Post by David on Jul 20, 2015 19:24:38 GMT -8
2010 Season: New League, New Hardware
Year Five
Regular Season Record: 13-3 (West Division Champions)
Playoff Record: 3-0; National Conference Champions, ArenaBowl XXIII Champions
Coaches: Rob Keefe (Head Coach), Matthew Sauk (Asst. Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator), Alex Sirianni (Defensive Coordinator), Travis Crusenberry (O-Line Coach)
Less than a month after winning their second ArenaCup title, the af2 disbanded when all 25 teams didn’t commit to the league’s eleventh season. This was due to the Arena Football League suspending operations in 2009 and eventually folding. Since the AFL owned 50.1% of af2, the AFL’s bankruptcy and dissolution brought about a grim outlook for all the teams, including the Shock. For legal reasons, the af2 league officials formed a new entity called Arena Football 1, with teams like the Arizona Rattlers and Orlando Predators joining the new league. The new entity would then form a new Arena Football 2 for the smaller market teams.
In November 2009, all assets of the former AFL were put up for auction and the new AF1 bought all the assets, including team names and logos of all AFL and af2 teams, excluding the Dallas Desperados. In February 2010, the AF1 officially re-branded itself as the “Arena Football League” and resumed where the old league left off, but with a new business model with the intention of more reasonable salaries that would not put the new league into bankruptcy.
The new AFL would consist of 15 teams: 7 former af2 teams (including the Shock), 6 previously established AFL teams, and 2 expansion teams (Dallas Vigilantes, Jacksonville Sharks).
The Shock played in the West Division of the National Conference, which consisted of the Arizona Rattlers and the Utah Blaze.
Logos, Colors, and Uniforms
In the leap to the AFL, the Shock made a small tweak to their primary logo by adding a yellow stripe to the bottom of the football in place of the “arenafootball2” text.
After four years, the Shock introduced a new helmet with their move to the AFL (image credit:Brandon Hansen and Randy Cahalan)
The Shock also introduced a new helmet logo. Instead of the giant football with shocks coming out from all sides and saying “Spokane Shock” in the middle, the new logo featured a white S outlined in orange against a blue football outlined with orange and yellow. There were only shocks on one side of the football, which depended on the logo being placed on the left or the right side of the helmet.
Season Summary
The Shock opened up the 2010 season as one of the newest members of the Arena Football League along with a new head coach in Rob Keefe, a former defensive back for the Shock who was a key member of the 2006 ArenaCup VII Championship team. Looking to make a strong impression in their first season, the Shock would drop their opening night game in Spokane to the Milwaukee Iron by a score of 62-74.
They followed up the loss with a pair of wins against the Utah Blaze and Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings to push their record to 2-1. Returning from a Week 4 bye, the Shock would lose their second game of the season, this time to the then winless Cleveland Gladiators as Spokane gave up 34 points in the fourth quarter and were ultimately done in by a last-second kickoff returned for a touchdown.
After the heartbreaking loss to Cleveland, the Shock responded with a 63-56 win over the Arizona Rattlers. The win over the Rattlers was the first of many as the Shock would go on to enjoy an 11-game winning streak before closing out the season with their third and final loss at Jacksonville.
Their 13-3 record in the regular season gave them the West Division title, as well as the best record in the National Conference. The Shock hosted both of their playoff games in 2010, knocking off the Arizona Rattlers 57-49 and the Milwaukee Iron 60-57 on the way to ArenaBowl XXIII.
Powered by MVP Kyle Rowley’s nine TD passes, the Shock defeated the Tampa Bay Storm on a NFL Network broadcast at Spokane Arena by a final score of 69-57. Capturing their first AFL championship in their inaugural year, the Shock also broke a 2008 franchise record for attendance at ArenaBowl XXIII in front of a standing room only crowd of 11,017 at Spokane Arena.
Confetti rains moments after Spokane defeats Tampa Bay 69-57 in ArenaBowl XXIII(image credit: SWX.com)
2010 REGULAR SEASON RESULTS
The 2010 AFL schedule was set up so that all 25 teams played 16 games in 17 weeks with each team getting two Bye weeks.
The following is the results of Spokane's 2010 schedule (bold blue denotes home games).
APRIL:
Week 1 -- Fri., April 2nd – Milwaukee Iron (L 62-74)
Week 2 -- Fri., April 9th – at Utah Blaze (W 68-34)
Week 3 -- Sat., April 17th – Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings (W 78-70)
Week 4 -- BYE
MAY:
Week 5 -- Sat., May 1st – Cleveland Gladiators (L 68-72)
Week 6 -- Fri., May 7th – at Arizona Rattlers (W 63-56)
Week 7 -- Sat., May 16th – at Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz (W 68-63)
Week 8 -- Sat., May 22nd – Utah Blaze (W 77-28)
Week 9 -- Sat., May 29th – Jacksonville Sharks (W 67-57)
JUNE:
Week 10 -- BYE
Week 11 -- Sat., June 12th – at Orlando Predators (W 53-52)
Week 12 -- Fri., June 18th – Tulsa Talons (W 63-42)
Week 13 -- Sat., June 26th – at Milwaukee Iron (W 62-48)
JULY:
Week 14 -- Fri., July 2nd – Arizona Rattlers (W 37-36)
Week 15 -- Sat., July 10th – at Cleveland Gladiators (W 62-56) (OT)
Week 16 -- Fri., July 16th – at Iowa Barnstormers (W 48-42)
Week 17 -- Fri., July 23rd – Chicago Rush (W 63-49)
Week 18 -- Fri., July 30th – at Jacksonville Sharks (L 49-64)
PLAYOFFS
AUGUST:
National Conference Semifinal -- Fri., August 6th – Arizona Rattlers (W 57-49)
National Conference Championship -- Thurs., August 12th – Milwaukee Iron (W 60-57)
ArenaBowl XXIII -- Fri., August 20th – Tampa Bay Storm (W 69-57)
AWAY VENUES
Arizona Rattlers - US Airways Center; Phoenix, Arizona
Cleveland Gladiators - Quicken Loans Arena; Cleveland, Ohio
Iowa Barnstormers - Wells Fargo Arena; Des Moines, Iowa
Jacksonville Sharks - Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena; Jacksonville, Florida
Milwaukee Iron - Bradley Center; Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz - Cox Convention Center; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Orlando Predators - Amway Arena; Orlando, Florida
Utah Blaze - Maverik Center; West Valley City, Utah
Individual Statistic Leaders
ArenaBowl MVP Kyle Rowley was 24/32 for 237 yards and 9 TD passes. He also had a rushing touchdown in the game (image credit: The Spokesman-Review)
Passing
Kyle Rowley – 371/566, 4,475 yards, 102 TD, 11 INT
Erik Meyer – 18/28, 274 yards, 5 TD, 1 INT
Brian Zbydniewski – 5/12, 119 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
Rushing
Kyle Rowley – 35 attempts, 79 yards, 6 TD
Clay Harrell – 17 attempts, 56 yards, 5 TD
Eddie Thompson – 5 attempts, 49 yards, 3 TD
Receiving
Huey Whittaker – 144 receptions, 1,653 yards, 37 TD
Raul Vijil – 82 receptions, 1,083 yards, 33 TD
Markee White – 66 receptions, 925 yards, 18 TD
Shaun Kauleinamoku – 30 receptions, 441 yards, 10 TD
Kick Returns
Quorey Payne – 31 returns, 624 yards, 2 TD
Raul Vijil – 28 returns, 541 yards, 1 TD
Kicking
Taylor Rowan – 5/5 FG, 121/134 XP, 136 points
Defensive
Travis Williams – 75.5 total tackles, 15 pass breakups, 1 forced fumble, 6 INT
Alex Teems – 74 total tackles, 8 pass breakups, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, 3 INT
Will Mulder – 71 total tackles, 16 pass breakups, 1 forced fumble, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 INT
Aaron Robbins – 29.5 total tackles, 4.0 sacks, 2 pass breakups, 5 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries
Antwan Marsh – 29.5 total tackles, 3 pass breakups, 1 fumble recovery, 4 INT
Jerry Turner – 28 total tackles, 5.0 sacks, 2 pass breakups, 5 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries
Kevin McCullough – 25 total tackles, 2.0 sacks, 1 pass breakup, 1 forced fumble, 3 fumble recoveries, 1 INT
Jeremy Geathers – 14.5 total tackles, 3.0 sacks, 1 pass breakup, 1 forced fumble
Richard Clebert – 12 total tackles, 3.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble
Ben MCCombs – 9 total tackles, 4.5 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries
Honors and Awards
First Team All-Arena: Ed Ta’amu (OL)
Second Team All-Arena: Huey Whittaker (WR)
ArenaBowl XXIII MVP: Kyle Rowley (QB)
Season Summary provided by the Spokane Shock in the Season Ticket Holder 2015 Pre-Season program.
