Steamwheelers Weekly Report

July 28, 2003 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Quad City Steamwheelers News Release


Recap: The Steamwheelers won their 14th straight game in last Saturday night 's regular season finale in a 65-42 rout of their bitter rival Peoria Pirates. The victory over the Pirates sent the Pirates packing for the season as their 5-10 record was not good enough to qualify them to defend their 2002 ArenaCup championship. QB Tony Zimmerman had an outstanding game going 18-of-36 for 281 yards, throwing four touchdowns while rushing for two more. WR/DB Jeff Hewitt caught nine passes for 151 yards, one a touchdown and WR/DB Tim Dodge caught eight passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns.

Next Up: The ‘Wheelers are going to be at home for their run at their third ArenaCup as long as they continue their winning ways. With their 14-2 record, the ‘Wheelers earned a first round bye and will play either the Arkansas Twisters, Bakersfield Blitz or Wichita Stealth (whomever is the lowest remaining seed) on August 9th, 7:30 p.m. at The MARK of the Quad Cities.

Zimmerman Record Watch: In the regular season finale, Zimmerman added four more touchdowns to his af2 record for passing touchdowns in a season and has set the bar at 93. Zimmerman also came up just shy of the record for most passing yards in a season falling 95 yards short of Albany's Ryan Vena who broke Arkansas' Jon Nielsen's record of 4,417 yards set in 2000 when he threw for 4,452. Zimmerman finished the season with 4,357 passing yards on the season.

Upcoming Steamwheelers Appearances: This week the Steamwheelers will be out and about this week, starting on Monday when they will join the Gold Helmet Huddle members for the member's golf outing at Oakwood Country Club. On Friday, players and DeckMates will be at Yonkers at North Park Mall from 1-3 p.m.

Practice Times: The Steamwheelers will take Monday and Tuesday off before returning to practice on Wednesday at their normal time. They will practice Wednesday through Friday and then take the weekend off and return again next Monday. Players begin to arrive at The MARK between 4-4:30 p.m. with the best time to reach them between 4:30 – 5 p.m. and after practice for interviews and between for 5:20-5:30 p.m. for quick comments from the players.

"In the Boiler Room": This week's coaches show will be held at Big Papa's Palace, located at 701 15th Avenue, East Moline, Ill. The "Voice of the Deuce" and Steamwheelers play-by-play man Jim Albracht will return, after a week off, to host head coach Rich Ingold and select players on the show. The show will air from 7-8 p.m. on Fox Sports Radio AM 1230 and can also be seen "live" at Big Papa's. Come join in the fun. There will be prize giveaways as well as players and coaches available for autographs and pictures.

On the Air: This Saturday's game, as well as every other Steamwheelers game, can be heard on WOC 1420 AM with Jim Albracht making the call and John Furlong on color with the pre-game show starting at 7 pm.

You can also listen in to Q106.5's Dwyer and Michaels every morning as they discuss the ‘Wheelers periodically on the "Mornings with Dwyer and Michaels" show that runs from 5:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Also, the "Voice of the Steam" Jim Albracht also hosts "Albracht in the AM" from 5:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. on WOC 1420 AM. Throughout the show he discusses a variety of topics as well as the Steamwheelers.

Every Sunday night on the NBC affiliate KWQC-TV6 following the 10:00 p.m. news, sports director Thom Cornelis hosts "Wheeler Watch" which features highlights of the previous weekends game and a discussion with head coach Rich Ingold.

Tickets: Good tickets are still available for the Steamwheelers second round playoff game. Tickets can be purchased at The MARK box office or through TicketMaster at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 563.326.1111.



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