Richmond Versus Albany—Round Two Is At Hand
David Chappell
Thursday April 10, 2003
Richmond (0-1) had a short week of preparation coming off Saturday’s last second defeat to the same Albany Conquest (1-0) they will be facing at Pepsi Arena tomorrow night. In addition to limited preparation time, the Speed are having to deal with major injury and personnel issues that were occasioned by the hard fought opener against the Conquest.
Topping the Richmond injury list is Speed rookie quarterback Joel Gordon. It was determined after Saturday’s game that Gordon broke the middle finger on his throwing hand while tossing a 45-yard scoring pass to Jeff Townsley early in the second quarter. According to Speed Head Coach Richard Davis, Gordon will be out of action for four to six weeks. Commenting on Gordon’s injury, Davis said, “Joel Gordon lived up to everything I thought he’d do, and Joel is going to be a heck of a football player. We’ve lost a superstar, but sometimes what that does is tell the team that the rest of us have to step up and be superstars in our own ways. Joel is going to be really good in this league.”
Other significant Speed injuries are OL/DL Al Ford who according to Davis has a ”banged up knee,” and is not expected to play Friday night. FB/LB Rodney Sledge is nursing an injured calf, and Davis said that his status for tomorrow night would be a game time decision.
There will be three new faces on the Speed’s roster tomorrow night in Albany. Due to the injury to Gordon, Richmond quickly moved to bolster their ranks at quarterback by adding veteran Wes Counts, who was 9-1 last year as a starter with Tennessee Valley before breaking his leg. According to Davis, “Wes Counts has a lot of experience in our league, and does a lot of one thing that I like and that’s called winning. He’s a winner, a smart and fluid guy. We jumped on him, pulled the trigger and got him in here, and he likes it here.”
The Speed have released Jeff Falkowski, the team’s kicker in the season opener last week. Richmond’s new kicker is Nathan White, who played college football at Fairmont State College in West Virginia. Davis is extremely excited about White, who the coach says “has got a bomb for a leg.” Davis went on to say about White, “I like who he is, his mannerisms and the way he carries himself. This is going to be a good fit.”
The other major acquisition for the Speed this week is 6’0” 305 pound OL/DL James Bridges, a former All-OhioValley Conference standout and four-year starter at defensive tackle for Murray State University. According to Davis, Bridges is a perfect fit for arena football. In describing Bridges, Davis says, “James has a high motor and the motor runs hot. He’s a high tempo guy and we need that. We need a little bit of street fighting in us right now. I like him, and he’s going to be a disciplined, tough, ornery guy.”
Despite a short week to get ready, the head coach expressed satisfaction with the team’s preparations for the return match with Albany. However, Monday night’s film session was not particularly pleasant with the team according to Davis. “I let them know in very clear detail about their job performances. Monday was about commitment. Monday was about making them understand that I don’t care about you admitting you made a mistake, but you need to go the next step and commit to not doing it again.” Davis said that on Tuesday everyone was emotionally drained from the film review the night before, but the team was efficient and methodical at practice. As for last night’s practice, Davis said there was “great body language, great attention to detail, nice forward surge in terms of job at hand and let’s go on and let’s get it done. Yea, I think we’re going to be good.”
Tomorrow night the Conquest figure to give Richmond another large dose of OS Corey Hill, who caught ten passes for 66 yards and one TD in the opener. Albany quarterback Ryan Vena has given Richmond fits both throwing and running the ball. For Richmond, WR/LB Kevin Harvey always seems to play well against the Conquest. Richmond OS Damon “Redd” Thompson was held to three catches for 54 yards last week, and will be looking to make a bigger impact tomorrow.
In looking ahead to tomorrow’s game with the Speed, Vena said, “I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a battle, I know that.” Davis said the Speed are looking forward to the rematch as well. “The first road trip of the year is always fun. The guys like to get out of town and let their hair down a little bit.” But the Richmond coach left no doubt that the Speed will be all business at 7:30 tomorrow night. Davis said the fact that the Speed are playing Albany back to back, and the Conquest took ‘round one,’ does not alter his approach to tomorrow’s rematch. “My goal as a coach is to be 1-0 every week we play, so this week I want to be 1-0. The way I serve this football team best is to stay focused, task at hand, 1-0 or 0-1 doesn’t matter, we play one opponent this week, and focus on them.”
Odds and Ends; This and That
After tomorrow’s contest, the Speed enjoy a bye week, their next game being at home April 26 against the Norfolk Nighthawks...The game in Albany tomorrow is the Conquest’s only home game in their first six, as they then embark on a four game road trip starting with the improved Mohegan Wolves on April 18…Despite dropping the opener, the Speed out gained the Conquest in total yards, and had more first downs…Albany has won its last four regular season games…Richmond has dropped its last two regular season games, and three total including the playoffs…2001 and 2002 af2 Ironman of the Year Kevin Harvey was voted Ironman of the Game for his play against the Conquest last week…Conquest DS Elijah Beamon was named the af2 Defensive Player of the Week last week for his efforts against Richmond.
David Chappell is a native of Richmond, Virginia. He has closely followed local sports in Richmond and vicinity for over thirty years, and Arena Football 2 since its inception. David currently writes extensively for a website that he co-founded which documents professional wrestling in Virginia and surrounding areas from 1974-1986. A former elected prosecutor, David is currently a practicing attorney in a large downtown Richmond law firm.
