Shackleford building Empire with strong foundation
Spokane’s coaching staff huddled Tuesday morning to review the roster and take a dry run at paring the arena football team’s training-camp roster down to 25.
“We’re not even close,” head coach Adam Shackleford said. “We like a lot of the guys we have.”
That’s good on several fronts. Spokane isn’t quite a week into camp and has another full week before it needs to cut its roster to 25 on Feb. 18, two days before the season opener against Tri-Cities. It also means offseason recruiting went as planned.
Shackleford said the team will probably make some early cuts at receiver because it’s been tough to get 11 wide outs enough reps at practice. The defensive line also appears to be fully stocked.
“I’ve coached expansion teams, I’ve never had this much talent,” Shackleford said. “We recruited for three months without a name (as the team rebranded from Shock to Empire). I think Spokane in the past, the fans, deserve a lot of credit. They’ve done it right for 10 years and these players have heard that.”
Quarterback Charles Dowdell has only been in town for a week but he said the fan base made an immediate impression.
“We had a fan day the other day and they brought out barbecue and a bunch of stuff,” said Dowdell, who has had indoor football stops at Sioux City, Green Bay and Bloomington. “You can really tell the difference and the support here compared to other places.”
Roster decisions will not be easy.
“This team is looking great,” linebacker Nick Haag said. “The work has been great. It’s a competitive camp. It’s tough to say as far as who is going to make the final squad, but you can’t complain about that because we’re stacked with talent.”
Offense vs. defense
The defense, which has a number of arena veterans, is ahead of the offense at this point. That’s fairly normal in training camps at various levels of football.
There’s experience on the offensive side, too, but not as much as on the other side of the ball. Running back Andrew Pierce, second-team All-IFL last year playing for Shackleford at Tri-Cities, is expected to arrive next week. Dowdell and rookie Aaron Aiken are new to Shackleford’s offense.
The quarterbacks have several taller, experienced targets in 6-4 JJ Hayes and 6-3 Samuel Charles, who played for the Shock last season and had 79 receptions for IFL Wyoming in 2014.
“In this league it’s all about creating space, the guys that can create space in this small area are going to be open,” Dowdell said. “Experience in this league is major, talent comes after that.”
Said Shackleford: “It’s not an easy system to learn. (Former Shock great) Nick Davila wasn’t a starter his first five weeks in this system, neither was (former AFL standout) Brett Deitz, who I had years ago. Aaron’s a rookie. He’s played pro football but not indoor. He’s picking it up quickly.
“What I like about Charles is he won’t make bad decisions. He’ll throw it away. He’ll take off and run. We did some run stuff with him Monday, he’s pretty electric.”
Shackleford said he doesn’t have to modify his play-calling for the 6-foot Dowdell or the 6-5 Aiken.
“We’re always chasing the defense,” said Hayes, who has played three IFL seasons and also spent time with AFL Jacksonville. “When you have Haag, he was with the (Indianapolis) Colts for a little bit, these great linebackers, cornerbacks that have been in the league for many years … there’s a little bit of a rivalry there.”