Nighthawks\' Dismiss Missick
July 29, 2002 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Norfolk Nighthawks News Release
Norfolk,VA (July 29, 2002)â After finishing their third af2 season at 8-8 and failing to reach the playoffs for the second consecutive year, Norfolk Nighthawks' Operator/GM KenEasley has announced the dismissal of Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator Tony Missick.
Missickwas in his first year as a head coach and third year of coaching arenafootball. He served as Norfolk'sdefensive coordinator through the 2001 season, before being hired as the team's head coach on November 5, 2001.
"Tony Missick is a fine young coach with a tremendously gifted defensive mind",Easley commented. The Nighthawksfinished 4th in total defense in 2001 and have had their defensivespecialists in the league's top ten in pass breakups consistently over the past two seasons. Missick turned around a 1-5 start to win five games in a row and seven out of theirfinal ten. While becoming one of thebetter teams throughout af2 in the second half of the season, the Nighthawks'seemed plagued by untimely penalties and costly turnovers when coming up shortearly on.
"The fact that the Nighthawks set an af2 record as the most penalized team greatly concerned me about its discipline", Easley said, "The number of flagrant orpersonal fouls, as opposed to holding or offside calls that are most typical ina football game, was quite troublesome in reviewing the game films."
The Nighthawks plan to name a head coach before the end of the year.
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