Firebirds First Scrimmage an Exercise in Self Discovery
Matthew Pickut
Monday January 26, 2004
“I honestly have no idea; I have nothing to compare it to,” admitted Coach DeBerg. “I’m new to Arena Football. I’m not sure if I have a good team or a bad team. I know the team and the coaches have worked hard to do just about everything we can do to prepare the team to go out and play the game, but I really don’t know what to compare it to.”
Coach DeBerg looks for his team to execute his new system well, even though some of his players are new to the AFL game.
“Number one, you hope they do what they’ve been taught to do, not bust assignments,” said DeBerg. “Then once they’re doing what they’re supposed to do, you hope they prove that they have the athletic abilities to make plays.”
“It’s tough,” continued DeBerg. “You know there are a lot of guys on the team who haven’t played Arena Football, who never played both ways. It’s double learning compared to the outdoor game. And to play one position—it’s more of a mental burden, even with what I’m used to in the NFL. The toughest position is the linemen have been defensive pass rushers all their life and now they turn around and play offensive line and they’ve never done that before. Even listening to the offensive plays is different for them. There is a learning curve and I understand that.”
One of the things the team needs is to discover: a new starting quarterback to replace Raymond Philyaw who signed with Chicago in the offseason. Between quarterbacks Adrian McPherson, Kevin Daft and Tony Zimmerman, DeBerg revealed that “no one has separated themselves as a number one and no one has certainly shown that they shouldn’t be here.”
“It’s tough,” said DeBerg. “In Arena Football, we can only keep two. We have three guys who could be a starter for this team”
Regardless of what happens Monday, the Firebirds will have a better understanding of where they stand as a team. With only one round of cuts to get down to 20 players by opening day everyone will trying to show their best game to the coaches and staff.
Matthew Pickut is a pastor in northern Indiana and a long time AFL fan. He also writes for his own website: The Brown Paper Blog. He graduated from Taylor University in Upland Indiana (class of `96) with degrees in Biblical Literature and Sociology as well as a healthy respect for the medicinal properties of coffee.
