Post by 50yardfan on Feb 25, 2012 22:35:58 GMT -5
www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20120225/GPG0211/202250525/IFL-Fuller-ready-latest-challenge-Blizzard
ASHWAUBENON — Robert Fuller wasn't sure how to prepare his team for it.
As the coach of the Fairbanks Grizzlies last year, Fuller could handle a nine-day road trip to play a pair of games against their closest opponents some 2,300 miles away.
But he didn't know how to tell his players that the Alaska franchise likely was folding at the end of it, and everyone would be flying home out of Seattle after the third game of the season.
"To prepare for a game under those types of circumstances was very difficult," said Fuller, who will be making his debut as the coach of the Green Bay Blizzard when it opens the Indoor Football League season Sunday at the Sioux Falls Storm.
Given what he had to overcome at the start of last year in Fairbanks, Fuller is welcoming the challenge of playing the defending IFL champions in the opener of the Blizzard's 10th season.
It's that type of mentality that made Fuller the 2011 IFL coach of the year last season when he rallied the Grizzlies from an 0-3 start to win 10 of 11 games and the Pacific Division title after fundraising by the community helped keep the team afloat.
"We actually had the choice to either play in the game or take it home at that point," said quarterback Donovan Porterie, who is one of seven former Fairbanks players on the Green Bay roster. "But Coach Fuller did a great job of keeping everyone together."
The Grizzlies, which came under financial distress when their players' compensation insurance unexpectedly rose by $100,000, are sitting out the 2012 season with hopes of returning in 2013.
Fuller, a North Pole, Alaska native, was looking to do the same until the Blizzard job opened last October when Rik Richards stepped down after going 22-9 in two seasons.
"There were teams that contacted me, but I didn't know if I wanted to continue coaching or if I wanted to take some time off," said Fuller, who over the past 10 years has coached indoor football teams in North Dakota, Nebraska and Alaska.
"I was actually looking to get back into helping at-risk youth and teaching, so this kind of came out of nowhere."
Fuller, the Blizzard's sixth head coach, brings back six players from last year's team, which went 12-4 and lost to Sioux Falls in the United Conference championship, including IFL special teams player of the year B.J. Hill.
"I like the way he does things," said Hill, entering his third season in Green Bay. "Coach wants to bring in character guys and that's what he did. He picked a core group from Fairbanks and they mesh really well with the guys that were here.
"He wants to do things the right way, and that's been a difference from what I've had the last couple of years."
A former offensive lineman and coach at the University of Mary, Fuller said the Blizzard will be a physical and balanced team.
"Coach Fuller is a guy who is always worried about his players' well-being," Porterie said. "He listens to his players' input.
"A lot of coaches in colleges or different places, it's hard to talk to them because they have their own jobs on the line. Not him, though. He cares."
After playing a second road game at Reading on March 2, the Blizzard will play its home opener against Cedar Rapids at the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena at 7:30 p.m. March 9.
ASHWAUBENON — Robert Fuller wasn't sure how to prepare his team for it.
As the coach of the Fairbanks Grizzlies last year, Fuller could handle a nine-day road trip to play a pair of games against their closest opponents some 2,300 miles away.
But he didn't know how to tell his players that the Alaska franchise likely was folding at the end of it, and everyone would be flying home out of Seattle after the third game of the season.
"To prepare for a game under those types of circumstances was very difficult," said Fuller, who will be making his debut as the coach of the Green Bay Blizzard when it opens the Indoor Football League season Sunday at the Sioux Falls Storm.
Given what he had to overcome at the start of last year in Fairbanks, Fuller is welcoming the challenge of playing the defending IFL champions in the opener of the Blizzard's 10th season.
It's that type of mentality that made Fuller the 2011 IFL coach of the year last season when he rallied the Grizzlies from an 0-3 start to win 10 of 11 games and the Pacific Division title after fundraising by the community helped keep the team afloat.
"We actually had the choice to either play in the game or take it home at that point," said quarterback Donovan Porterie, who is one of seven former Fairbanks players on the Green Bay roster. "But Coach Fuller did a great job of keeping everyone together."
The Grizzlies, which came under financial distress when their players' compensation insurance unexpectedly rose by $100,000, are sitting out the 2012 season with hopes of returning in 2013.
Fuller, a North Pole, Alaska native, was looking to do the same until the Blizzard job opened last October when Rik Richards stepped down after going 22-9 in two seasons.
"There were teams that contacted me, but I didn't know if I wanted to continue coaching or if I wanted to take some time off," said Fuller, who over the past 10 years has coached indoor football teams in North Dakota, Nebraska and Alaska.
"I was actually looking to get back into helping at-risk youth and teaching, so this kind of came out of nowhere."
Fuller, the Blizzard's sixth head coach, brings back six players from last year's team, which went 12-4 and lost to Sioux Falls in the United Conference championship, including IFL special teams player of the year B.J. Hill.
"I like the way he does things," said Hill, entering his third season in Green Bay. "Coach wants to bring in character guys and that's what he did. He picked a core group from Fairbanks and they mesh really well with the guys that were here.
"He wants to do things the right way, and that's been a difference from what I've had the last couple of years."
A former offensive lineman and coach at the University of Mary, Fuller said the Blizzard will be a physical and balanced team.
"Coach Fuller is a guy who is always worried about his players' well-being," Porterie said. "He listens to his players' input.
"A lot of coaches in colleges or different places, it's hard to talk to them because they have their own jobs on the line. Not him, though. He cares."
After playing a second road game at Reading on March 2, the Blizzard will play its home opener against Cedar Rapids at the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena at 7:30 p.m. March 9.