Pioneers Introduce Cokinos as New Head Cach
Michael Balakier
Wednesday March 5, 2003
Prior to the promotion of Cokinos, who spent most of the last three months on the road recruiting players, there were concerns as to if Kuharich’s departure would affect Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s plans to open training camp on March 19. Cokinos, however, shot down any doubt about not being ready on time.
“One thing I attribute to Lary leaving; he set a course for us that we’re going to follow,” Cokinos said. “This ship is sailing pretty tight right now.” Cokinos also added that the team’s biggest challenge is time and administrative work, but that all personnel are intact.
Cokinos also promised that the 2003 Pioneers would be a character-orientated team.
“I believe in arena football that the lifeline of your team is the players,” Cokinos said. “Character is number one when we sign a player. We want to be a hard working, blue-collar, tough nosed team with character guys; what we call A-level players. When we say their A-level players, it means they’re a cut above, and that’s the type of players we want to bring into the Pioneers this year.”
Pioneers’ president and managing partner Greg Smith said that he has been thoroughly impressed with Cokinos, both in regard to the recruiting process and with his previous head coaching experience. Smith also hinted at what perhaps made Cokinos the best man for the job.
“I like to ask a coach how are you going to deal with adversity; what’s going to happen if this happens or that happens,” Smith said. “I asked Dean ‘what if we go 3-13 in your first year,’ and Dean didn’t stop for a second and said ‘I’ve never gone 3-13 in anything in my life.’”
Odds and Ends
Cokinos said that the Pioneers plan to add five more players to their training camp roster by week’s end, and should have the total number of players up to 35 by the end of next week…Cokinos also said that the Pioneers are expected to hire Chris Williams as offensive coordinator sometime in the near future. Cokinos said that Williams has three years of experience in the af2 and is very talented in evaluating personnel…Smith joked that Wilkes-Barre/Scranton FB/LB Elly Salamo is expected to come into training at the same weight as last year despite cutting his hair. “He lost about ten pounds of hair like I’ve done over the last several years,” Smith joked…Cokinos said that the major reasons why he took an af2 job with his impressive credentials was that it presented an opportunity for him to get back into professional football in the United States and that the Pioneers would be a launching point to further his career…The town where Cokinos grew up, Holbrook, Massachusetts, is the same hometown of former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin hockey player Billy Tibbetts.
Michael Balakier first discovered a knack for writing during his senior year in high school while reporting for his school`s newspaper. Aside from being an Arenaball fan, Michael is an avid Syracuse University athletics follower, which poses a problem for him, as he attends the University of Pittsburgh. Michael plans on using what he has learned through his Arenafan experience to remain as impartial as he can during future Syracuse/Pitt events. Michael also serves as co-Editor of the af2 section of Arenafan Online.
