Steamwheelers Won't Fall Asleep on This Road Trip
July 9, 2004 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Quad City Steamwheelers News Release
DAVENPORT, Iowa â For any professional sports teams, there are plenty of long road trips that no team looks forward to. Sitting on a bus for an extended period of time is never good on the body.
Usually for the longer bus trips, teams will travel in what are known as sleeper buses. These sleeper buses consist of 20 or more beds, a small kitchen, televisions, and DVD players. Some even have Playstation2's and surround sound systems. The buses are used for trips that usually take longer than 10 hours to commute to. Just as the case for the Quad City Steamwheelers this weekend for their journey to Huntsville, Ala., to take on the Tennessee Valley Vipers.
The plans were all set in stone for the Steamwheelers to travel in their normal sleeper bus for this weekend's game and leave from The MARK of the Quad Cities around midnight on Thursday night. The stone was then crumbled when the team was given news that the sleeper bus had a minor electrical fire and would not be of service for the weekend.
The Steamwheelers would have used the Peoria Rivermen's (ECHL) sleeper bus, but that was being occupied by the arenafootball2's Peoria Pirates, who travel to Bossier-Shreveport to take on the Battle Wings tonight.
So the Steamwheelers did the only thing that they could â get a charter bus.
Rather than leaving at midnight on Thursday night and traveling overnight, the Steamwheelers held an early practice on Thursday and then boarded the charter bus for Huntsville, Ala., at noon.
The team arrived late Thursday night, approximately the same time they had planned on leaving the Quad Cities. The âWheelers then had a brief walkthrough on Friday afternoon, prior to Saturday night's contest.
Following the conclusion of the game, the team will return to the hotel, stay overnight and then board the charter bus early Sunday morning for their return trip to the Quad Cities. What would normally be a two and a half day trip has now turned into a four day round trip.
All of this just to put another chapter into one of the most storied rivalries in all of af2. Both teams are charter members of the af2 and are three-fourths of the way through their Fifth Anniversary seasons. The biggest game of this rivalry came in the inaugural season in the first ever ArenaCup championship game held August 10, 2000. In one of the best games of the season, the Steamwheelers came back to win their first of two ArenaCup's by a count of 68-59 to cap the Steamwheelers perfect 19-0 season.
Saturday night's game will mark the 10th meeting between the two teams, with the Steamwheelers holding a commanding 7-2 edge over the Vipers, including a 47-29 Steamwheelers victory at The MARK this season.
The Vipers are coming off their "bye" week and two weeks ago suffered a 54-48 setback on the road against the Memphis Xplorers. The Steamwheelers are also coming off a loss, a 29-13 loss coming at the hands of the Peoria Pirates.
Both teams sit atop their respective divisions, but not by much. The 8-5 Steamwheelers lead the National Conference Midwest Division by a half game over the Louisville Fire. The Vipers lead the American Conference Mid-South Division by a game and a half over Memphis. With only four weeks left in the season, and the playoff race hotter than ever, neither team can afford a loss.
The Steamwheelers hold the edge at the Von Braun Center (a.k.a. "The Snake Pit") as they have won three of the four contests. The Vipers only win at home came last season on April 11. In a seesaw game, the Vipers escaped with a 62-59 victory after Steamwheelers kicker Brian Hegnauer missed a game-tying field goal as time expired.
The Vipers will also have a new weapon, who is familiar to the Quad Cities, in their arsenal. Wide receiver/linebacker Xavier Patterson, who was a member of the 2000 ArenaCup championship team, was assigned to the Vipers by the arenafootball2 league office late Thursday afternoon. He will be in uniform for Saturday night's game.
The game is set to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. CDT from the "Snake Pit." The game can be heard live in the greater Quad City area on the Steamwheelers Radio Network on flagship station FOX Sports Radio AM 1230 and on KWPC 860 AM. The "Voice of the Steam" Jim Albracht will have the call and Jim Foster will provide the color commentary. The pre-game show starts at 7 p.m. The game will also be broadcast on the Internet at http://www.steamwheelers.com/broadcasts/?args=3.
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