada. They have guys from England, Australia. It’s such a cool little group of people.”  Most of the teams Bambrick will be playing against in the Superserien are in Sweden, though one is in Oslo, Norway, and one is in Copenhagen, Denmark. Last season, AIK went 1-6 in its first season in the Superserien.  This year’s campaign is set to begin later this month, though Bambrick won’t be heading out to Stockholm until after the school year ends so that he can finish up his student teaching job at Hart High.  As soon as he is done on May 5, Bambrick is set to fly out to Europe just a couple of days after his last day of teaching.  And he said he can’t wait to finish his career on his terms.  “I didn’t end my football career how I liked it,” Bambrick said. “And I think with this, I can kind of fully close the door, like, ‘Alright, I finished it on my terms. Now, I can teach and coach and do whatever and be happy with it.’”  But while he’s thinking it’s just one last hurrah at this point, Bambrick isn’t closing the door on possibly getting back to it next season if things go well.  “For now, I think this is going to be pretty much the hurrah,” Bambrick said. “We’ll see how it goes. I mean, you never know.”  After that, teaching history and possibly coaching — Bambrick helped out at fellow Hart alumnus Trenton Irwin’s camp in March, which he said he enjoyed doing — are in his plans.  “I love teaching. Hart’s great. It’s definitely something I’m looking forward to doing for the next 80 years,” Bambrick joked. “But yeah, thought I’d do a little balling before I get out.”  The post The last hurrah: Hart High football alum signs to play in Sweden  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal. ...read more read less