Firecats adjust to many changes
With just one game under their belts, the Florida Firecats are without question a work in progress.
After losing their season opener 54-53 last Saturday at Germain Arena to division rival South Georgia, the ‘Cats (0-1) have much work to do when they face the Wildcats (1-0) again this Saturday in Albany, Ga.
“We are coming together,” said Firecats coach Kevin Bouis. “We’re learning. We’ve got some young guys learning arena football and we have our veteran guys on the offensive side of the ball who are learning a whole new system.”
The new system is the result of new offensive coordinator Clint Dolezel, who replaced Ken Mastrole after four years guiding the Firecats offense.
“(Dolezel) came to us from the AFL after that league took the year off to restructure,” said Bouis. “Coach Dolezel is bringing in a whole new offense. It’s the same terminology, but it’s a whole new style that our veteran guys have to learn now after playing with the same schemes for years.”
There are changes to the league itself to deal with, too.
With the AFL idle, the af2 shifted its schedule to accommodate arena availability. Normally, the Firecats still would be in training camp looking to start the season the first week in April. Instead, they started two weeks early.
They were one of four teams to participate in the Kick Off Classic, which the af2 dubs its opening weekend. Essentially, it adds an extra week to the regular season, causing all teams to have two bye weeks.
More changes came within their own division. Gone are the Daytona Beach Thunderbirds. In their place are the Lexington Horsemen.
That change increases the amount of travel the Firecats will have over the course of the year and makes the South Division even tougher to win.
“Obviously we liked that Daytona Beach was only 4 hours away, but on the flip side Lexington was a playoff team last year,” said Bouis, “So everybody in our division (this year) made the playoffs last year. So we have a tough schedule this year, no doubt about it.”