Post by fwp on May 7, 2009 5:28:48 GMT -5
www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_12309816
Dave Affleck admits that being the owner of a professional football team, having the run of the field, chatting with the athletes, having them to the house for dinner, "Is kind of cool."
Affleck's wife, Donnette, says preparing for weekly indoor football games is akin to putting together a wedding every week.
"We're emotionally tied to its success," said Donnette, vice president of the Utah Valley Thunder of the American Indoor Football Association, a minor league indoor football group, featuring 15 teams scattered from Baltimore to Orem.
The Thunder is a family affair.
Dad's the owner; Mom's the vice president; son Lance is the marketing director; daughter Shannon directs the Thunderbolt dance squad; and son Mike has thrown for 28 touchdowns and guided the team to a 6-1 record.
"It's really crazy," said Mike Affleck, who has used indoor football to reclaim a once-promising talent led astray by poor life decisions, trying to burn the candle at both ends.
In 2002, Mike graduated from Timpview High School as an acclaimed quarterback. He never started another game at Arizona State, Utah State or Dixie State until the 2008 AIFA season.
"I told Dad, 'You'd better not be doing this for me,' " Mike Affleck said. "I was confident I could find a team.
Prior to his arrival last season at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, N.M., the idea of owning a professional sports franchise had never occurred to Dave Affleck.
The CEO of Provo-based Vucci Technology Solutions had his eyes opened that fateful evening on a road trip to watch his son quarterback the Utah Saints in an AIFA game against New Mexico.
For someone whose only experiences with the league were tainted by the poorly run and poorly attended Saints, the night was a revelation.
Crowds streamed into the Rio Rancho facility. As the Kearns-based Saints, who played in the Olympic Oval, folded, the idea came to Dave Affleck that the Orem-Provo area would provide fans and Utah Valley University's McKay Center would be a great facility. ......article continues in link.
Dave Affleck admits that being the owner of a professional football team, having the run of the field, chatting with the athletes, having them to the house for dinner, "Is kind of cool."
Affleck's wife, Donnette, says preparing for weekly indoor football games is akin to putting together a wedding every week.
"We're emotionally tied to its success," said Donnette, vice president of the Utah Valley Thunder of the American Indoor Football Association, a minor league indoor football group, featuring 15 teams scattered from Baltimore to Orem.
The Thunder is a family affair.
Dad's the owner; Mom's the vice president; son Lance is the marketing director; daughter Shannon directs the Thunderbolt dance squad; and son Mike has thrown for 28 touchdowns and guided the team to a 6-1 record.
"It's really crazy," said Mike Affleck, who has used indoor football to reclaim a once-promising talent led astray by poor life decisions, trying to burn the candle at both ends.
In 2002, Mike graduated from Timpview High School as an acclaimed quarterback. He never started another game at Arizona State, Utah State or Dixie State until the 2008 AIFA season.
"I told Dad, 'You'd better not be doing this for me,' " Mike Affleck said. "I was confident I could find a team.
Prior to his arrival last season at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, N.M., the idea of owning a professional sports franchise had never occurred to Dave Affleck.
The CEO of Provo-based Vucci Technology Solutions had his eyes opened that fateful evening on a road trip to watch his son quarterback the Utah Saints in an AIFA game against New Mexico.
For someone whose only experiences with the league were tainted by the poorly run and poorly attended Saints, the night was a revelation.
Crowds streamed into the Rio Rancho facility. As the Kearns-based Saints, who played in the Olympic Oval, folded, the idea came to Dave Affleck that the Orem-Provo area would provide fans and Utah Valley University's McKay Center would be a great facility. ......article continues in link.