Rampage Look Good in Scrimmage
Randy Snow
Thursday February 14, 2008
If you are reading this, then I must have survived the harrowing drive to and from Grand Rapids Tuesday night in the midst of a driving snow storm. What would possess a person to drive for an hour and half (top speed 45 miles an hour) on snow covered roads with temperatures in the teens? Why, Arena Football, of course.
The Grand Rapids Rampage conducted a full contact scrimmage with the Cleveland Gladiators on Tuesday, February 12 and this was my first chance to see the new and improved 2008 Rampage team. Inside the Van Andel Arena the action was hot, even though the snow was piling up outside. Those crazy Green Bay Packers fans can have their frozen tundra at Lambeau Field. Arena Football fans get to enjoy the warm surroundings of a climate controlled indoor arena. Heck, even the af2 Green Bay Blizzard know enough to come in out of the cold to play!
The scrimmage was supposed to consist of one half of an actual Arena football game and then each team would run situational plays against the other. But the two teams decided to play an extra quarter of football instead and called it an evening. The final score at the end of the three quarters of play was Rampage 48 - Gladiators 25.
The Grand Rapids defense, which was a concern last season, showed significant improvement during the scrimmage, recording a pair of interceptions including one by Ahmad Hawkins.
There are currently only five or six returning players on the roster who were with the team last year. New Rampage head coach Steve Thonn has certainly cleaned house from the team that finished 4-12 last season. “It’s not like we did it on purpose,” said Thonn. “It was just one of those things that happened. We (the coaching staff) all knew players from other teams when we came here, and we had a lot of good players coming in, so it just kind of happened that way.”
When asked if his team’s performance in the scrimmage was an omen of things to come, Coach Thonn was reluctant to make too much out of it. “There’s no trophies handed out tonight (for winning a scrimmage),” he said. “We played well, but this really doesn’t mean an awful lot.”
Rampage quarterback Adrian McPherson, who signed with the team towards the end of the season last year, had a slightly more optimistic outlook after the scrimmage. “This team will be in the playoffs,” said McPherson. “Our goal is to win the championship and we talk championship everyday. When Steve came in he told us, ‘I’m not here to rebuild, I’m here to win this year.’ Our goal is to win a championship this year and we’re working daily to achieve that goal.”
I think that the hundreds of fans who braved the weather and were there at the scrimmage came away with a good feeling about their team. Any signs that the team is moving in the right direction are welcome indeed, and from what I saw, I have a really good feeling about the upcoming season.
The drive home to Kalamazoo after the scrimmage went a little bit better than the drive up to Grand Rapids. The snow had let up some, there was a lot less traffic on the roads and I was able to actually get up to a top speed of 55 miles an hour! Hopefully, when the Rampage open the regular season on Monday night, March 10, against the San Jose SaberCats, the weather (and the roads) will be much better for everyone.
