The field is 50 yards long, each team has eight players on the surface, padded walls indicate out of bounds, and there is no punting in arena football.
Oh, and there’s a hype guy during timeouts, a dance team and drumline to entertain, and the Wheeling Miners will be dropping their AAL-2 championship banner before the game.
Those are a few aspects to expect as the Miners kick off their second year at 7 p.m. this evening at Wesbanco Arena against the Colorado Spartans, a second-season squad based in Denver.
It’s the team’s first game in the National Arena League after Wheeling finished undefeated last year and won the American Arena League-2 title.
The move to the NAL is a competitive upgrade, and game host “hype guy” Tim McCormick said the game day staff has refined in-game orchestration.
“One of the biggest improvements the fans will see this season is the entertainment side of event is going to be very tight. That’s thanks to the organization and the prep we’re all doing,” McCormick said. “If there’s an issue, the people who can fix it will be right there this season because of the lessons that were learned last year, and we’ll have someone in charge of game day operations.
“We’ll be communicating with each other a lot during the games so we’re not stepping on each other,” he said. “Our fans are going to have a great time with the entertainment, and the team is going to be terrific.”
As host, McCormick will come onto the field to interact with the fans and conduct games and contests, and it’s a role he picked up late last season.
“I had a meeting with ‘Coach Res’ and he asked me if I wanted to be the full-time arena emcee since I did a couple of games last year,” McCormick explained. “I said yes immediately because it was a lot of fun last season, and because I know we’re going to even better this season because of the amount of organization that’s taken place.
“We’ve been working on the way it will all work, and that’s because there’s more than a football game taking place in the arena. There’s always one heck of a show,” he said. “When we had the season Kick-Off Party at the 19th Hole last week, some of our fans came up to me and told me to keep doing what I’m doing, so I’ve really looking forward to getting back out there.”
During the offseason, Resignalo’s role as GM included sales and sponsors, player recruitment, partnership development, special event coordinator, merchandise and social media management, and human resources, and he’s delegated duties the last few months so he could concentrate – finally – on coaching.
It’s that hard work and dedication that has McCormick pumped and prepared for this evening’s festivities.
“We had a really good team last year and we have a lot of those players that came back for this season,” McCormick said. “’Coach Res’ has made a lot of additions, too, so I believe we’re going to be one of the best teams in the NAL. I saw one article that said some people expect the Miners to win the whole thing again.
“I’m just really happy to see this happening here in Wheeling, and I hope they’re here in 30 years like the Nailers have been,” he explained. “The football action is incredible, the Mine Line drummers are so talented, the Lady Miners dancers are all professionals from the region, and the atmosphere is electric. It’s really a lot of fun for everyone.”
