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[Canton Cougar Fan]

For Immediate Release...

Rashan Hall has been named as the new head Coach for the Canton Legends Football.
A graduate from McKinley High School and Kent State University Rashan played for the Legends from 2006 thur the 2008 season.

Rashan has a great knowledge of the indoor game, has five championship rings in his carreer and the respect of many players and coaches. He is a resdent of Canton and will announce his coaching staff next week along with tryout information.

[Canton Cougar Fan]

::::: opinion :::::

I am less than impressed with this selection. To my knowledge, the only coaching experience Rashan has is at a junior high school. That won't cut it in indoor football.

The bottom line for this selection is that he is local and he is cheap (relatively speaking to Bobby Olive). I suspect that the Legends will continue their local players preferred policy that worked so well for the franchise in the 2005 & 2008 seasons.

Again, the ownership of the Legends is very adapt at spending money if the money is not their own. Should it come from their pocket, you would have a better chance winning with Ebeneezer Scrooge.

[Canton Cougar Fan]

Legends name Hall as coach
Repository staff report
Saturday, October 4, 2008

CANTON Rashan Hall is going from the playing field to the sidelines for the Canton Legends.

The former McKinley High School standout was named the American Indoor Football Association team's head coach Friday, replacing Bobby Olive. Olive took over for Ed Korns midway through a 3-11 season in 2007-08..

Hall played linebacker for the Legends the last three seasons and was a member of the team's 2006 American Indoor Football League championship team.

He has coached at Hartford Middle School for four years, including the past two as head coach.

"I'm definitely excited. I've waited for an opportunity like this for a long time," he said.

Hall played at Kent State University and is employed by Pastoral Counseling, serving as a case worker in Akron Public Schools.

His new position will including scouting and recruiting players. "I'll try to put together the best talent I can and go from there," he said.

Hall expects to name a coaching staff and announce tryout information in the coming weeks.

"Rashan has a great knowledge of the indoor game ... and the respect of many players and coaches," Legends owner Joe Hoffman said.

www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=434454&Category=17&subCategoryID=0

[exit322]

The coaching inexperience doesn't bother me a whole lot. The fact that the Legends simply won't have a good team or any sort of fan base...that does bother me. It'd be nice to be able to go see a team that's 15 minutes from my house now, but I'm not going to waste my time for a half-assed organization.

[Canton Cougar Fan]

The mind set on Market St is that if you fill your roster with local players, high school stars, the locals will come out to see them and it's irrelevant whether you win or lose.

Not to mention the fact that if you have a roster full of local players, there are no housing or meal fees, etc. Coach Hall may be able to attract the talent, but will management be willing to do what they need to do to retain that talent.

Look for 2009 to be a repeat of 2008. All the fans care about is wins.

[UnoBomber]

From a defensive aspect, Hall was a great indoor player. So the lack of experience compared to his actually playing experience should even out the imbalance. But the legends organization need to man up and get butts in the seats. Or this is the last season.

[Free Agent Fan]

Ron forgot to mention that he no longer runs one of the original fan clubs anymore. Canton lost fans already, especially their core ones.

[exit322]

Yeah, Canton doesn't have a whole lot of people that even care at this point. When the APFL has three teams that consistently draw better than you...and you play in the birthplace of professional football...you stink.

[picman]

The story about Rashan being named head coach has been take off the Legends home page? Make you wonder if something is going on there.

[Canton Cougar Fan]

Oct 4, 2008 11:16:56 GMT -5 UnoBomber said:

From a defensive aspect, Hall was a great indoor player. So the lack of experience compared to his actually playing experience should even out the imbalance. But the legends organization need to man up and get butts in the seats. Or this is the last season.

I disagree that being a great player even's out an imbalance on coaching experience. To do it right, there is far more involved, now.

[exit322]

It doesn't eliminate it, but it does help to an extent. If he's a good coach, it'll show quickly, regardless of what experience he may or may not have.

Or, in this case, it won't. Not sure if limiting the loss to 54-20 is better than 54-8 or not.

[Canton Cougar Fan]

This really does bother me. I've been to every Legends home game (except one) since they have been around. I watched the entire first year that AH owned them. Was there in 2006 when we went into a Reading game without a quarterback and got rolled at home, and I was there when we defeated Rome for the championship. I was there all through 2007 when we felt we would just walk out on the field and repeat ... until Reading knocked us off again. Last year felt just like 2005 again ... only I was seeing it from the inside out.

It hurts to see this franchise floundering in mediocrity when all it would take is a bit of effort and smart decisions to turn this thing around. Rashan Hall is a hell of a nice guy and a damn good linebacker. I'm not so much concerned with the coaching, because coaching was NOT the problem last year although he was blamed for it.

So, the offer still remains on the table for other franchises. If you want someone with good, low cost ideas on how to get asses in the seats, I'm available.

[Free Agent Fan]

I'll attest to Ron's ideas. He has some pretty good ones. Most fans know what other fans like. I especially like the idea Ron had that was shot down. It would have sold out Canton for every home game. It's a shame, I've been here since day one also and offered suggestions. Hell, we would go to extra games besides our own(22 games). Here is an example (kudos to Scooter) and we gave teams ideas then to help get more fans.

Game Date Teams Mileage Means Result Total
#01 Fr 2/09 Erie/Canton 293.88 Drove 43-26Cant. 293.88
#02 Sa2/17 Danville/Erie -------- ------- 49-21Erie --------
#03 Su2/25 Erie/Reading 721.41 Bus 46-38Read. 1015.29
#04 Su3/04 Johns./Erie -------- ------ 44-42John. --------
#05 Fr3/16 Reading/Erie -------- ------ 50-35Read. --------
#06 Fr3/23 Read./Canton 293.88 Drove 50-19Read. 1309.17
#07 Sa3/24 Erie/Carolina 1156.57 Bus 40-29Carol. 2465.74
#08 Th3/29 Erie/Danville 1001.89 Drove 48-45Danv. 3467.63
#09 Sa4/07 Hunt./Erie -------- ------ 45-44Hunt. --------
#10 Th4/12 Erie/Hunt. 780.70 Bus 70-48Hunt. 4248.33
#11 Sa4/14 Flor./Pitts. 298.67 Drove 66-60Pitts. 4547.00
#12 Sa4/21 Canton/Erie ------- ------ 49-44Cant. -------
#13 Sa4/28 Erie/Johns. 355.33 Bus 63-21John. 4902.33
#14 Sa5/05 Tall/Johns. 355.33 Drove 67-60Tall. 5257.66
#15 Sa5/12 Pitts./Erie ------- ------ 52-45Pitt. -------
#16 Fr5/18 John./Cant. 293.88 Drove 38-16Cant. 5551.54
#17 Sa5/19 Erie/Pitts. 298.67 DrVans 86-72Pitt. 5850.21
#18 Sa5/26 Miss./Erie ------- ------- 53-47Miss. -------
#19 Sa6/01 Hunt./Cant. 293.88 Drove 52-50Cant. 6144.09
#20 Th6/07 Hunt./Cant. 293.88 Drove 76-43Cant. 6437.97
#21 Fr6/22 All Star Game 1442.13 Drove 59-45North 7880.10
#22 Sa6/23 Amer. Bowl I ------- ------ 54-49Lake. -------
Fr/Sa 11/2-3 Owner Meet. Bal. 742.22 Drove ------------ 8622.32

Now for a few fun facts:
We (Joe) drove 5608.31 miles and rode the bus 3014.01 miles.
We traveled to / through 9 States.
We saw 11 different teams win games plus the North All Stars.
We saw every AIFA team play this season, except: Baltimore, Gulf Coast & Montgomery.
In the 22 games that we saw, 2099 points were scored.
The home teams went 11-9 (didn't count All Star/ Amer. Bowl I)