Fran's Take: Freedom Wrap up Inaugural Season
by Fran Stuchbury
July 10, 2014 - Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL)
Trenton Freedom
Saturday I went to the Sun National Bank Center to attend the Trenton Freedom Professional Indoor Football League playoff game against the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks. I got there early and was able to tailgate with my friends, a group of eight people who wanted to go the game. Everyone was having a good time talking and enjoying the food my friend Carmine Zappola brought with him.
I got into the arena early because Freedom head coach Kevin O'Hanlon invited me to get a pre-game feel of what goes on prior to the Freedom contests. I ran into a lot of people involved with the team.
I spoke to Freedom offensive coordinator Ryan Vena. I covered him when I went to arenafootball2's ArenaCup in 2007 in Bossier City, Louisiana when he played quarterback for the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton Pioneers. They lost to the Tulsa Talons in an exciting 73-66 game. Vena played for another af2 team, the Albany Conquest, and three Arena Football League teams: Columbus Destroyers, Iowa Barnstormers and the Philadelphia Soul. He did a good job as the offensive coordinator with the Freedom. He could eventually be an indoor/arena football head coach.
Macy Golder, who handles stats and reporting for the Freedom was a Penn State graduate in 2013, told me this was her real job since she graduated and is grateful for the Freedom giving her this opportunity. She has done a solid job all season long interviewing the Freedom players.
Erik Houser who serves as the Freedom stadium reporter was another person who was grateful for being given an opportunity to work for them. He did a good job running the fan contests on the field during breaks. He was easily recognizable by everyone with him wearing a Freedom ninth man jersey.
Freedom broadcaster Dave Leno was nice enough to give me a tour of the the locker-room for the Freedom and while down there I ran into General Manager Megan Williams who once again thanked me for all the coverage I have given the Freedom this season.
I went up to the press box, where I had a very nice view of the game. The Freedom lost to the Steelhawks 49-38. Here are some observations of the game.
The Freedom defense got burned on two long touchdown passes. The first was a 40-yard pass for Steelhawks QB Shane McSweeny to Troy Pascley in the first quarter, and they hooked up again on a 42-yard pass near the end of the 4th quarter that put the game out of reach.
The Steelhawks operated their offense with the quarterback in a shot gun formation all season long which is a rarity in indoor/arena football. Steelhawks Head Coach Chris Thompson explained, "We use it effectively and used it all-season long; we rep and we prepare for it. We slide protect; we gap protect our offensive line; we do the things we have to do give the quarterback time to throw. He sees the whole field and obviously it works for us."
Steelhawks QB Shane McSweeny added, "I like it. In college I was in a shot gun offense. I feel more comfortable back there catching it and throwing it."
If Lehigh Valley goes on to win the PIFL Championship and beat the Nashville Venom, maybe you will see teams try the shot gun. When the Miami Dolphins were the first team to use the wild-cat offense, other NFL team went on to copy it.
Despite the loss, Freedom Head Coach Kevin O'Hanlon is very happy with what his team accomplished this season. "I loved this team," he said. "I loved how far this team came; our goal was to win the championship. I'm proud of this organization and ownership. We can build on this experience to be a better team next season."
On my train ride home I spoke to a guy named Martin Francis. I told him I just came back from a Trenton Freedom game, he was shocked because he didn't know they even had a team.
Martin played high school football at Trenton and told me not only will he go to games next season, he will do everything he can to spread the word and help build up the fan-base. I gave him my business card, he wants to read all the Freedom articles I wrote for OurSports Central this season.
It was a win-win situation for me; the Freedom get more fans at games next season and I get a person who wants to follow my work.
Despite the loss, people should be very happy with what the Freedom accomplished this season as a first year expansion team in the Professional Indoor Football League.
If someone told me I was going get involved covering another football league and have a lot of passion for it I would have told them no way.
I really enjoyed covering the Arena Football League. I was in New Orleans covering ArenaBowl XXII in 2008 where the Philadelphia Soul defeated the San Jose SaberCats 59-56. Shorty after, the league suspended operations and came back in 2010 with the players making significantly less money so the talent level was lower.
When the Philadelphia Soul came back in 2011 I went to two of the games with my friend Carmine but I ended up having fun more talking to my friends than following the game because it had such a different feel. I simply wasn't enjoying it as much and if I got back involved in it would have been difficult to invest my time following it.
Carmine invited me to go the Trenton Freedom game on May 3rd of this year vs. the Richmond Raiders. I told him I was travelling by train to West Trenton, and he had no problem picking me up from there.
The Freedom overcame a 16-point fourth quarter deficit with six minutes left to win the game 33-32. It was a really fun and exciting game so I decided to write a fans point of view article for OurSports Central with my take on it.
After I shared the link to the article on the Freedom Facebook page, the Freedom O'Hanlon replied and told me it was a great article. Then I noticed the article was getting shared by a lot of people on their Facebook pages. When I noticed my story got 86 Facebook likes it made me realize that people care about this team and it is worth giving them good coverage.
When I covered Arena Football my main focus was doing interviews. Game recaps are fine, but the local newspapers can do that. So I ended up doing a lot of interviews with people involved with the Freedom, including Public Address Announcer/Director of Promotions Brian Fish, Co-Owner Dennis Williams, General Manager Megan Williams, Broadcaster Dave Leno and quarterback Warren Smith.
Another thing that helped was going to the Freedom coaches show at the Continental Tavern in Yardley, Pennsylvania. I was able to talk to people who worked with the team and get to know them better.
One of the people I enjoyed talking to is broadcaster Dave Leno. He didn't look at what he was doing for the Trenton Freedom as a hobby; he took it very seriously. I could hear that listening to Freedom games on the radio. As he put it, he wanted to put the listener on the edge of their seat. There were a lot of close Freedom games, and he was able to do that.
Everybody I dealt with was friendly and down to earth with no egos, which was nice. Anytime I had a question they would get back to me as quickly as they could. I learned that was not just the case with the Freedom, as I also experienced that with the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks. I promised General Manager Mike Clark if his team made the playoffs I would interview him and I followed through on that promise.
I plan to go to a Steelhawks game next season probably when they play the Freedom, and Clark told me he would happy to have me at a game.
Covering the Trenton Freedom was a very positive experience for me. I made a lot of new friends when I tailgated at the games. I got my passion back for covering indoor football. The PIFL brand of football is a better product than I thought it would be. Hopefully the attendance will get much better next season. The people from the Freedom know what worked well and what didn't.
I plan to give the Freedom some coverage during the off-season when they have news or any events I can attend. I'm happy to be back to contributing to OurSports Central again! If you have any questions or comments about the Freedom feel free to drop me an email at arenazone@yahoo.com, and I will be more than happy to get back to you.
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Professional Indoor Football League Stories from July 10, 2014
- Fran's Take: Freedom Wrap up Inaugural Season - OSC Original by Fran Stuchbury
- Fran's Take: Freedom Wrap up Inaugural Season - OSC Original by Fran Stuchbury
- Fran's Take: Freedom Wrap up Inaugural Season - OSC Original by Fran Stuchbury
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
