SaberCats Solidify Team for 2003
Tim Ball
Sunday January 19, 2003
Practices are looking more like the day before finals with every player intense on graduating.
Head coach Darren Arbet was snapping at the heels of any player not hustling. “Do I see someone walking?”
I expected to see the recipient of this “vocal prompting” from Arbet to be some hopeful newcomer but when I saw an already trotting Barry Wagner speed up to almost a dead run returning to the huddle… well, let’s just say you should’ve been there. (The practices are open to the public by the way.)
Quarterback Mark Grieb is eager to get into the season though not without missing some of the players from 2002 who will not be there (notably FB/LB Bob McMillen, WR/LB Shalon Baker and WR/DB Omar Smith). “There is always excitement before the season but trying to build the unity needed with some players missing is a challenge,” said Grieb. “You get to know guys and they become friends and it’s hard to see them leave. We won 16 games and the championship by everyone producing when they got the opportunity.”
Grieb doesn’t have that much to lament. Returning players include (to name a few) OS James Hundon, WR/LB Barry Wagner, WR/LB James Roe, FB/LB James Williams, OL/DL Sam Hernandez, OL/DL Joe Jacobs, OL/DL Darrin Kenney, OL/DL Brian Lytle and OL/DL Dan Loney.
A quick trip to the SaberCats website will find that the loyal quarterback will have most of his teammates back, with the addition of many talented players. Notably OS Aaron Bailey of Carolina (19 TD’s) and quarterback Bob Bees (6-3, 216) of the AF2 Richmond Speed, being the most recent addition.
Grieb can rest assured that 2002 rookie sensation DS Clevan Thomas will lead the defense with a year under his belt and having played every game in the 2002 record setting season. As the only player in arena football history to win both Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors, Thomas will want to prove he’s not a one-hit wonder.
Being ready, the key to winning.
As the “star quarterback” Grieb could have taken the majority of the reps in practice but to be a SaberCats player is to realize the importance of being ready when called on.
Grieb was awarded the 2002 Offensive Player of the Year award for impressive statistics but it was also his commitment to team ethics that had Dutton, the only other QB on the team, primed when needed.
No quarterback in pro football delivers the ball to his receivers better than Grieb. And, when Dutton made the adjustments in the playoffs against Orlando and Tampa Bay to replicate what the San Jose receivers came to expect, the MVP trophy for the ArenaBowl had a name with one more letter in it than what was expected.
Backup players are just that. Non-starter does not mean second string in San Jose and the SaberCats winning percentage under Arbet (over 700%) had the team one game shy of a perfect record for a reason.
The 2002 season saw player’s game after game coming in off the bench and maintaining the highest level of performance this league has ever seen.
Awaiting the outcome
As the SaberCats roster will inevitably be trimmed, the players who make it will know that on this team every player on every play is expected to be involved, whether from the sidelines or from the field.
General manager and offensive coordinator Terry Malley has helped craft the SaberCats by way of communicating this commitment. On the practice field players are spoken to (when all goes well) by the coaches and go over each scenario much like craftsmen building a ship. “It takes a special kind of effort to be a winning team,” said Malley. “Discipline to the task at hand is one thing but we look for players who can think as well as they can play.”
Malley’s soft spoken leadership and respect to the players exemplifies the way the SaberCats go about playing in a league that is so fast only the most capable teams make it.
Strength and power are common to football players but Arena Football demands that players overcome mental mistakes in a merciless physical timeframe. Where 30 points can be scored, literally, in minutes.
The strong and intelligent survive in the Arena Football League. The slow of wit and gut fail.
Time will tell
SaberCats players like most of the players in this league are a very happy and accessible bunch.
Those smiles and congenial ways are temporarily (and politely) on hold I found out, as player after player worriedly and quickly moved from practice field to film room, leaving my recorder picking up not the endless clichés of adrenalin rich prose, but sweat smacking on play books, shoulder pads and well, my recorder.
The agonizing wait is on. Who will win the lottery and earn their spot on the 2003 San Jose SaberCats is in the hands of football fate and within the grasp of only 24 men.
Fourteen days and counting.
Tim Ball is a writer in the Chicagoland area. Married and father of three, his opinions on Arena Football reflects the positive aspect of the game as a family event second to none in pro sports.
