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Team Names Head Coach For 2010 Season

December 4, 2009 - Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL)
Fort Wayne FireHawks News Release


(Fort Wayne, Indiana) Championship Sports Enterprises, LLC, owner of the Fort Wayne Firehawks franchise in the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL), today announced that it has selected its Head Coach for the upcoming 2010 season. The Firehawks have selected Willie Davis, Jr.

"Coach Davis is the right man at the right time for this job," said Firehawks General Manager John Christner. "He understands professional indoor football, he builds a strong relationship with the players, he has demonstrated his passion for the game for many years, and he is a solid individual." Davis is expected to be formally introduced at a news conference in December, following the CIFL Owners' meetings.

Davis was a three-sport letterman in football, basketball and baseball as a freshman at Kankakee (Ill.) High School. He played varsity sports until he graduated in 1990. He attended Western Illinois University where he started at quarterback as a true freshman, and continued playing the position as a sophomore. He transferred in 1992 to the University of Louisville. While he was not a starter at UL, he played under the legendary Coach Howard L. Schnellenberger, from whom he first learned about coaching. Davis played professional football at the quarterback position in the German Football League from 1995-2000. Davis laid to rest the dream of a professional football playing career in 2000, and entered the restaurant management industry in Chicago. He became an independent consulting coach for high school players, offering tutorial advice for skill improvement beginning in 2004. Davis returned to playing in 2007, when he played and started for the Danville Demolition in the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA) for eight games during the regular season, before stepping down to become Assistant General Manager and Head Coach for the final four games of that year.

Fans of the Fort Wayne CIFL franchise will be familiar with the name, because Davis previously served as Head Coach of the Fort Wayne Freedom in 2008, before being unceremoniously dumped on May 17, 2008. Davis had cajoled team players into playing without being paid for several weeks, and had gone without pay himself, when a previous franchise owner fired him as Davis was about to get on a team bus for the ride to a game against the Chicago Slaughter.

Following his departure from the CIFL coaching ranks, Davis was hired as Varsity Assistant Coach at Woodlan High School in 2008, where he coaches the quarterbacks and defensive backs.

"Coach Davis chose to stay in our northeast Indiana community, and he made a decision to stay involved with youth sports," said Christner. "We think he'll be a good leader and a great coach. After everything he did for this franchise in the past, Coach Davis deserves an opportunity to show what he can do."

The CIFL is expected to begin play in early March.



Continental Indoor Football League Stories from December 4, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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