Speed to open season Saturday

[Free Agent Fan]

Speed to open season Saturday


By Steve Winzenread
[e-mail]
Thursday, February 1, 2007

Before the Carolina Speed play their first game at home, they open the season on the road.
The Speed, a first-year indoor football team based at Cabarrus Arena & Events Center, are scheduled to play at Huntington, W. Va., on Saturday.

"It's going to be a tough one at night on the road," said Speed coach Michael Mink. "But our philosophy is to get these guys in shape and get good athletes and make plays and find a way to win in the fourth quarter."

Mink and John Morris are co-owners of the Speed.

"We've put together what we believe is a very, very strong team," Morris said. "Even though we're an expansion team, we think we have enough talent. The beauty is a lot of it is from here, around this area. This is just a great area for football talent."

The most obvious example of that is Jamel Jackson, a defensive back who starred at Concord High School and was an all-South Atlantic Conference player at Catawba College.

The Speed roster also includes Fred Staton Jr., a 6-0, 249-pound running back out of West Charlotte High School who became Mecklenburg County's all-time leading rusher.

Players from Johnson C. Smith, Elon, UNC, South Carolina, East Carolina, Livingstone, Western Carolina, Wake Forest, North Carolina A&T, Lenoir-Rhyne and Benedict College are also listed on the Speed's 30-man roster.

While Mink is the head coach, Morris coaches Speed quarterbacks.

"We're real excited about Jeff Aaron (6-3, 230 pounds, UAB)," Morris said. "He played for us in Montgomery (Ala.). He's simply a phenomenal quarterback. We think he'll be lights out this year.

"One of the things we bring to the table that not a lot of people know is yes, we're an expansion team, but we have a lot of experience in indoor football in the players we're putting on the field. The big thing is how quickly we get them on the same page."

Indoor football is played on a 50-yard field, with five more yards in each endzone.

There are three down linemen on offense, three receivers, a quarterback and a tailback for eight players total.

Speed receivers include Chesley Borders (UNC), Demarcus Fox (ECU), Brandon McDowell (Case Western Reserve) and Josh Morton (Campbellsville).

"Most of our guys are (NCAA) Division I guys," Mink said. "We try to get some NFL camp guys in here. Guys with Arena experience. We get some guys who are D-II guys. We're looking for athletes, and sometimes D-II guys are very good athletes. They might not get scouted properly."

The Speed plays in the American Indoor Football Association, a 14-team league with seven teams in each division. There are eight home games and seven away games on the regular-season schedule.

The Speed's home opener is Monday, Feb. 12 against Tallahassee at 7:05 p.m.

Other home games are Monday, Feb. 26 vs. Montgomery; Saturday, March 17 vs. Huntington (charity game); Saturday, March 24 vs. Erie; Saturday, April 7 vs. Mississippi; Saturday, May 5 vs. Baltimore; Saturday, May 12 vs. Florence; and Friday, May 25 vs. Lakeland.

[Free Agent Fan]

Saturday, March 17 vs. Huntington (charity game)

Forfeit already?

[superscoutken]

2/3/07 -Carolina-Huntington game..... Heard many of Carolina's top players not ready to go in this one.... LB's Emodi (Packers practice squad '04 & '05) & Hurley(Browns camp '06)........
.....WR/RB Marvin Townes (CFL-Winnipeg camp '05)....... the starting QB Jeff Aaron is out.....OL Willie Shine(accepted into NFL Europe draft pool-awaiting results 2/23/07) , WR Borders (Bengals camp '03) is questionable.....be interesting to see if they can hang in and still make it competitive......not sure what they'll do at QB , though.....good speed at WR's with Fox & Kimble....experience in McDowell....should get a pass rush with DE's Coley (Saints mini-camp '06) & Silas

[gospeed75]

Anyone know the score?

[Late Boarder]

gospeed75 said:

Anyone know the score?

Congratulations, gospeed75!

61
:smileyheroes: 57

www.heroesindoorfootball.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=1

Heroes Fall 61-57

The Huntington Heroes first game in its new home didn't quite turn out how they wanted. First year team Carolina Speed visited Big Sandy Superstore Arena and out gunned the Heroes and came away with 61-57 win.
The Heroes would start the scoring in a busy first quarter on a Nick Kelly field goal. The Speed would fire right back two plays later and take a 7-3 lead. On the Heroes next possession Jimmy Skinner would connect with Shane Holsinger for his first of of six TD passes on the night. The teams would trade scores throughout the quarter with the Heroes holding a slim 25-21 lead to end the quarter. The scoring in the first period was highlighted by Lamont Moore's kick return for a TD and Nick Kelly got his got his first of two Uno's in the first.

The Heroes appeared to be running away with the game mid way through the second quarter but the Speed would not go away. Carolina would strike first in the quarter to take a 28-25 lead. The Heroes would answer right back with a James Hawkins TD catch. The Heroes defense finally made a stop and forcing the Speed to attempt a field goal from deep within their own endzone. On the attempt the holder dropped the snap and the Heroes quickly pounced to get the safety and take a 34-28 lead. The Heroes offense could not capitalize though when Jimmy Skinner forced a pass resulting in a Speed interception. The Speed would take advantage of the miscue and answer with a score of their own a missed PAT resulted in a tie at 34. The tie would not last long as Jimmy Skinner found Gerald Clark who made a catch over the wall to give the Heroes the lead once again. Nick Kelly's PAT attempt went wide to give the Heroes a slim 6 point lead. The Speed would take the lead for a short time on another TD of their own, but Nick Kelly gave the Heroes a 44-41 lead at the half with a 40 yard field goal to end the half.

The offensive fireworks would calm for the third quarter with each team scoring a touchdown. The Speed scored first to take the lead once again at 47-44. Jimmy Skinner connected with Brad Bates to regain the lead again and Nick Kelly hit another field goal to give the Heroes a 51-47 lead heading into the final quarter.

The Speed would get two touchdowns in the fourth, before the Heroes offense could get back on track. With time winding down and trailing 61-51 the Heroes defense made a stop to give the offense a chance. The Heroes offense didn't disappoint as Skinner hit James Hawkins again to close the gap to 61-57 with one minute remaining. The Heroes would attempt and onside kick, but the Speed recovered and ran out the clock to come away with the win.

With the loss the Heroes start the season 0-1 and will travel to Johnstown next week to take on the 0-1 Riverhawks. Coach Garry McPeek spoke of the loss and the upcoming road trip, "We're backed into a corner, we'd like to start 1-0 but it didn't happen. We didn't play well early defensively and when you do that you just got to keep scoring. You can't flinch, the first one to flinch loses. The guys battled the whole way through and we'll come back to work this week and get ready for next Friday."

Coach McPeek also spoke of the performance of Jimmy Skinner, who had six TD passes in his Heroes debut. "I feel like Jimmy played really well," said McPeek, "he had some real good plays early, and had a couple picks there at the end but all in all for a first game he played really well. He's a good competitor and he did a nice job."

Jimmy Skinner, who is less than three months removed from his last game with the Marshall Thundering Herd, spoke of his night. "It's good to get back out here." said Skinner, "It was a lot of fun, but it's not the outcome we wanted. We'll get back out on the practice field and get back to work and try to get a win next week." Skinner commented on the differences in the indoor game and division I college football. "It's a lot faster. The angles are different, but its a lot of fun."

The Heroes will travel to Johnstown, PA to take on the Riverhawks on Friday night. The next home game will be February 17 when the defending AIFA champion Canton Lengends visit Big Sandy Superstore Arena.

I was NOT expecting this...

[superscoutken]

The Carolina Speed , despite missing several former NFL camp players & Draft Board rated prospects defeated the Huntington Heroes on the road, 61-57 in Week 1 of AIFA action. It was the Carolina franchise's first game in team history.....

Projected starters were missing from action due to a variety of issues; some being only recently signed and still needing to tend to family matters or make arrangements with school or work schedules , some were still getting their conditioning work in or were nursing minor injuries but most or all could be expected in within the next 3 weeks.....

The team certainly looks to have some good depth now and should only get stronger as the year goes on with players being supplied by the Indoor Football Scouting Bureau......( a 2nd yr player personnel staffing & scouting organization working with select pro indoor teams who have already seen 5 of their 1st yr pro indoor prospects from last year's class get signed to either AFL or CFL deals including DB JR Ruffin , Calgary's "Most Outstanding Rookie" and the CFL's leader in kickoff returns & yds this year who honed his coverage skills with Wyoming after the '05 draft & the 1st month of April '06 before getting signed into training camp and never looking back after an impressive mini-camp with the Stampeder's in mid April....

Absent Carolina Players included LB's Ike Emodi (Packers practice squad '04), & Hurley (Browns mini-camp '06) , WR/RB Townes
(CFL-Winnipeg camp '05) , OL Shine (accepted into NFL Europe Free Agent Draft pool awaiting results after practicing with team during the week), and WR Borders (Bengals camp '03) .....

Carolina seemed to wear down the opposition in the 4th qtr with
the running of Staton (Steelers camp '05 & NFLE Berlin Thunder '06) and Jimmy Bell......The two teams mostly exchanged scores during first 3 qtrs...

Former Catawba DB Jameel Jackson picked off two passes and veteran indoor QB Barry Morrow managed the team effectively, filling in for departed QB Jeff Aaron-UAB (Mel Kiper pre season #9 QB in '02 draft) who never has been able to live up to his potential and was excused from the team due to philosophical differences in team chemistry...