the spirit came about after gareth hawcroft who had run the admirals youth team since 2000 was asked by plymouth ymca if they would like to become one of the many varied sports clubs participating under the ymca banner.

this offer was accepted because both orginisations believe in promoting sport to everyone no matter what the ability.

so in january it was thought the old admirals youth needed a rebrand so with that the spirit where born with mark tanner being bought in to head up the spirits new senior section due to demand from many over 18s wanting to play american football and a large section of the youth team becoming aged over 18 and still wanting to play american football.

on saturday 13th march the spirit took to the field for their very first competitive games playing coventry jets and filton college bristol. even though the spirit lost the two games they walked away with the respect of both teams. the spirit lost 47-13 to coventry league finalists in 2009 and lost 36-30 to filton again one of the top teams in the uk in agame that went down to the wire.

there where many bright spots during the games as dan gilding scored the very first points in the spirits short history on a 60 yard interception return against coventry. gilding finished the day with 2 offensive touchdown and and a iinterception returned for a defensive touchdown. rookie star dan gardiner finished with 2 touchdowns and linemen adam barnard and joe bishop finished with 1 touchdown apiece and coach and qb mark tanner threw for 6 tds and 3 ints. more importantly every member of the team played their part in two very good games with some outstanding performances from all the team.

the spirit are open to all abilitys and experience and to male and female players aged from 7 to 60.