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August 17, 2005 - arenafootball2 (af2) News Release


GREAT COACHES MEET: For the first time in league history two af2 Coaches of the Year will meet in a playoff game as DANTON BARTO leads his Memphis Xplorers against KEVIN GUY's Rio Grande Valley Dorados on Friday night. Barto won the award this past week and Guy earned the honor in 2003 for his work with the Tennessee Valley Vipers.

EXPERIENCE COUNTS: The 2005 ArenaCup Playoffs began with seven of the 12 head coaches coaching their first af2 postseason game. Of those seven only one, Florida's KEVIN BOUIS, still has his team alive in the playoffs. While Bouis is a first year head coach, his 14-2 record is tied for the best record in af2 history for a coach in his first season. The other coach who put up a 14-2 mark in his first season was BRET MUNSEY. Munsey is now the head coach for the AFL's Philadelphia Soul. The other three head coaches have proven to be some of the most successful over the last two seasons. Look below to see the coaches with the top five regular season records over the last two seasons.

HEAD COACH RECORD
Danton Barto (MEM) 23-9
Kevin Guy (TEN, RGV) 22-10
Les Moss (WBS) 22-10
Ben Bennett (FLO, MAN) 21-11
Tommy Johnson (LOU) 20-12

COACH OF THE YEAR CURSE: Sure, winning af2 Coach of the Year is a great honor, but Memphis head coach DANTON BARTO may just want to give the award back because no af2 Coach of the Year has led his team to the championship. Additionally, no coach has even taken his team to the ArenaCup in the season he has been named Coach of the Year. Barto and the Xplorers play Friday night with a chance to make af2 history. Look below to see how each af2 Coach of the Year finished their award-winning season.

SEASON COACH TEAM FINISH
2000 Mike Neu Augusta Lost in Semifinals
2001 Bret Munsey Tennessee Valley Lost in Semifinals
2002 Ron Selesky Albany Lost in Conference Semifinals
2003 Kevin Guy Tennessee Valley Lost in Conference Championship
2004 Les Moss W-B/Scranton Lost in Conference Championship
2005 Danton Barto Memphis ?
*The af2 playoffs featured three rounds with no conference affiliations in the 2000 and 2001 seasons. In 2002, the playoffs expanded to four rounds, with conference first-round, semifinal and championship games preceding the ArenaCup game.

NEW HARDWARE: For the first time in af2 history the league will hand out Conference Championship trophies to the winners of the games this week. Memphis hosts Rio Grande Valley on Friday night at 8:30 p.m. ET in the National Conference Championship game while Louisville travels to Florida to play in the American Conference Championship game on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET. Two teams will earn these new trophies and the right to play in the 2005 ArenaCup on Saturday August 27 at 2:00 p.m. ET.

ROBINSON DOES IT AGAIN: After his 42 rushing yards in the First Round, Rio Grande Valley's CHRIS ROBINSON rushed for 44 yards against the Tulsa Talons last week. His 42 yards the First Round is now the third highest rushing game in postseason history and his 44 yards against Tulsa is now ranked second in postseason history. Still holding the top spot is Peoria's CASEY URLACHER for his 59 yards against Bakersfield last season.

MORE ON ROBINSON: With his two games over 40 yards rushing, CHRIS ROBINSON has brought his career postseason rushing yards total to 110. With another solid game he could become af2's career leader in post season rushing yards. Robinson is chasing CASEY URLACHER, who rushed for 127 yards for Peoria. Urlacher is a former teammate of Robinson as Robinson started his af2 career in Peoria last season. Ranked number four on the list is Robinson's teammate DEDRIC MAFFETT. Look below to see the top five postseason rushers in af2 history.

ATT. YARDS PLAYER
26 127 Casey Urlacher
19 110 Chris Robinson
25 85 Wilmont Perry
23 72 Dedric Maffett
24 69 Steve Gorrie

UPSETS ON TAP: In the ArenaCup Playoffs, history has shown that a home game in the Conference Championship doesn't guarantee a victory. In each of the last five seasons at least one home team has lost when playing for the right to advance to the ArenaCup. In 2002 and 2004 both home teams lost.

SPEAKING OF HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: Both Memphis and Florida posted 7-1 home records this season. Memphis lost to Tulsa on July 9th 44-41 and Florida lost to Manchester 52-29 on June 18th.

AZAR MAKES RECORD KICK: In Memphis' 71-30 victory over the Amarillo Dusters, Memphis kicker STEVE AZAR connected on a 51-yard field goal in the second quarter of Friday's game. The kick was the longest in Xplorers history and tied an af2 playoff record. The only other kicker to make a 51-yard field goal in the postseason was JEFF WOODS. He made a 51-yard field goal for the Carolina Rhinos against Augusta Stallions on August 1, 2000.

ADAMS' ASSAULT: It is worth taking a look back at Memphis WR/DB TERRELL ADAMS' performance against the Dusters last week. The difference in the game was a 37-0 scoring run by Memphis. This run started with a STEVE AZAR field goal, and then Adams finished the job. He rushed for a two-yard touchdown on Memphis' next possession. On the ensuing kickoff he recovered a fumble in the endzone for a touchdown. He then scored on a 25-yard touchdown pass to end the scoring for the half. The second half started with Adams putting points on the board a different way, this time on an 11-yard touchdown pass to teammate Kevin Prentiss. Adams then finished the scoring barrage with a four-yard run. By the time it was over Adams had rushed for two touchdowns, caught one touchdown, recovered a fumble for a touchdown and threw a touchdown pass.



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