Banged & Bruised Gladiators Look Toward Bye Week Rest
Marc Viquez
Friday June 22, 2001
“That’s what happens when you build a team. It don’t work in the beginning, but you have to stay the course,” said New Jersey coach Lary Kuharich after the 3-point loss to Florida. The rebuilding process of the organization hopes to show more flare with some of Arena Football’s finest coming to town.
Perhaps the bye week should have occurred a couple of weeks ago, but the team is looking forward to the rest this coming weekend. The team is on the heals of a 54-51 heartbreaker to Florida and looks towards its remaining schedule with a little more hope after their Friday performance. The game boosts a little more seasoning into a lifeless team that needed such an injection or flavor. “We keep playing the way we did tonight and we’re going to win some more football games before the season’s over,” said Kuharich after the Florida game.
The team has faced some bad breaks and a few injuries during the 1-9 campaign, but look for the bye-week to be rehabilitating to players such as Connell Maynor, Lee Wiggins, and George Del Ricco. Del Ricco captured Ironman of the Week honors after missing the previous two games due to injuries.
“It kept him out of a lot of games this year and that hurts. Simple as that,” added Kuharich on the five-year vet of Arena Football. The team is also looking at getting some help on the defense. “We got one defensive specialist injured. Wiggins is coming back, so we got to get a little fresh blood in that area,” said Kuharich
The bye comes at a great time for Maynor who gets a chance to heal some battle scars. “It would give me the chance to heal all my little aches and bruises,” Maynor said after putting up game MVP honors. Maynor was looking to get a full three weeks off, but had to come in during the game to take the place of another injured Gladiator, QB Todd Bankhead. Bankhead now finds himself in need of some rest to take care of a hyperextended knee he suffered during the second quarter.
“We have this open date and it will let everybody get away, get home and hopefully [we’ll] stay with the same process. We’ll get some people in here who can help us,” said Kuharich on the team coming back 100% in two weeks.
The team will have their work cut out for them in the two weeks after the bye when they face Aaron Garcia of the New York Dragons and the 7-2 Indiana Firebirds. They will need all the healthy bodies that can get since Garcia is on pace for a new single season record of 107 touchdowns. Eight of those TD’s came during their last meeting on May 25.
We shall see what New Jersey has up their sleeves as they continue their quest for victory number two of the season. A healthy Gladiators team playing full throttle will look to play spoilers against playoff contenders New York and Indiana in the few weeks. The banged and bruised Gladiators are going to need the rest if they want to close out the season in style.
A fan of the sport since 1990 Marc has covered both the New Jersey Gladiators and Cincinnati Swarm (Af2) for Arenafan Online. Marc now resides in Indianapolis after graduating with a Masters in Sports Management from Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind. When not at a Firebirds game Marc can be found traveling the Midwest covering sports for various Internet and print publications.
