Austin`s Inaugural Season Bittersweet
Christopher M. Duchene
Friday June 4, 2004
The bitter part about the situation is that the Wranglers know that they were capable of making a run for that Arena Bowl Trophy. An 8-8, par record does not satisfy anyone when the Wranglers went midway through the season turning heads throughout the league.
The sweet of the situation? Well, you had an All-AFL lineman in Tom Briggs, as well as three All-AFL rookies on your roster that look to lead the way for the franchise for years to come. At 8-8, most AFL fans will tell you that that the record is better than most inaugural teams in this league. But wait, 2004 was different. This season proved that an expansion team can make a run towards a championship.
In the off-season, I can guarantee you that Head Coach Skip Foster will take and mix the good with the ugly to show many of the young players on this team what will have to be done to assure that they come back stronger next year. And though right now people in Austin are having a hard time swallowing this season, anticipation for next season will only fuel the fire for this franchise.
And though the season ends in bittersweet fashion for the Wranglers this year, with hard work in the off-season, this same time next year the headline may read, “Wranglers Ready for Playoff Push.”
Christopher Duchene is from El Paso, Tx. He currently lives in Austin, Tx and is a Freshman at Austin Community College majoring in Sports Management. After college he hopes to attend law school where he will study sports law hoping one day to become a successful sports agent.
