More than Just Fans Witness Convincing Firebirds Victory
Matthew Pickut
Monday June 18, 2001
I asked her what she thought when she heard her son would be coming to Indiana. “I had some worry when I heard they were coming, it’s a little father [from her home in Cheecktowaga, NY] to here then to Albany, but what great fans here and a state of the art arena. . . Indiana is going to love this team.”
Diane and the rest of the Indiana fans had a lot to cheer about Friday night as the hometown Firebirds beat the Chicago Rush 58-30. The Firebirds were led by a great team defensive performance in spite of the fact that regular starting DS Cedrick Walker didn’t play. Head Coach Mike Dailey inserted DS Greg Williams in Walker’s place. Williams responded with an interception, one of five Indiana had on the night. WR/DB Lamar Grant added a pick and tipped a pass that lead to another turnover. “It felt good, my whole thing is to try and come in and make some plays,” said Grant, “We really felt like we shouldn’t have lost to that team, we came out here tonight and wanted to leave it on the floor and show them we’re a better team.”
“We have some good young guys who are really working hard,” said Dailey, “you have to have some people step up, they stepped in and made some things happen, that’s what you need to be a good team.” The team stepped up on defense and harassed Chicago QB Billy Dicken all night long. Dicken left the game after just 3 quarters while being intercepted 3 times.
WR/LB Greg ‘Hop’ Hopkins caught replacement QB Tim Carey’s first pass as the Firebird’s rush treated Carey no better than Dicken. “It was important [to get a pass rush],” said OL/DL Mark Valvo, “that’s what this game is about, I think we got in there and rattled them. We did what we wanted to do.” When asked about having his mom here for the game Valvo said, “I got a little choked up. I hadn’t seen her in a while, she enjoys the games, I think she’ll be more depressed than me when I retire.”
The 11,652 fans were the biggest crowd so far this year for the Firebirds. “I think Indiana has been treating us great, the fans have got right into the sport,” said team owner Glen Mazula, “they’ve been supportive of the team, I think the press has been behind us. Sponsors have shown up and they’re satisfied with what they’re seeing. But what I really like is the demographics, it’s not just men, it’s a good group of families and I’m happy to see that.”
After the game the mood in the locker room reflected a team that just won its fourth straight game. Author/WR/DB Jeff Foley joined the team in the locker room as Hopkins presented Coach Dailey with a copy of Foley’s book “War on the Floor”. The team members seemed genuinely happy to see Foley who made the trip to Indy to promote his book about being a member of the team during the 1999 and 2000 pre-seasons.
Next week the ‘birds take on division co-leader Grand Rapids. A win against the Rampage would put Indiana into sole posession of the division lead, but Coach Dailey doesn’t plan on changing the team’s pre-game preparation. “You can’t reinvent the wheel in one week,” said Dailey, “you go out there and do the little things, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
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.
