Post by Gene on Jul 4, 2007 6:24:45 GMT -5
Express’ special ’07 season could’ve been a train wreck
A season in which the Reading Express played for the AIFA title almost didn’t get started, amid financial questions and concerns. After the partnership among three former owners dissolved, the league took over the team until it was purchased by Ted and Lisa Lavender in late February.
By Brian Rippey
Reading Eagle
As he waited for the bus to roll out of Reading for the season opener in February, Express general manager/assistant coach Bernie Nowotarski was nervous.
It had nothing to do with the team’s American Indoor Football Association opener with the expansion Pittsburgh RiverRats.
What worried Nowotarski was whether the league, which had taken control of the team prior to the start of its second season, would change its mind. Despite assurances, Nowotarski still had his concerns.
“The first week when we went to Pittsburgh I basically said once we got on the bus, ‘Let’s get moving,’ ” Nowotarski said. “I was waiting for somebody to come in and say, ‘You’re not going.’
“My fear was that the league could have actually stopped and said: ‘We’re not going to keep this team. We have other teams we can develop, and we’re going to let this go before it becomes a real mess.’ ”
That call never came.
“Our league would not be the same without Reading,” AIFA co-owner John Morris said. “I would not and did not consider letting the Express fold. It gave me great pleasure to see them make it to the championship game after all they went through.”
After the partnership among former Express owners Carl Leaman, Ben Fahndrich and Charles Mitchell dissolved, there was plenty to be cleaned up.
A season in which the Express came within a touchdown of winning the AIFA title in a 54-49 loss to Lakeland in Florence, S.C., almost didn’t get started.
“I had players asking me questions, coaches, I really couldn’t tell them everything,” Nowotarski said. “There were days where quite frankly we didn’t know if tomorrow was going to involve football. It was difficult.”
The players and coaches endured a 2006 debut season that was successful on the field but shaky behind the scenes in the closing weeks.
While the Express carried a 12-game winning streak into the Northern Conference championship game, there were rumors of sporadic checks to the players and a trail of unpaid bills.
Through it all, Nowotarski was able to help keep the organization together until Ted and Lisa Lavender of Berks Fire Water Restorations, Inc. purchased the team in late February, two days prior to the 2007 home opener.
Nowotarski said he spent several hours every week taking calls in the Express office from people who were owed money.
“That was probably the majority of my first part of the day with phone calls,” Nowotarski said. “I didn’t have answers for them.
“I knew what the answer was: ‘You’re going to have to take it up with the owners.’ But I was the only one in the office. I was the one taking the phone calls, the letters and other complaints. I’m still taking calls for those.”
Several of the creditors have filed lawsuits against the former owners, trying to recover some or all of their money.
The Lavenders purchased only the assets of the team, not the liabilities. Other terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Ollie Guidry, the coach and general manager during the Express’ first season, left late last year, in part because of the franchise’s instability.
“There were multiple reasons why I left,” said Guidry, who just completed his first season as an assistant coach with the Austin Wranglers of the Arena Football League.
“One reason was to be closer to my father, who is ill and lives in Dallas,” Guidry said. “Another was the chance to move up to the Arena Football League.
“But, certainly, after I put up with so much in that first year at Reading, I could see that it wasn’t going in a way that it would be beneficial, in a way I thought it should be going. In the end, it was just better for me to get out of it.”
Nowotarski, a former Exeter and Kutztown University player, stayed on through tough times — with a child on the way — even when he was unsure if he’d get paid.
“My wife (April) and I had the conversation all the time,” Nowotarski said. “She asked, ‘What are we doing here; you’re not getting paid?’
“I know there are creditors out there that want certain things. Without going into my story too deeply, there are things that are owed to me yet that haven’t been taken care of. I don’t have any ill will.”
But, Nowotarski said, he does have a lawyer.
Nowotarski wouldn’t speculate on why the partnership failed.
“Unfortunately we had problems with our partnership,” Mitchell said. “When the whole team isn’t working together, it doesn’t work too well.”
Fahndrich declined to comment about the partnership. Leaman did not return phone calls from the Reading Eagle.
Mitchell and Fahndrich attended most of the Express’ home games this season and sat in the front two rows of the Florence Civic Center for the AIFA championship game. Leaman wasn’t seen at any games.
“I don’t want to point the finger in any one direction,” Nowotarski said. “I’m just glad it’s changed. I just think at some point the three of them didn’t agree on certain aspects.
“It got to the point where it was being run in a way where it was not set up to be successful. It was an experiment that was going to fail from ticket pricing to arena configuration to salaries. It was all wrong. They just had a difference of opinion. I wasn’t involved in that.”
What Nowotarski was involved with was keeping together a group of players who seemed more interested in winning a championship than cashing a paycheck.
“We can’t control ownership,” Express kicker Erik Rockhold said. “A lot of us really don’t play for the money. We are paid athletes, but the reason why a lot of us play football is just to play.”
All but two starters returned from the 2006 team that went 13-3. They didn’t, however, plan to play for free.
“I assured them they were getting paid whether new owners came in or the league stayed with us,” Nowotarski said “It wasn’t going to be sporadic; it was going to be on time. They trusted me.”
Nowotarski said Morris issued each player a check prior to the season opener in February. Since then, according to Nowotarski, the Lavenders have run the Express like a top-notch organization.
“The league was keeping us alive, and I didn’t have owners yet,” Nowotarski said. “That was the iffy part. If it wouldn’t have been for John and the league stepping in during that interim period, we wouldn’t have been here.”
•Contact Brian Rippey at 610-371-5070 or brippey@readingagle.com.