Cape Fear Wildcats Contending for Division Title
Keith Murphy
Friday June 7, 2002
So, at the midway point in the season, Siegfried is dreaming of taking Cinderella to the playoff ball, “I try not to look ahead, but obviously for the Cinderella story it would be great for me to play against Kevin [Porter] in the conference championship. I think Macon is closer to that than we are. We’ve still got Richmond on our schedule and if we’re fortunate enough to make the playoffs it will almost certainly mean playing Richmond again.”
Richmond’s loss last week allowed the ‘Cats to climb within a game of the first place Speed. A deficit that now seems within reach. Yet, Siegfried says he remains focused on what his team has to do each weekend. “I don’t do any scoreboard watching. I just wait for the end of the evening and check out the scores on Arenafan.”
The ‘Cats immediate focus is Saturday’s trip to Greensboro Saturday to take on the 2-7 Prowlers. “Greensboro’s got a good offense. Our defense is going to be tested this week. We’ve got to take care of ourselves. If we play a solid game and minimize mistakes we’re going to have a good chance of winning this game. Keep in mind, though, this is a Greensboro team that should have beaten Richmond and has been in every game that I’ve seen them on film. For whatever reason they’re having breakdowns near the end of games that are costing them wins. They’re a team that scares me as far as what they can do offensively.”
Despite being nearly eliminated from playoff contention, Siegfried believes that the Prowlers still have a great deal to play for and will provide his team with stiff opposition. “Teams like this are very dangerous to play. Their record doesn’t reflect how good they are. I have a lot of respect for what they can do, especially at the skill positions. I can’t treat Greensboro any differently than I treat Richmond or Roanoke. They’re in our division and we’ve got to win the game.”
The ‘Cats will field their ninth different lineup in nine games Saturday as trades and injuries have one again forced Siegfried to continuously shake up his roster. “We haven’t played two consecutive games with the same roster. A lot of the moves I’m making I feel are to improve our team. The others are made because we’re hurt. I’d love to have the same lineup every week, but guys are getting hurt so I can’t do that. Some of my moves have been due to necessity and due to injury.” And, as Siegfried points out, sometimes necessity is the Fairy Godmother of invention, “One of our receivers [Hosea Friday] is going to play fullback/linebacker this weekend. Of course he’s 230 pounds and he’s pretty good. It’s nice to have a receiver who is good enough to do that.”
Perhaps the biggest roster move was the trade of the Wildcats’ top scorer, Norman Mason, to the Macon Knights. “He needed to move on -- to go with another team. He’s a sensational player. Part of me feels that I might have just made Macon the best team in the League.” Siegfried chose to trade Mason to Macon because of his close relationship with Knights’ head coach Kevin Porter and because there is now only one way his defense would have to cover Mason again this season: “For me to see Mason again, I’m going to have to be in the Conference championship and I can live with that. It just didn’t seem like he was real happy here. I hope we’re in a position to see him again.”
The other major roster move came with the release of starting kicker Gary Kral after the team signed former Southern Illinois Saluki Matt Simonton. “We’ve got a kicker who’s very good in Gary Kral. But I found a kicker that I had worked out before who I thought would be in the NFL. To be quite honest with you I owe it to this team to make it better and there’s no position that is immune to making this team better. Matt Simonton is potentially one of the best kickers in this league already. Without even kicking.” Kral missed a number of short field goals which Siegfried feels should be automatic.
Siegfried had planned to try to keep both kickers on the roster in a situation where they would be allowed to compete for the job. However, “Gary talked to me and said he wants to be released. I’m going to do that for him but I don’t want to. I’d like to keep him at least for a couple of weeks to see where we stand. . . . But, I don’t want to keep players who don’t want to be here.”
Despite all the moves, the latest version of the ‘Cats will shoot for their fifth straight win when they tee it up against Greensboro Saturday night at 7:30 at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Dr. Murphy has nearly 20 years of media experience ranging from radio to the Internet. He has served as webmaster for two AF2 teams and the football team at Fort Valley State University. He is a professor at FVSU and directs www.bunniwerks.org, a non-profit rabbit rescue organization. He has been commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel. Murphy is also serving as a first party editor of af2 stories for ArenaFfan. For more information about Dr. Murphy see: www.keithmurphy.info
