Shock lose coach

The Spokane Shock have suffered their first loss in a long time.

Head coach Chris Siegfried has accepted an offer to become the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Brigade of the Arena Football League. He’ll assist Brigade head coach Kevin Porter, who gave Siegfried his first arenafootball2 coaching job as the offensive coordinator at Macon in 2001.

“I think the biggest thing was the opportunity to prove myself at the AFL level,” said Siegfried, who made Spokane an immediate winner, guiding the expansion team to a 17-2 record and the ArenaCup championship. “I pretty much turned down a potential opportunity last year and I don’t know how many more opportunities would come around.

“I didn’t feel like either way it went (staying or leaving) I could have made a bad decision.”

Siegfried said the move is necessary if he wants to fulfill his goal of becoming an AFL head coach.

“I told (Shock majority owner) Brady Nelson it was one of the tougher decisions I’ve had to make because I’ve got everything I want in af2 here and a large part of me doesn’t want to leave,” Siegfried said. “On the other hand, I want to prove I can coach at the next level and I just feel this is the fastest way of becoming a head coach in AFL.”

Siegfried played a key role in assembling Spokane’s roster and he also brought in assistant coaches Troy Biladeau and Travis Crusenberry. The Shock led the league in attendance, drawing nearly 10,000 per home game, and spent much of the season ranked No. 1. Spokane thumped Green Bay 57-34 in the title game in Puerto Rico on Aug. 26.

Siegfried came to Spokane after being fired 10 games into the 2005 season at af2 South Georgia. He previously was the head coach at af2 Cape Fear. He is the all-time leader in af2 coaching wins with 57.

“I knew about two months ago that they’d basically offered him the job. They were really getting after him for about a month and he told them he couldn’t make a decision until after the (af2) playoffs,” Nelson said. “We’ve been mentally preparing since we were 8-1 that something could happen. It’s going to be a big loss and there will be big shoes to fill for the next coach, but it certainly won’t devastate the organization.

“We’ll look within (at Biladeau and Crusenberry), but we’ve also started to search outside as well.”

Nelson made Siegfried’s decision as tough as he possibly could. Af2 coaches and players were limited to one-year contracts until recently, when the league amended its rules to allow multi-year contracts for coaches. Nelson last week offered Siegfried a three-year contract, but Siegfried opted to test the AFL waters.

Siegfried will take a small pay cut in making the move to AFL. He made $53,000 in base salary this season, but that figure climbed into the low $60,000s after he received $2,500 for being named af2 coach of the year, another $5,000 for the ArenaCup championship as well as other bonuses for playoff wins.

Siegfried expressed support for Biladeau and Crusenberry if they choose to pursue the head coaching job, but he also understands that a number of current af2 head coaches will likely send in their resumes because of Spokane’s successful debut season.

Nelson acknowledged that he’ll probably make contact with Tony Wells, who came in at midseason at Everett and sparked an immediate turnaround. Nelson said he’ll work with af2 president Jerry Kurz, who helped bring Siegfried to Spokane, to compile a list of candidates.