Rebirth of Frisco Arena Football

​By: Anthony Miller
​

Frisco has had many arena football teams come in and out of the city over the years. This time around, fans hope to see their team stick around for good in the Indoor Football League when it was announced last month that the new team would be called the Fighters.

The major addition to this team was bringing in one of the most successful coaches in arena football right now with Clint Dolezel. Dolezel has a proven track record of winning as he has never recorded a losing record as head coach. So far in his head coaching career, he has compliled a 102-43 record including winning two Arena Bowls with the Philadelphia Soul in 2016 and 2017. Not only that, but twice he has taken teams (San Angelo Stampede Express and Dallas Vigilantes) from losing records to winning records and playoff appearances.

This will be a new challenge for the ball coach as he and President/General Manager Stephen Evans are responsible for building a franchise from scratch. The first thing they did was build out the coaching staff and brought in names that should be familiar to arena football fans. They made additions to their staff by announcing that former AFL quarterback Dan Raudabaugh who will be offensive coordinator, former AFL Defensive back James Romain who will coach Defensive Backs and Special Teams, and coach Dave Ewart joining Dolezel in Frisco.

Raudabaugh had a successful career as quarterback as he was with Dolezel as his quarterback in Dallas and Philadelphia putting up huge numbers passing for 35,872 yards, 788 touchdowns, and 117 interceptions in 10 seasons. This will be his first coaching job which should present a new challenge with him, but since he has a great understanding of what Dolezel wants out of his team, he should be able to adapt easily.
​
Romain spent five seasons with Dolezel in Philadelphia as he recorded 28 interceptions and had three special team returns for touchdowns. Ewart will also help out with the coaching staff as he has coached both offense and defense in his career. He was a head coach for nine seasons with three different arena teams producing a 46-65 record in that time.

So far, there have been a few players on Twitter that have confirmed that they will be joining the team this season:

De'Vante Kincade, QB
​Caleb Stennis, RB
Sean Jones, LB/DB
Herbert Moore, DL
Mark Munson, WR (Invite Only)

​Kincade was the first player to announce his signing with the Fighters as he has plenty of success on the field. He played at Ole Miss to start his college career before transferring to Grambling State where he threw for 5,904 yards, 54 touchdowns and eight interceptions in two seasons. He found a home with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL a couple of times before hitting free agency. He should be the favorite for the starting job as he has proven to have protected the football and has a great arm.

Moore announced his signing a few days after Kincade did on Twitter as he also played at Ole Miss in his college career. Last year, he played for the New York Streets and was invited to the XFL Showcase in the summer. His experience as a defensive lineman in arena football should help his chances on making the team and starting in the process.

Last weekend, the team held their first tryouts to find new talent to be brought onto the team for their first game of the franchise's existence on March 12th. The full roster has not been announced, but we should be hearing from them in the upcoming weeks.