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Vena Has Sights Set on Playoffs, Record Books

July 8, 2003 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Albany Firebirds News Release


(ALBANY, NY) – Who is the only other player in NCAA Division I history, besides Herschel Walker (Georgia) and Stanford Jennings (Furman), to be named his conference's player of the year as a freshman? John Elway, no. Tony Dorsett, guess again. Must be Jim Brown or Otto Graham them right, nope. The answer, University of Colgate graduate, and current starting quarterback for the Albany Conquest, Ryan Vena. Vena was a three-time Patriot League Player of the Year (1995-96, 99) for the Raiders, while also becoming the first player in the league's history to throw for over 7,000 yards and rush for 2,000.

Now Vena is chasing history once again, this time in arenafootball2. After last week's game against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers, the 2nd-year signal caller for the Conquest, became the league leader in the top three offensive categories for a quarterback; Passer Rating (122.78), Passing Yards (3,558) and Total Offense (3,705). No af2 quarterback has ever claimed the "Trifecta", finishing the season ranked number one in all three. Two out of the three previous Offensive Player of the Year winners in af2 have been quarterbacks, yet still none have put up the numbers of Vena in 2003. Aaron Sparrow (Augusta) won the inaugural award in 2000 and Jay McDonagh (Quad City, 2001) claimed the honor in 2001. Sparrow threw for 4,000 yards and 78 touchdowns in sixteen games, while McDonagh racked up 3,822 yards and was good for 73 touchdowns in his championship season with the Steamwheelers.

Vena has been named MVP a league-high ten times so far this season. He has led three fourth quarter comebacks, while completing 67.8% of his pass attempts, and has six receivers with at least seven touchdowns apiece. He is 5th in the league in rushing yards (147) and 2nd in rushing touchdowns (14), behind Cape Fear's Wilmont Perry's twenty rushing scores. He is not even in the af2's top five in pass attempts (416), yet still leads the league in completions (282). His 68 passing touchdowns are just five behind the league leader, Quad City QB Tony Zimmerman, who has 73. Zimmerman and Vena have been jockeying around the leaders for several weeks now, with Vena finally claiming the "QB Trifecta" this past week.

While Vena would love to claim the league's offensive player of the year award, he is still more concerned with the one reason why he, along with several other members of last year's Conquest team, returned for another run in 2003, the af2 ArenaCup championship.

"There's no doubt that winning an award like that would be fun", Vena commented, "All of the guys that won it got a shot at the next level and that's all I want. I had a good year last year, but not great. The reason we are 11-2 is not because of Ryan Vena, but I like to think that I help out. Corey, Levy, and all of us from last year, we came back here for one reason, to win it all."

Vena was named the af2 Player of the Week in week 10, when he threw for 377 yards and six touchdowns against the Greensboro Prowlers. He completed 35 passes, a league season-high, on 44 attempts. In another game, this

time at Wilkes-Barre, Vena completed 28-of-32 pass attempts for 285 yards and eight touchdowns and also ran for a score. He is one of only four quarterbacks to account for nine touchdowns in a single game this season and hasn't played a game yet in 2003 where he has thrown less than four touchdowns.

The Conquest trailed on three separate occasions in the fourth quarter so far this season, but with Vena, Head Coach Pete Costanza knows he has a sizable advantage over the opponent, whoever it may be.

"Ryan is a gamer, period", said the first-year coach of the Conquest, "He goes out every week and just makes plays. I've never seen a quarterback do the things in the fourth quarter the way Ryan Vena does. Most guys get nervous, throw maybe one away, or throw a pick, but not Ryan. I haven't seen him make a mistake on game-winning drive yet this season. It's those things that you can't coach, or read about in the stats, but that's also what makes us 11-2, instead of maybe 8-5, and that can mean the difference between playing in August or going back to New Jersey at the end of July."

With three games left in the regular season, and the 2003 playoffs already a certainty, Vena is close to putting his name in the football record books once again. As he did at Colgate, he will try and become the first quarterback to do things that nobody before him could accomplish, but now he does it in af2. Whether the "trifecta" happens or not, one thing is for certain, Ryan Vena will lead the Albany Conquest into the playoffs for the second straight season. In the process he hopes to open some eyes and get a shot at playing next year in the AFL, but don't ask him because he won't talk about it.

"That's a conversation for September. Right now we have goals left to accomplish and games remaining to play. If we keep playing good football and put together about six more wins, the notoriety and exposure will take care of itself for this team. There are plenty of guys on this team that deserve a shot (at the AFL), I just want to help them finish what we started here."

Hopefully for Vena and his teammates, it will be another memorable finish from their fearless leader under center.

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