03/30/08

Wyoming Cavalry opens home season April 4
By Ernie Over

(CASPER) – The Wyoming Cavalry opens its seven game home indoor football schedule on Friday April 4 at the Casper Events Center with a veteran squad, a new league and home-and-home games against teams in three states.

The Cavalry franchise is now a member of the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA) and will compete this season in the league’s West Division against teams in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. The Wyoming franchise abandoned its prior association with the failing National Indoor Football League at the conclusion of last season and was the runner-up in the 2007 Budweiser Bowl.

“We are hungry for a championship, and that is our goal this year,” said second year coach Dan Maciejczak at the team’s media day event March 22. “I feel so much more comfortable with the new league. It’s not just a bunch of owners out for themselves. We have an established league with established teams.”

Coach “Magic” also said he was pleased to have the core of last year’s team returning, along with several new players. “It looks like we’ll be solid in the key areas,” he said,
“we have a lot of returning veterans, which means we’ll have good leadership and experience on the field.”

Popular team quarterback Matt Strand returns for his seventh season in Casper.

“I really enjoy this game and I know I can only do it for so long, so I want to play as long as I can,” Strand said. “The new league will present many new challenges on both sides of the game, so we’ll have to step it up.”

Because the AIFA West has just four teams this season, and each team plays a 14 game schedule, the Cavs will become very familiar with their division rivals. “It will be harder to beat the other teams consistently because of the adjustments they’ll be making against us, but that’s what will make this an exciting season,” Strand said.

The Cavs have been running pre-season drills for the past two weeks and opened their 2008 season on the road Saturday night in Utah against the Saints.

With the new league comes a new red, white and blue game football, plus new rules, the most obvious of which will be on the defensive side of the game.

“We can only have two linebackers in the defensive box, one will stay put and can only play sideline to sideline within six yards of the line of scrimmage. We’ll see more man to man defensive coverages now, which is a big change from the zone defenses we’ve run in the past,” Maciejczak said.  “On offense, we can only have two guys in motion, instead of three, and the tailback must say in the offensive box until the ball is snapped. The rules are very similar to those in the Arena League games,” he said.

Another rule change is the possibility of an “extra” extra point after touchdowns. “On the ensuing kickoff, if the ball sails through the goalposts, that’s one point. So it’s possible to score nine points on one touchdown this year,” coach Magic said.

The Cavalry’s last season in the NIFL was plagued with game cancellations and lopsided wins over less talented teams, primarily from Colorado. The Cavalry franchise cut their ties with the league and decided to join the AIFA after being courted by several indoor football leagues.

One of the most successful indoor football franchises in the region, the Cavalry has fielded teams since 1999 and was the NIFL’s 2001 Pacific Conference Champions. The Cavalry teams have been favorites with Central Wyoming fans, drawing an average crowd count of 3,847 fans for home contests at the Casper Events Center.

“Going to a Wyoming Cavalry game is like being in Disneyland and all of a sudden a football game breaks out,” said General Manager Mike Layton. “Sure, it’s about football, but each game is an event, and we strive to make each game a real experience for everyone that attends.”

New this season is the opportunity to follow the Cavs with play-by-play streaming audio from away contest sites on the team’s website, www.wyomingcavalry.com. [sic Mark Maida, will call the action.]

The Cavs first home game April 4 will bring the Arizona Adrenaline to Casper. Game time is 7:30 p.m.