They’ll sit in bleachers used at one time or another by Washington State University, Eastern Washington University, all of the local high schools, the Seattle Seahawks, and even the King himself, Elvis Presley.

 

They’ll see a field from 4.4 miles away in the Spokane Arena on a Turf Armor surface that came from 2,805 miles away in Orlando, Florida played between boards from 200 miles away in Yakima, Washington. They’ll see concrete supports and cranes from the Spokane area providing support to the dasherboards and the rebound nets.

 

What they won’t see, but for split-seconds on a short time-lapse YouTube clip to be made after the game, is the sacrifice in time and effort from the crew, mostly interns, who spent the entire week putting down the 38 tons of Turf Armor (Tuesday and Wednesday), rolling up the turf at the arena and rolling it back out at Albi (Thursday), setting up the rebound nets and providing support to the boards (Friday), and setting up all the amenities and getting everything ready for the crowds to make the event as comfortable as the Spokane Arena.

 

Under the guidance (and thanks to the forklift and logistics skills) of Lance Beck, the Shock’s Director of Marketing and Operations, the crew has turned the empty field turf of Albi into the Spokane Arena for one Saturday night.

 

At the end of each night, when the rest of the staff has left to get ready for the next day, there are typically just four people left with Beck. Three are second-year interns stuck around for this year – Matthew Bruhn and John McMullan, who were both game operations and marketing interns last year, and myself (see informational bar underneath for details).

 

With this year’s addition of ops/marketing intern Josh Clayton, at least one member of the foursome has been at Albi working from a 7 a.m. start time until Beck shuts down the stadium lights each night this week between 11 p.m. and midnight.

 

“I definitely think it’s going to be a great thing for the fans and for the team. It’s a lot of work, but in the end, it’s going to be 100 percent worth it,” Bruhn (pronounced Bruin, like the bear) said.

 

While this week has been relatively glamorous for the intern crew, which has made it on the local news as the media covers the stadium conversion as it happens, the work doesn’t stop when the cameras go away and the game moves back indoors. Bruhn, McMullan, and I had jobs and school all spring to juggle with the Shock internship. McMullan had another disadvantage – a student at Washington State University, he has to arrange classes to get a day off going into weekends so he can come up and stay and work all day on Fridays until school is out.

 

Once school is out, McMullan effectively becomes a full-time intern for the Shock, absorbing as much as he can in the front office and at the stadium.

 

Bruhn, who will be transferring to a four-year university after this year to pursue a sports management or business degree,  has gotten used to not seeing much of home.

“I don’t have a regular life, not during the spring and summer. It’s school, work, and Shock,” said Bruhn, who starts his days as a valet in downtown Spokane at 5:30 a.m. and has been working until nearly midnight between his job and the internship this week. “Away games, we get some time off – I like sleeping in my spare time now. I don’t go out as much as I used to.”

 

As a season ticket holder for the Shock’s first three years before moving away for a year, Bruhn remembers being a fan and how easy he thought everything seemed. The field was just there. The promotions – they just come with the game.

 

“It’s completely different on the other side. You see all the different behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into it, which is what I love. It’s why I stuck around another year – you learn so much that you take for granted as a fan,” Bruhn said.

 

That insider knowledge, along with the camaraderie with fellow interns and Shock staff and players, is the biggest thing the interns take away from their work. For AFL interns, especially those that come back to volunteer their time again, the entire production of a game is a labor of love.

 

 “Even with these late hours out here, I keep telling myself that it’s going to be a great experience for everybody here,” said McMullan. “That’s really what it’s about in sports, especially in our level. It’s really about the fan experience, not so much personal gain.”

 

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Note: The following was written before Friday’s games, as shown by my willingness to leave in a Cleveland pick that now seems horrifically misguided:

 

Last week saw a Freaky Friday switch happen between Jacksonville, whose defense suddenly couldn’t keep a eunuch from scoring on them, and New Orleans, who rendered Tampa Bay’s offense completely ineffective – their games completely destroyed the system and its picks.

 

Similarly, my disregard for the system cost me in my pick to have Spokane upset the Rattlers in Arizona. A disappointing 4-4 week brings the overall record to an unimpressive-looking 16-10.

 

Rank	LW	Team	APPPE+	Rank	LW	Team	APPPE+	Rank	LW	Team	APPPE+
1	1	JAX	1.339	7	6	UTA	0.113	13	13	PHI	-0.39
2	2	ARI	0.992	8	9	DAL	0.095	14	14	MIL	-0.441
3	3	CLE	0.41	9	10	TUL	0.047	15	17	IOW	-0.715
4	5	GEO	0.327	10	8	SPO	0.032	16	16	KC	-0.725
5	7	CHI	0.326	11	11	SJ	0.012	17	15	TB	-0.777
6	4	ORL	0.249	12	12	PIT	-0.254	18	18	NO	-0.963

 

Naga Jolokia: Jacksonville

Habanero: Arizona

Jalapeno: Cleveland, Georgia, Chicago, Orlando, Utah, Dallas, Tulsa, Spokane, San Jose

Bell pepper: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Milwaukee

Ketchup: Iowa, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, New Orleans

 

Milwaukee Mustangs (+.522 APPPE+) at New Orleans VooDoo: Milwaukee has been trending up of late, getting closer and closer to evening out the gap in points per possession with opponents over the past four weeks. The VooDoo had an impressive win last week, but I’m going to go back to sticking with the system on APPPE+ gaps this wide. Mustangs come up with a win, allowing New Orleans to (un)successfully complete their winless season at home.

 

Cleveland Gladiators (+.800) at Philadelphia Soul: Cleveland is a better team than Philadelphia, and Philadelphia minus Donovan Morgan sure isn’t looking like much of a threat to upend the Gladiators.

 

Dallas Vigilantes at Jacksonville Sharks (+1.244): Last week’s performance notwithstanding, this is still a dominant Jacksonville team. The Sharks are undefeated at home and probably not too happy about their performance in San Jose. Dallas lost a couple of players on their bye week to other leagues – that certainly won’t help when you’re going up against probably the best team in the league.

 

Chicago Rush at Georgia Force (+.001): Yeesh, no numbers help here. Georgia is a balanced team, one of five in the league to be above .000 on both offense and defense (Jacksonville, Arizona, Orlando, and Cleveland are the others). Chicago, like the AFL website story says, is getting it done on defense – they have the top-ranked defense in the league in points per possession AND they have the second-most points in the league scored by their defense and special teams (96, including extra points on DST touchdowns). When in doubt, take the home team, I say, and so I’ll take Georgia. The loss of Purify is alleviated by the return of two receivers from IR, and the loss of Michna has to cost Chicago at some point, doesn’t it?

 

Tampa Bay Storm at Tulsa Talons (+.824): Call me uninspired by a team that just got thumped on by the worst team in the league. Tulsa needs this to stay in the playoff hunt – if they don’t win here, they’re all but eliminated (I think they can possibly still tie Utah (and advance on tiebreaker) if Utah wins in Spokane, but it requires every single game going their way for three weeks just to get in that scenario).

 

Kansas City Command (-.010) at Iowa Barnstormers: Another coinflip. Since whatever I pick with Iowa is wrong, why bother trying to be right? Go Command!

 

Utah at Spokane (-.081): The first outdoor game in AFL history – hard to predict how the elements might affect this game. It’s supposed to be relatively cool, only getting up into the low 70s in Spokane on Saturday, meaning this might be the coolest game either team will play this season.  

 

Orlando Predators at San Jose SaberCats (-.237): Everyone was talking about how much injuries played a role in the SaberCats’ slide while ignoring another simple, routine explanation. San Jose started the season with six of their first eight games at home. They then spent five of their next six on the road. That’s an obvious recipe for a fast start and a fade – maybe it shouldn’t have been as dramatic a swing as the SaberCats made it, but the schedule certainly didn’t help them right the ship. They’re at home against a fading (in APPPE+) Orlando team that has to make a cross-country trip. We saw how well Jacksonville did with that trip last week. Seems like a good upset pick here.

 

Arizona Rattlers (+1.176) at Pittsburgh Power: Arizona just vanquished their last demon in beating division rival Spokane for the first time, and with Jacksonville’s loss, opened themselves up for an opportunity to host the ArenaBowl. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, hasn’t impressed lately – I (along with likely several Power fans) am excited to see the Bill Stull era begin, but opening up against the Rattlers isn’t the best way to get off to a successful start. Definitely can’t ignore the two standard-deviation APPPE gap, either.

Brian Beaudry has been both an intern and a Director of Communications within the AFL and occasionally provides analysis of the league and the Portland Thunder as an Oregon resident. He maintains a blog, Wrong Way Sports, and you can reach him with research or graphic design suggestions on Twitter at @BeaudryPDX.