Kuopio Steelers (formerly known as Varkaus Steelers) are an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team originally from

Varkaus Varkaus (before year 1929 ''Warkaus'') is a Middle- Savonian industrial town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Northern Savonia region, between city of Kuopio and town of Savonlinna. T ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in years 1991-2005,Kuopio Steelers - Jenkkifutis
(in Finnish)Steelers ja poika saunoo nyt! – Vaahteramaljan mestarin syntyjuuret Varkaudesta
/ref> and since 2006 from

Kuopio Kuopio (, ) is a Finnish city and municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia. It has a population of , which makes it the most populous municipality in Finland. Along with Joensuu, Kuopio is one of the major urban, economic, and cult ...

, Finland. The team plays in the

Finnish Maple League The Vaahteraliiga (Maple League) founded in 1980 is the highest level of American football in Finland played under American Football Association of Finland. The winner of the Vaahteraliiga is the Finnish champion. The Vaahteraliiga season is playe ...

and it has also played in the

European Football League The European Football League (EFL) established in 1986, was a tournament for the best European American football teams affiliated to IFAF (International Federation of American Football - Europe), which replaced the European Federation of American ...

. The club's home field is Väinölänniemi Stadium in the

Väinölänniemi Väinölänniemi is a district in the city of Kuopio, Finland. It is more commonly known for the Väinölänniemi Peninsula (nicknamed Vänäri), located in this district and surrounded by Kallavesi, with its beaches, sports fields and park areas ...

district.

The Steelers play in the Men’s Maple League as well as various junior leagues in B- (under 19), C- (under 17), D- (under 15) and E-juniors (under 13). In the summer of 2013, the Steelers formed the women’s American football team that participated in the women’s Division I in the 2014 season. In the 2018 season, the team won their own block in Division I and promoted to the Women’s Maple League. The Steelers have won three Finnish championships in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

YLE: Steelersille toinen mestaruus putkeen – "Lahden stadion on toinen kotikenttämme"
(in Finnish) and

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Team Roster (2019)

Staff

* Pekka Utriainen (head coach) * Ari Hartikainen (assistant coach) * Sami Hovinen (assistant coach) * Marco Lindroos (assistant coach) *

Petri Pellinen Petri is a surname derived from Latin Petrus, and may refer to: Surname * Adam Petri, Renaissance printer who founded a Basel publishing house * Alexandra Petri, humor columnist for ''The Washington Post'', daughter of Tom * Carl Adam Petri, ...

(assistant coach) * Erkka Vehkomäki (assistant coach)

QB

* # Seth Peters

RB & FB

* # Gerard Johnson * # Ville Lindsten * # Perttu Pajunen * # Samppa Sinkkonen

WR

* #

Johannes Jauhiainen Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...

* # Kaapro Keränen * # Waltteri Kinnunen * #

Tino Ndongo Tino is an Italian name or nickname, often a diminutive of the names Agostino, Costantino, Martino, Antonino, Valentino, Giustino, Sabatino, Faustino, and other names ending in -tino. Tino may refer to: People Given name * Tino Ausenda (191 ...

* #

Jaakko Paananen Jaakko is a Finnish male first name, etymologically rooted in the Biblical names Jacob or James. The name day of Jaakko in the Finnish calendar is July 25. Jaakko may refer to: *Kings who are in English named ''James'' are in Finnish named ''Jaak ...

* #

Ville Simola ''Ville'' or "town", but its meaning in the Middle Ages was "farm" (from Gallo-Romance VILLA < Latin ''

villa rustica

'') and ...

* #

Petteri Vilpponen Petteri is a Finnish masculine given name, meaning Peter. People with this name include: * Petteri Forsell (born 1990), Finnish footballer * Petteri Iivonen (born 1987), Finnish violinist * Petteri Koponen (born 1988), Finnish professional basket ...

* #

Juho Väisänen The Juho was a German automobile manufactured only in 1922; the small 400 cc two-stroke was the unsuccessful product of a motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle S ...