Pirates improve both on and off the field
Steve Robinson
Thursday June 10, 2004
Yet, there were not very many sponsors or advertisers as the team would have liked at that tie.
This season, under new general manager Tom Tomaszewski, the team’s image within the community has improved vastly.
“We’re getting a great amount of work done and it’s being done in a business-like manner,” Tomaszewski said. “We are making sure we are giving our clients what it is that they paid for, and if they have had concerns about ways to tweak things to make things better, we’ve responded to (their needs).”
Pirates’ owner Pat Ward brought in Tomaszewski because Tomaszewski knew what 50-yard football in Peoria was all about. He was general manager of the Madison Mad Dogs when they were members of the Professional Indoor Football League in the mid 1990s, whose coach was a guy named Bruce Cowdrey.
And Madison had one season that began disastrously but, Tomaszewski said, had positive results in the end.
“The last time coach and I went through a year where we did not start off to well, we were in Madison, and wound up in the championship game,” Tomaszewski said. “Here, there’s really no time to wait. You do the best you can and work with what you’ve got for as long as you can and when that’s not working, you find a change to get it fixed and then you move on.”
Tomaszewski had worked with and for Keary Ecklund, the inventor of the Indoor Football League, who owned all eight fledgling teams in IFL’s first season in 1999 and all but one of the league’s 16 teams in 2000 before Orlando Predators Entertainment, operators of the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League, bought IFL in whole from Ecklund with the express purpose of owning the Pirates.
Because of that experience, it was felt, Tomaszewski understood what the community would and would not accept from their team.
When Peoria went looking for a buyer to rescue it from a financially near-empty OPE, Tomaszewski said, Ecklund, now living in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, was not contacted, nor showed an interest in being responsible for mounting the team’s financial rescue.
“Kerry’s moved on to other things in his life these days,” Tomaszewski said.
Nothing Special: One thing people might have noticed when they first got their 2004 Pirates schedule was that there were no theme nights attached to the games, such as “Country-Western Night,” or “Hawaiian Night,” as there had been in past years. Tomaszewski said the team had a reason for that.
“We’ve been doing promotions and been handing out stuff at the games (and) we had to evaluate what brings people in and what doesn’t,” Tomaszewski said. “I am always looking for promotions that will increase our crowd as opposed to doing promotions for the sake of promotions.”
A recent post-game fundraiser auction where the proceeds went to the Muscular Dystrophy Association raised over $4,000 for the charity. Lineman Ken Bouie’s jersey was the event’s top item sold, for $700.
Louisville On Fire: For the next two weeks, beginning with Saturday’s 7p.m. game at Carver Arena, the Peoria Pirates will become Fire-fighters. In this case though, the fire they must try to extinguish is the emerging Louisville Fire, led by head coach Tommy Johnson, now in his second season – and first full season – on the sidelines.
Louisville, at 7-2, has command of arenafootball2’s Midwest Division by one game, having singed visitor Quad City last week in nail-biting fashion, 62-61, last Saturday, and thus shifted into first place for the first time this year. With Green Bay and Peoria lagging this season, it has been up to the Fire to try to catch the Steamwheelers.
Last week’s victory managed to do that. In the process, Fire Offensive Specialist Takuya Furutani was named Offensive Player of the Game with 10 receptions for 198 yards and three touchdowns. For his efforts in the Quad City game, Fire wide receiver/linebacker combo Anthony Payton was named Ironman of the Game, snaring nine passes for 153 yards and scoring four touchdowns. He also registered 1 ½ tackles and a half-sack.
In fact, Louisville’s controlled burn has been going on for three weeks now. It started May 22 at Green Bay, where Louisville beat the Blizzard, 59-54. Louisville beat Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 48-47 two weeks ago.
Back-To-Back…Again: For the second year running, the Pirates’ schedule included two straight weeks of battling the same opponent, Louisville. Last year, Peoria had back-to-back weekly tilts with the now-defunct Cincinnati Swarm in July. Each team won an away game from the other in that series.
Coyotes Coach Quits: Central Valley Coyotes of the arenafootball2 league announced that current head coach Cree Morris has resigned from his position effective Tuesday in order to pursue other opportunities. The move will promote current offensive coordinator Fred Biletnikoff Jr. to interim head coach for the remainder of the season, pending league approval. New Coyotes interim head coach Fred Biletnikoff Jr. will become the third head coach in Central Valley’s three-year history.
There was also a front-office resignation in Green Bay, as Deb Bartlement who has been general manager for the Green Bay Blizzard since it began last year, resigned last week.
Steve Robinson, a freelance writer since 1984, has written about the Peoria Pirates since the Pirates were members of Indoor Football League, beginning in 1999. He covers the Pirates currently for the Bloomington IL Pantagraph.
