Osceola Football

The owners of Osceola Football spent the season making what they deemed smart and rational business decisions for the benefit of their players, fans and sponsors.
Their final decision was to end the season prematurely. Faced with the prospect of playing two playoff games in two days — after National Indoor Football League President Carolyn Shiver initially told Osceola GM Dave Czech that Osceola would be playing the conference semifinals in St. Louis tonight — team officials called off the trip and ended the season with an 8-6 record, fourth-best in the NIFL Atlantic Conference. “ On Wednesday, we sent a message to the remaining playoff teams that we wouldn’t be privy to this any longer,” Czech said. “We weren’t going to subject our team, fans and sponsors to this.” It was a situation that took nearly a week to boil over. Osceola Football had earned home-field advantage over the Cincinnati Marshals for last week’s first-round game, but the Paso Fino riding show had already been booked into the Silver Spurs Arena through Sunday. The earliest the game could have happened was Tuesday, but the league office — despite scheduling a Monday game in the Pacific Conference — told teams that all games must be played Saturday or Sunday. The Marshals then reportedly secured the U.S Bank Arena in Cincinnati and Osceola agreed to travel to play on July 8. But on the 6th, Marshals officials reported the venue had a conflict with a Faith Hill and Tim McGraw concert happening July 11. Without a place to play, Osceola officials scrambled and arranged for the Lakeland Center to host the game on the 10th. The Marshals said they couldn’t get players there in time and refused to come, and the NIFL awarded a forfeit victory to Osceola and a spot in the conference semifinals against the RiverCity (St. Louis) Rage. When reports surfaced Tuesday that Cincinnati would be playing the Rage because Osceola hadn’t completed its “playoff participation paperwork,” Czech sought out Shiver and the two spoke early Tuesday evening.“ I told her we had travel plans in place to go to St. Louis, and she said to carry them out,” Czech said. The basis of the “paperwork,” according to Czech and team co-owner David Doebler, was a non-compete agreement that precluded teams from playing in competing indoor leagues next season, one that Czech said the Marshals had already signed. “ We were never going to sign that, we wanted to keep our options open,” Doebler said Thursday. “But we had an agreement Tuesday to play in St. Louis without signing the non-compete.” Late Tuesday night, the league sent a fax to Osceola Football laying out a scenario reportedly set up by the NIFL Executive Committee — if both Osceola and Cincinnati come, they’d play on Friday night — in a practice facility without dasher boards — with the winner taking on the Rage on Saturday. Team officials didn’t see the fax until Wednesday morning, and after exchanging emails with the league office, Doebler and Czech finally pulled the plug that afternoon. “ I don’t think the blame lays with us or the Marshals,” Czech said. “But the fact that something changes this quickly speaks to a larger issue. We tried to make the best of a tough situation.” Head Coach Marquette Smith said he grudgingly agreed with the decision. “ I had a few guys say they would have played but I would not have been comfortable with it,” he said. “You can get someone seriously hurt playing two days in a row. Who would have taken responsibility if that happened?” Wednesday night, the league’s website still showed what it reported on Monday — that Cincinnati had forfeited the game and that Osceola was to take on RiverCity in St. Louis. Thursday morning, a press release from Osceola stating it was playing in St. Louis was replaced by one from the Marshals saying the same thing. But Osceola was still listed as one of four remaining Atlantic Conference playoff teams that afternoon. Phone messages and emails left with the NIFL office weren’t returned as of press time Friday. Doebler said that much work went in to reversing the bad taste left locally by last year’s effort, the Kissimmee Kreatures, run by Centurion Sports Management. “ We’re very disappointed. Everyone involved worked hard and we wanted to finish the year by accomplishing something,” he said.
Czech said that the current ownership group intends to return to Osceola County in 2007. “ We are playing indoor football in Kissimmee next year, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “We’ve committed to Osceola County, the Silver Spurs Arena, and our current and future sponsors. We have no gripes. We feel we’ve made considerable strides in indoor football in Kissimmee in the past 12 months.”
But both men, and Smith, said being in the NIFL doesn’t seem to be a viable option. Six of the league’s 22 teams failed to finish the season, and half of the games in the final two weeks of the regular season were decided by forfeit.
Osceola Football, which was stripped by the NIFL of the right to use its “Outlaws” nickname early in the season, won a pair of games by forfeit this season and faced a semi-pro team sent by a franchise owner that “fired” her entire team three days before the game. Players were paid for those games and picked up checks for the game against the Marshals that wasn’t played earlier this week.
It’s that commitment to doing good business that’s leading Smith to uphold his commitment to the franchise. “ My commitment level hasn’t changed. My only hang-up would be if they decided to remain in the NIFL,” he said. “Put it this way, my guys got paid for more games they didn’t play this year than some of them got paid for last year.” Doebler said that a search will soon begin to find an appropriate league to join. “ We’d like to fill a league with owners like those in Lakeland, Fayetteville and St. Louis [all playoff teams],” he said. Czech said it’s in the team’s best interest to leave the NIFL, structured as it is, behind. “ We’ve got to get beyond being worried if games are going to be played this week. [Silver Spurs Manager] Don Miers told me, ‘You guys are the New York Yankees of this league.’ Well you’re only as good as the weakest link in your chain and we got dragged down.”