Spokane Shock 101 - 2011 Season: The Outdoor Classic

[David]

Spokane Shock History
2011 Season: The Outdoor Classic
Year Six

Regular Season Record: 9-9
Playoff Record: 0-1
Coaches: Rob Keefe (Head Coach), Andy Olson (Offensive Coordinator), Travis Crusenberry (Line Coach)

The Shock faced a new AFL landscape in their quest to defend their ArenaBowl title in 2011 with the return of 3 former AFL franchises (San Jose SaberCats, Kansas City Brigade (renamed Command), and Philadelphia Soul) and a new expansion team in Pittsburgh (Power). 3 teams went under rebrands/relocations: the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings became the reincarnated New Orleans Voodoo; the Alabama Vipers became the reincarnated Georgia Force; and the Milwaukee Iron became the Mustangs. Only one team folded, and it was the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz. Despite the changes, the league increased from 15 to 18 teams in 2011, resulting in new divisional re-alignments that had both conferences having nine teams and two divisions each.

The Shock played in the West Division of the National Conference, which consisted of the Arizona Rattlers, the Utah Blaze, and the revived San Jose SaberCats.

The league also announced that they would play an 18-game regular season rather than the 16-game regular season they had played since the mid-2000’s.

Spokane also announced that they would play the first ever outdoor Arena Football game, the same year the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League hosted an outdoor hockey game.


The Shock hosted the first outdoor AFL game in league history (image credit: Aaron Malmoe/Spokane Shock)


Logos, Colors, and Uniforms



QB Erik Meyer sporting the new Shock uniforms during the 2011 season.Young Kwak/Inlander)


For the first time since the 2008 season, the Shock unveiled brand new uniforms. The new uniforms retained the primary navy blue color, but with Monolith number fonts instead of the standard block font. The new uniforms would have sleeves that faded in from blue to orange, with a grid-pattern of an “S” with shocks coming from around the letter. The collars would have a curly like mustache design that formed on the back of the jersey and narrow orange side paneling that formed into narrow yellow piping that extended the length of the pants. The road jerseys also had this design, only with navy blue in place of the orange and orange in place of the yellow.

Season Summary

Again under the direction of head coach Rob Keefe, the Shock opened up the 2011 season as the defending champions in their second year in the AFL with three straight losses and found themselves at 1-4 after the first five games.

The Shock battled injuries to the quarterback position throughout the season with Kyle Rowley taking a majority of the snaps. However, six total players lined up behind center at some time during the regular season.

Andy Olson would join Keefe’s coaching staff after the start of the 2011 regular season and serve as the offensive coordinator. With the offense led by Olson, the Shock averaged 58.8 points per game and scored 70 points in six games. Included in those six games was a 76-point performance against the Utah Blaze in front of a home-record 16,233 fans during the Joe Albi Stadium Outdoor Classic, the first ever outdoor arena football league game.



The Joe Albi Stadium Outdoor Summer Classic (image credit: Myk Crawford/YouTube)

The Shock managed to rip off a pair of two-game winning streaks and one three-game streak throughout the regular season, finishing with a 9-9 record. The .500 season was the second best in the West Division and good enough to get the Shock into the playoffs for the second consecutive season. The Shock snuck in ahead of the Utah Blaze, who were also 9-9 but 2-4 in division play while the Shock were 3-3 within the division. Five of the Shock’s games in 2011 were decided by five points or less.

Spokane faced off against the 16-2 West Division champion Arizona Rattlers to open the playoffs and found themselves down only eight points at the half, but 15 after three quarters. Arizona pulled away in the fourth quarter, outscoring Spokane 27-13 to cruise to a 62-33 victory.



WR Adron Tennell hauls in a TD in the Outdoor Classic (image credit: Aaron Malmoe/Spokane Shock)


2011 REGULAR SEASON RESULTS

The 2011 AFL schedule was set up so that all 18 teams played 18 games in 20 weeks with each team getting two Bye weeks.

The following is the results of Spokane's 2011 schedule (bold blue denotes home games).

March:
Week 1 -- Fri., March 11th – at San Jose SaberCats (L 48-76)
Week 2 -- Sat., March 19th – Cleveland Gladiators (L 55-61)
Week 3 -- Fri., March 25th – at Iowa Barnstormers (L 42-43)

April:
Week 4 -- Fri., April 1st – Kansas City Command (W 61-34)
Week 5 -- BYE
Week 6 -- Fri., April 15th – at Utah Blaze (L 62-69)
Week 7 -- Sat., April 23rd – at Orlando Predators (W 70-58)
Week 8 -- Sat., April 30th – Arizona Rattlers (W 70-69)

May:
Week 9 -- Sat., May 7th – at Pittsburgh Power (L 41-51)
Week 10 -- Sat., May 14th – Dallas Vigilantes (W 71-49)
Week 11 -- Fri., May 20th – Tampa Bay Storm (L 42-51)
Week 12 -- Sat., May 28th – at Kansas City Command (L 42-45)

June:
Week 13 -- BYE
Week 14 -- Fri., June 10th – Philadelphia Soul (W 75-54)
Week 15 -- Sat., June 18th – Chicago Rush (W 63-60)
Week 16 -- Sat., June 25th – at New Orleans VooDoo (W 75-54)

July:
Week 17 -- Sat., July 2nd – at Arizona Rattlers (L 46-68)
Week 18 -- Sat., July 9th – Utah Blaze (Joe Albi Stadium Outdoor Classic) (W 76-49)
Week 19 -- Sat., July 16th – San Jose SaberCats (W 63-61)
Week 20 -- Fri., July 22nd – at Jacksonville Sharks (L 56-75)

PLAYOFFS:

July:
National Conference Semifinal -- Fri., July 29th – at Arizona Rattlers (L 33-62)


AWAY VENUES
Arizona Rattlers - US Airways Center; Phoenix, Arizona
Iowa Barnstormers - Wells Fargo Arena; Des Moines, Iowa
Jacksonville Sharks - Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena; Jacksonville, Florida
Kansas City Command - Sprint Center; Kansas City, Missouri
New Orleans VooDoo - New Orleans Arena; New Orleans, Louisiana
Orlando Predators - Amway Arena; Orlando, Florida
Pittsburgh Power - Consol Energy Center; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
San Jose SaberCats - HP Pavilion at San Jose; San Jose, California
Utah Blaze - EnergySolutions Arena; Salt Lake City, Utah


Individual Statistic Leaders

Passing
Kyle Rowley – 294/454, 3,322 yards, 78 TD, 15 INT
Erik Meyer – 80/108, 967 yards, 22 TD, 3 INT
Casey Hanson – 42/78, 447 yards, 8 TD, 1 INT
Steven Sheffield – 15/27, 231 yards, 5 TD, 2 INT
Bill Stull – 7/11, 68 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT

Rushing
Clay Harrell – 21 attempts, 73 yards, 3 TD
Erik Meyer – 13 attempts, 39 yards, 3 TD
Kyle Rowley – 22 attempts, 36 yards, 7 TD
Emery Sammons – 16 attempts, 29 yards, 2 TD

Receiving
Greg Orton – 112 receptions, 1,484 yards, 34 TD
Raul Vijil – 68 receptions, 749 yards, 20 TD
Emery Sammons – 68 receptions, 739 yards, 10 TD
Shaun Kauleinamoku – 52 receptions, 596 yards, 15 TD
Adron Tennell – 42 receptions, 469 yards, 13 TD
Markee White – 29 receptions, 303 yards, 9 TD
Randy Hymes – 25 receptions, 193 yards, 6 TD
Chas Gessner – 23 receptions, 241 yards, 4 TD
Brandon Thompkins – 11 receptions, 169 yards, 3 TD

Kick Returns
Terrance Sanders – 71 returns, 1,491 yards, 4TD
Ruschard Dodd-Masters – 30 returns, 488 yards, 1 TD

Kicking
Taylor Rowan – 6/9 FG, 118/138 XP, 138 points

Defensive
Alex Teems – 85.5 total tackles, 13 pass breakups, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, 2 INT
Terrance Sanders – 81.5 total tackles, 12 pass breakups, 2 fumble recoveries, 5 INT
Ruschard Dodd-Masters – 77.5 total tackles, 6 pass breakups, 2 fumble recoveries, 2 INT
Antwan Marsh – 53 total tackles, 4 pass breakups, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 INT
Beau Bell – 50.5 total tackles, 5.5 sacks, 3 pass breakups, 4 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery
Micah King – 41 total tackles, 2.5 sacks, 3 pass breakups, 2 fumble recoveries
Khreem Smith – 24.5 total tackles, 7.0 sacks, 3 pass breakups, 3 forced fumbles
Jon Williams – 21.5 total tackles, 6.5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery, 1 INT


Season Summary provided by the Spokane Shock in the Season Ticket Holder 2015 Pre-Season program.

[David]

Since the Outdoor Classic was the first outdoor AFL game (and at the time of this posting, the only game), I thought I would share pictures from that game, including several I took
before, during, and after the game.

2011 was a huge year for sports having special events in Spokane. The Spokane Chiefs hosted the first outdoor WHL and junior hockey game on January 15 against the Kootenay Ice. I was in attendance for that event and took several pictures from that day, which I can post in a separate thread related to hockey.

There was speculation after the hockey game if the Shock would host an outdoor AFL game. Of course, it was a joke at the time, but less than a month later, the team announced they were going to host an outdoor game.

It was huge deal, especially wondering how they were going to set the game up. About a month before the actual game, the Shock started airing this commercial on TV.

First, here are a couple of pictures the Shock posted on their Facebook page leading up to the game on July 9, 2011. The first image shows workers laying down hundreds of protective flooring, which was assembled like a jigsaw puzzle, that they placed over the FieldTurf that was in Joe Albi Stadium. 



The next day, the field from Spokane Arena was assembled over the protective flooring. Luckily for the Shock, it didn't rain at all that week, so the field was never in danger of being soaked.



The day after that, the dasher walls were assembled, complete with the protective padding.



The only thing left was how to put in the field goal posts and the rebound nets. Since there's no ceiling above the stadium, two cranes were brought in to suspend the field goal posts (which you'll see in my photos).

Here's the photos I took from my seat. Three pics were taken by the Android phone I had at the time, and the rest were taken on my Canon PowerShot SD790IS.

The first two were shot when the Utah Blaze were out on the field for warm ups.




The Shock come out on the field for their warm ups.



Spokane and Utah on the field for warm ups.




Shock players run out onto the field prior to player introductions.




Game Action.




Spokane in the red zone. Erik Meyer got the start over Kyle Rowley.








With the score 62-42 going into the 4th Quarter, Kyle Rowley subbed in for Meyer.



The final score.



They gave out a special commemorative flag to the first 10,000 fans who made it at the game (the attendance was 16,223).



And yes, I still have the ticket stub.



Here's a highlight video of the game for your curiosity.


I hope you guys enjoyed seeing the pictures and the highlights! It's been a blast doing all these season recaps, especially sharing it with people who are as entertained by arena football as I am.

[DiamondThief]

I am surprised more games have not been outside. I would not want a whole lot, but one a year could be a fun thing for the league and fans.

The thing I take away from your pictures is that the fans are so far away. I do not know exactly how they would do it, but there should have been teachers or something of that sort around the field so fans could see it up close. Maybe put the arena football field at the corner of the stadium in front of the regular seats, then build stands from there.