The Three-peat

Newly elected chairman Asy Ho was influential in bringing Beau Riffenburgh to the club in 1997. The former Cambridge Pythons and GB Bulldogs head coach attracted Jim Messenger as defensive coordinator, Surjinder Johal to coach the running backs and Phil King the offensive line, while Matt Coppinger, who had helped bring Riffenburgh and Messenger to Hatfield, returned to coach the linebackers. The Hurricanes went 8–0 and conceded 8 points all regular season. Mark Zaki and Vincent Fremont both rushed for 1,000 yards, which the club records as a first in league history, and linebacker Mika Ahtinen, in his only season, was BCAFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Playoff wins over Southampton and Tarannau Aberystwyth, with defensive tackle Roli Savaaris the club’s playoff MVP, led to a meeting with Leeds Celtics, the league’s top offence, in College Bowl XII at Saffron Lane, Leicester, on 15 March 1998. Zaki scored twice, on a 42-yard catch from Mark Agnew and a 21-yard run, and linebacker Sylvain Guegan was named College Bowl MVP. The Hurricanes won 16–7 for the club’s first College Bowl, and Riffenburgh was BCAFL Coach of the Year.

When Riffenburgh stepped down before 1998–99, Messenger became head coach, with Johal as offensive coordinator, Coppinger as defensive coordinator and Jason Pearson coaching the defensive backs. The “Force XII” defence led the league, the team went 7–0–1, lineman Huw Stacey was voted BCAFL MVP and kicker Richard Savage the league’s Special Teams Player of the Year. After playoff wins over Oxford and Cardiff, the Hurricanes beat Loughborough Aces 7–3 in College Bowl XIII at Saffron Lane on 21 March 1999. Dawid Ostrega ran for 129 yards on 26 carries despite an early injury, Roli Savaaris had three sacks and Ho scored the only touchdown after a Martin Brown interception.

In 1999–2000, with Pearson promoted to defensive coordinator, the only defeat was a 30–26 loss at Cardiff that ended a two-and-a-half-year unbeaten run. Herts avenged it in the playoffs, beat Oxford and met Leicester Lemmings in College Bowl XIV on 19 March 2000. Linebacker Tony Groden, that season’s BCAFL Defensive Player of the Year, made 19 tackles and was named College Bowl MVP. Mike Butler, who broke his ankle scoring, Adam Seoudy and Ostrega scored the touchdowns, and rookie Dean Mason ran for more than 120 yards behind veteran quarterback Alex Cameron. The Hurricanes won 20–6.

It was the first “three-peat” in the league’s history, a run no team matched until the UWE Bullets won four in a row from 2022. Nine veterans played in all three, among them linebacker Steve Dennis, who started every one of the 33 games in his career, and defensive end Christian Steward.