Celebrating ‘the spirit of Spokane’
Fresh from a blowout win in Puerto Rico last weekend, the arenafootball2 league-champion Spokane Shock added another trophy to its collection Wednesday evening: a key to the city.
Mayor Dennis Hession presented the team’s owner and coach with the metal key to commemorate the Shock’s 17-2 inaugural season at a ceremony outside Spokane Arena. Despite cool temperatures and rain, more than 100 fans, many clad in bright orange, crowded around a temporary stage for a glimpse of the triumphant team.
The Shock defeated the Green Bay Blizzard 57-34 to win the championship Saturday in San Juan.
“Talented, resilient, intelligent, entertaining, resourceful – unbelievably resourceful – adaptable, courageous, magical,” Hession said. “These are the terms that describe the Spokane Shock, can you believe it? They are the spirit of Spokane.”
The key was the third that Hession has awarded during his term, he said after the ceremony.
Team owner Brady Nelson and coach Chris Siegfried, named af2 head coach of the year, thanked the fans for their support.
“When I look out and see you guys here, it’s so much more than I even dreamed of,” said Nelson, who spent a half-million dollars for rights to the franchise.
“We want to repeat this one more than anything.”
Siegfried said afterward that it took time for some players to adjust to the deafening noise at home games, but by the end of the season they tipped the balance of several games in the Shock’s favor.
The assembled die-hard fans demonstrated some of their vocal abilities Wednesday, repeatedly shouting, “One more year” – a plea for Siegfried to sign another one-year contract and stay in Spokane.
Siegfried said he will announce his plans in the next week and a half.
Fans are already lining up for 2007 season tickets. The team has already sold about 3,500, compared with 4,567 at the end of this year.
Season-ticket holder and Spokane resident Carol Goodsole turned out wearing a blue Shock fleece under her red raincoat. An “NFL diehard” from the East Coast, Goodsole, 65, started watching the Shock along with the Eastern Washington University Eagles to get her football fix, she said.
After attending all but one home game, she wanted to see No. 7 Rob Keefe and No. 15 Raul Vijil before the season ended.
“I hope to see him one last time,” she said of Keefe, adding that “Rob’s on the top as far as Mr. Personality.”
After the presentation, fans eagerly asked players to sign everything from orange polo shirts to footballs. Some posed with pictures of the large, copper-colored football helmet statue that the Shock earned by winning the ArenaCup.
Outfitted in matching white af2 championship hats and T-shirts, Kevin and Betty Winans chatted with other fans as they waited in line for autographs. The Winans gave up front-row tickets for Ted Nugent to fly to Puerto Rico for the game.
In San Juan, they went clubbing with the Shock dance team. During the game, they watched Puerto Rican fans switch to rooting for the Shock once it became apparent that it would win, Betty Winans said.
The Winans met the team at the apartment complex where they all live.
“It was fate,” she said. “It was almost like we were on their shirttails.”