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UIF Sioux Falls Storm

Storm Find Themselves One Win Away From History

May 16, 2007 - United Indoor Football Association (UIF)
Sioux Falls Storm News Release


The Sioux Falls (SD) Storm of the United Indoor Football Association (UIF) is on the verge of professional football history. With a win on Saturday in Sioux Falls over the Omaha Beef, the Storm will set the professional football record for most consecutive victories. The Storm is currently on a 27-game win streak. That ties a record held by the Ohio Valley Greyhounds, who won 27 games in a row as part of the National Indoor Football League from 2002-2003. The Greyhounds and Storm both were founding members of the UIF in the winter of 2004. The Storm has not lost a game since July 15, 2005, which is a span of almost two calendar years.

The Storm's latest victory came over the Sioux City Bandits last Saturday at the Sioux Falls Arena. The Storm won by a score of 56-31 and it was the seventh time the Storm has beaten the Bandits during the win streak. Sioux Falls defeated the Bandits for the first ever UIF Championship on August 14, 2005, which was win #3 of the streak.

The Storm has defeated the Beef five times during the streak including the first win of the streak on July 30, 2005 as Sioux Falls defeated the Beef 51-41 in Omaha. This will be the second meeting of the season between the Storm and the Beef. Sioux Falls won the earlier meeting 61-18 in Omaha on April 14.

The Storm currently has 10 players on the roster that have been with the team for every victory (Leon Hall Jr., Terrance Bryant, Shannon Poppinga, Trice Crump, Mark Blackburn, Justin Landis, Marques Smith, Adam Hicks, Andre Fields, and Nate Fluit). The Storm has had 68 different players on their roster since the start of the streak. Quarterback Terrance Bryant, who played at Oregon State, was named league MVP following the 2006 season where the Storm finished an incredible 17-0. Six of the eight starters on defense have been with the team for the entire streak. Defensive lineman Nate Fluit recorded 15.5 sacks in the 2006 regular season and was named UIF Defensive Player of the Year for his performance. Fluit was a standout at Augustana College in Sioux Falls during his college days.

Of the 30 players on the Storm roster, 15 played their collegiate football in South Dakota. South Dakota State, (Landis, Nate Scheuer, and Paul Keizer) University of South Dakota, (Fields, Blackburn, Hicks) and Augustana College (Fluit, Poppinga, and Chris Pomerleau) each have three players represented on the Storm. The Storm currently has six All-Americans on their roster including four at the NAIA level (Phil Kooistra, Tommy Hofer, Dusty Hovorka, and Brian McIntire) and two from NCAA Division II (Leif Murphy and Sean Treasure). In fact, the Storm has had all of this success with only three players that went to NCAA Division I-A schools (Bryant, Anthony Thomas-University of Arizona, and James Terry-Kansas State).

The Storm has seven players who grew up or played college football in Minnesota (Murphy, Scheuer, Treasure, Corey Johnsen, Yatarrie Brown, Brian Alberty, and Corey Brewer) and four players from the state of Iowa (Fluit, Kooistra, McIntire, and Keizer).

There are three players on the current Storm roster that have spent time in the NFL (Thomas, Terry and Keizer) and five Storm players have spent time in the Arena Football League (Keizer, Terry, Poppinga, Johnsen, and Allen Burrell). The Storm also has two players that have experience in the Canadian Football League (Murphy and Tommy Hofer).

During the streak, Storm players have broke 41 league and team records. Bryant has broke nine records by himself including the Storm career records for passing yards (5410) and passing touchdowns (108). Bryant also set a team and league record for most touchdown passes in a game when he tossed eight touchdowns in United Bowl II vs. the Lexington Horsemen on July 15, 2006. The Storm also recorded the first shutout in league history when they blanked the Peoria Roughriders 71-0 on June 10, 2006. The Storm will be trying to break one more record this Saturday as they go for their 28th consecutive victory.

The United Indoor Football Association is the premier indoor football league of North America. The UIF consists of 11 teams divided into a Western Conference and Eastern Conference. The season runs from the end of March to United Bowl III which will take place the first weekend of August.

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