Post by Banana Cat on Aug 21, 2010 7:51:05 GMT -5
More teams in Mobile, Alabama and Houston (Stallions), Texas are being planned. The SIFL's goal is to field 14 teams for 2011 and split into two divisions.
www.reporternews.com/news/2010/aug/20/ruff-riders-compete-new-league-2011/
www.reporternews.com/news/2010/aug/20/ruff-riders-compete-new-league-2011/
Ruff Riders to compete in new league in 2011
August 20, 2010
By Greg Jaklewicz
It was in with the new Thursday for the Abilene Ruff Riders.
After introducing Rodney Blackshear, last season’s interim coach over the final nine games, as the team’s head coach for the 2011 season and Brett Quigley as general manager, a role he has held much of the summer, the team announced it was leaving the Indoor Football League after two seasons to join the Southern Indoor Football League.
Abilene follows the Corpus Christi Hammerheads, its IFL Lone Star Division rival, into the SIFL, a 2-year-old league that has launched expansion plans in Texas. Two other teams — one to be located in Houston and the other in the Rio Grande Valley — will boost the league to eight teams. The SIFL goal is field 14 teams, perhaps for the coming season, that will play a 12-game schedule that begins in late March.
The Houston franchise, to be called the Stallions, will be coached by former Ruff Riders coach Gerald Dockery. Dockery was fired after the Riders started the 2010 season with five losses.
The other teams in the league are the Louisiana Swashbucklers (based in Lake Charles), Lafayette (La.) Wildcatters, two Georgia teams — the Albany Panthers and 2010 champion Columbus Lions, and the Greenville (S.C.) Force.
A ninth franchise will be located in Mobile, Ala.
Should the league reach 14 teams, the plan would be to split into eastern and western divisions with the Louisiana and Texas teams grouped.
Quigley said the benefits of joining a new league included expense, a return to the style of play that appealed to Blackshear and the development of regional rivals. He also said the idea of joining the SIFL had been kicked around previously but “the timing wasn’t right.’”
After the franchise moved from Katy to Abilene for the 2009 season and its first in the IFL, the Ruff Riders posted a two-year record of 10-19, which includes a first-round playoff loss in 2009.
Quigley said the move to the Southern Indoor Football League will help ensure that the Ruff Riders “will be here, not for the next few years, but here for the long haul.”
Scott Anderson, one of seven members of the Big Country Professional Sports Association, which owns the franchise, said Abilene initiated contact with Thom Hager, the owner of the Swashbucklers and founder of the SIFL.
“They have great crowds and know how to entertain fans,” Quigley said of Hager’s franchise.
Abilene’s new league will set rosters at 23 players vs. 30 for the Indoor Football League. That, Riders management said, will save the franchise money on housing and feeding players. Also, SIFL franchise dues are lower.
Another benefit is travel. Though Greenville and Abilene are 1,100 miles apart, the IFL has franchises from Alaska to Maryland and recently has expanded more into the Northeast.
Texas teams in the IFL were having less impact in decisions, Anderson said, and he expected dues to rise as the league grows.
“I don’t want to play in Fairbanks or Billings,” Anderson said.
Despite the IFL’s growth path, Anderson said arena football fans will see more regional leagues forming to bolster rivalries and cut costs.
Hager, who spoke at the media conference over speaker phone, agreed.
“Building rivalries is what arena league is all about,” he said. “And I always expected to have a Texas base.”
He said the level of play will not fall off. Many players, Hager said, have experiences in the former Arena Football League, AF2 and Canadian Football League. Some are former National Football League players who, he said, “weren’t quite ready to retire.”
Blackshear, who has played and coached the arena-style game since 1993, said he was excited to hear about the move.
The new league, he said, emphasizes offense, restricts defense alignments (I effing hate that...BC) and even awards a point — call an “uno” — if the kickoff sails through the uprights.
“The IFL caters to defense but we know that offense puts butts in the stands,” Blackshear said. (I'll take defense over offense any day...BC)
(You know, this attention deficit world is starting to get to me, what the H is wrong with a good defensive battle, wake the F up people. Defense is already harder to play versus offense and it's a 50 yard field to begin with so it's going to be high scoring anyway. Do we really need to score every 5 seconds like a basketball game? There's such a thing as overkill and devaluing a touchdown. When they come so easy, they also become meaningless and stats just a bloated joke. Ok, ok...sorry for the rant, it's just a sore subject with me and it's getting to me moreso than usual, maybe I need a break from this stuff, good thing it's the off season. I'm ready for the LFL and to see some girls getting tackled by hard hitting defensive players...BC)
Hager said the SIFL will be a high-scoring league and one that is designed for indoor play rather than adapted for the outdoor game.
“It’ll be the way fans like it,” he said.
After the 2010 season ended, Blackshear said he would try to keep a dozen or so players for the next season if he were to be hired as coach.
He said Thursday that he will have to rethink his players because he now will need tight ends, offensive linemen who can catch a pass and defensive backs adept at man coverage.
He likes adding tight ends.
“I had two once that caught 10 touchdown passes each,” he said.
Anderson said there was some talk with Abilene’s IFL rivals San Angelo and Odessa making the move to Southern Indoor Football League but in the end, it was the Ruff Riders’ decision to make.
“We believe this change hopefully is for the better,” he said. “We want this team to be here the next couple of decades.”
August 20, 2010
By Greg Jaklewicz
It was in with the new Thursday for the Abilene Ruff Riders.
After introducing Rodney Blackshear, last season’s interim coach over the final nine games, as the team’s head coach for the 2011 season and Brett Quigley as general manager, a role he has held much of the summer, the team announced it was leaving the Indoor Football League after two seasons to join the Southern Indoor Football League.
Abilene follows the Corpus Christi Hammerheads, its IFL Lone Star Division rival, into the SIFL, a 2-year-old league that has launched expansion plans in Texas. Two other teams — one to be located in Houston and the other in the Rio Grande Valley — will boost the league to eight teams. The SIFL goal is field 14 teams, perhaps for the coming season, that will play a 12-game schedule that begins in late March.
The Houston franchise, to be called the Stallions, will be coached by former Ruff Riders coach Gerald Dockery. Dockery was fired after the Riders started the 2010 season with five losses.
The other teams in the league are the Louisiana Swashbucklers (based in Lake Charles), Lafayette (La.) Wildcatters, two Georgia teams — the Albany Panthers and 2010 champion Columbus Lions, and the Greenville (S.C.) Force.
A ninth franchise will be located in Mobile, Ala.
Should the league reach 14 teams, the plan would be to split into eastern and western divisions with the Louisiana and Texas teams grouped.
Quigley said the benefits of joining a new league included expense, a return to the style of play that appealed to Blackshear and the development of regional rivals. He also said the idea of joining the SIFL had been kicked around previously but “the timing wasn’t right.’”
After the franchise moved from Katy to Abilene for the 2009 season and its first in the IFL, the Ruff Riders posted a two-year record of 10-19, which includes a first-round playoff loss in 2009.
Quigley said the move to the Southern Indoor Football League will help ensure that the Ruff Riders “will be here, not for the next few years, but here for the long haul.”
Scott Anderson, one of seven members of the Big Country Professional Sports Association, which owns the franchise, said Abilene initiated contact with Thom Hager, the owner of the Swashbucklers and founder of the SIFL.
“They have great crowds and know how to entertain fans,” Quigley said of Hager’s franchise.
Abilene’s new league will set rosters at 23 players vs. 30 for the Indoor Football League. That, Riders management said, will save the franchise money on housing and feeding players. Also, SIFL franchise dues are lower.
Another benefit is travel. Though Greenville and Abilene are 1,100 miles apart, the IFL has franchises from Alaska to Maryland and recently has expanded more into the Northeast.
Texas teams in the IFL were having less impact in decisions, Anderson said, and he expected dues to rise as the league grows.
“I don’t want to play in Fairbanks or Billings,” Anderson said.
Despite the IFL’s growth path, Anderson said arena football fans will see more regional leagues forming to bolster rivalries and cut costs.
Hager, who spoke at the media conference over speaker phone, agreed.
“Building rivalries is what arena league is all about,” he said. “And I always expected to have a Texas base.”
He said the level of play will not fall off. Many players, Hager said, have experiences in the former Arena Football League, AF2 and Canadian Football League. Some are former National Football League players who, he said, “weren’t quite ready to retire.”
Blackshear, who has played and coached the arena-style game since 1993, said he was excited to hear about the move.
The new league, he said, emphasizes offense, restricts defense alignments (I effing hate that...BC) and even awards a point — call an “uno” — if the kickoff sails through the uprights.
“The IFL caters to defense but we know that offense puts butts in the stands,” Blackshear said. (I'll take defense over offense any day...BC)
(You know, this attention deficit world is starting to get to me, what the H is wrong with a good defensive battle, wake the F up people. Defense is already harder to play versus offense and it's a 50 yard field to begin with so it's going to be high scoring anyway. Do we really need to score every 5 seconds like a basketball game? There's such a thing as overkill and devaluing a touchdown. When they come so easy, they also become meaningless and stats just a bloated joke. Ok, ok...sorry for the rant, it's just a sore subject with me and it's getting to me moreso than usual, maybe I need a break from this stuff, good thing it's the off season. I'm ready for the LFL and to see some girls getting tackled by hard hitting defensive players...BC)
Hager said the SIFL will be a high-scoring league and one that is designed for indoor play rather than adapted for the outdoor game.
“It’ll be the way fans like it,” he said.
After the 2010 season ended, Blackshear said he would try to keep a dozen or so players for the next season if he were to be hired as coach.
He said Thursday that he will have to rethink his players because he now will need tight ends, offensive linemen who can catch a pass and defensive backs adept at man coverage.
He likes adding tight ends.
“I had two once that caught 10 touchdown passes each,” he said.
Anderson said there was some talk with Abilene’s IFL rivals San Angelo and Odessa making the move to Southern Indoor Football League but in the end, it was the Ruff Riders’ decision to make.
“We believe this change hopefully is for the better,” he said. “We want this team to be here the next couple of decades.”