The Kent Predators are close to finding 45 players to invite to the new professional indoor football team’s training camp in two weeks.
Kent makes its home debut in the Indoor Football League March 12 against the Fairbanks Grizzlies at the ShoWare Center. The Predators open the season Feb. 28 at Billings, Mont.
The team plans to sign 10 or so players out of the more than 80 who competed in a tryout Sunday at the ShoWare Center, to add to the 15 players signed after a December tryout in Tacoma.
Another 15 to 18 players will fly in from other parts of the nation in an effort to make the 25-man roster for the opening game, said Brian Brents, vice president of operations for the Predators.
“There is some talent here,” Brents said in a phone interview Tuesday about the Sunday tryouts. “It’s nice to have local talent. We’ll also bring in other guys from across the nation to put together a good product. I think we’re on the right track.”
Most of the players heading to Kent from other parts of the nation were recruited by Brents to play for the El Paso Generals. Brents was the head coach of the Generals last season in the Indoor Football League, but the Texas team folded in early January. The owner of the Generals reportedly tried to sell the team but could not find a buyer, according to a Jan. 11 article on the El Paso Times Web site.
The Predators hired Brents as vice president of operations and last week hired William McCarthy, a former El Paso assistant coach, as the Kent head coach. El Paso had a 12-2 regular season record last season and one of the top three offenses in the league.
“A lot of the guys we recruited to El Paso will come here,” Brents said. “We’ll get those guys here and try to get everyone on the same page.”
Brents said he hopes to open training camp on Feb. 12 at a site yet to be determined.
“That date may change,” Brents said. “We do not know where we will hold camp, but it will be around here somewhere.”
The Indoor Football League started last spring with 19 teams and plans to field 25 teams in 2010 in 13 states from Maryland to Alaska. The league, based in Richmond, Va., was created in 2008 with the merger of the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football.
Kent will play a 14-game schedule in the Pacific North Division that includes teams in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Billings and the Tri-Cities.
“I’m pretty optimistic about this year,” Brents said. “Our backs are against the wall coming in to build a team that normally takes six to eight months and we’ve had a month to get it going. But with the talent we’re bringing in and with coach McCarthy, we’re putting together a good product for Kent.”
Players who make the team will receive $225 per game and a $25 bonus if the Predators win. The games will feature eight-on-eight football on a 50-yard field. There is no punting.
Brents said the team’s staff will help players flying in from out of town to find housing and meals so they can afford to stay here even though they are paid only $225 to $250 per game.
The players invited to training camp from the Sunday tryouts in Kent included wide receivers Jojo Alford, Kenneth Jackson, Craig Gobroski and Anthony Montgomery, quarterback Brandon Peterson, lineman Brandon Claxton and running back Jarvis Dunn. Dunn helped Tri Cities win the National Indoor Football League title in 2005.
For more information, go to www.kentpredators.com or www.goifl.com.
Bonnell to join Predators?
Carl Bonnell, a former University of Washington and Kentwood High School quarterback, might play for the Kent Predators of the Indoor Football League if his commitment to the team doesn’t conflict with his current job.
Bonnell attended the Sunday tryout for the Predators at the ShoWare Center and impressed Brian Brents, vice president of operations for the Kent expansion team.
“But we don’t know if we can get him,” Brents said.
Bonnell is in the probationary period of his current job and might not be able to get the time away to play football.
“If we get him, there will be a press conference,” Brents said. “We should know in a week or two.”
Bonnell led Kentwood to the Class 4A state football title in 2001. He initially signed to play football at Washington State University but then transferred to the University of Washington, where he played from 2003 to 2007.
The Predators in December signed defensive back Kevin Jones, a former Kentwood running back and defensive back who played with Bonnell on the 2001 championship team.
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