Sports

POSTED: Friday, Jun. 19, 2009

FOOTBALL: Blitz open season Saturday

The Western Washington University football program may be gone, but some players' dreams of somehow, some way making it to the big league from Whatcom County is still alive.

The Bellingham Blitz - one of four teams in the new Professional Developmental Football League - opens its seven-game season with a non-league game against the Pierce County Bengals at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 20, at Civic Stadium.

The Blitz was created by owner Tom Abbott, the owner of the former Whatcom County Raiders. After the Raiders won back-to-back Cascade Football League Championships in 2007-08 and claimed the Far West Football Alliance West Coast Bowl Championship in Las Vegas in 2008, Abbott got a call to join the Next Level Professional Football League - a new league initially expected to have eight teams and with an agreement to have games televised on Comcast SportsNet - and the Blitz was born.

Obviously, the league has since changed names, as well as owners.

"The guys that initially created the league were better football guys than they were business men," Blitz coach Brian Young said in a phone interview. "Another group of business guys, who are better working with the numbers, stepped in and bought the rights to the league."

The league now consists of four teams - Bellingham, the Everett Vikings, Portland Thunderbolts and Tacoma Cobras - which will play home-and-home series against each other in a six-game league schedule leading up to the Aug. 29 championship game.

Even though the name and the number of teams have changed, the focus of the league has not. The goal is still giving local and former college players a chance to keep playing and showcase their talents in the hopes that they will draw interest from a major team.

"We want to get these players some exposure," Young said. "We're going to play our games on Saturdays and have the games on Comcast SportsNet in the prime time slots on Sunday nights. In some ways, we want to mirror what the NFL does with Sunday Night Football."

Producing the games for broadcast won't be cheap. Young estimated production costs at $15,000 per game, which must be covered by the home team.

"Each home team will make their own decisions about which games to produce, so we don't know which of our road games will be on TV," Young said. "I just tell people they'll have to check their Comcast listings. Right now we know we'll be doing the Aug. 8 game (against Portland) and we're pretty sure about the Aug. 15 game (against Everett). We're still hoping we can make the Aug. 22 game (against Tacoma) work."

Money to produce the games and all other expenses is expected to come from sponsorship agreements the teams can work out.

The hope is to eventually raise enough money to pay players, Young said, though not every player will be paid.

"It will be based on the guy," Young said. "Some will see some money; some won't. What everybody will get from us is shoes, equipment, a player pack, bags, travel to and from games, and the main thing is exposure on Comcast."

Young is confident the Blitz will have a pretty good team to show off in its first year.

"I think our on-field product will be very solid," Young said. "More than half our guys are former Western guys. We sprinkled in guys from other Division II colleges like Western Oregon and some Simon Frasier guys and even one from Minnesota-Duluth. On paper, we expect to be a competitive team. We'll see how that translates when the guys get on the field and go to battle."

Young expects to be strong at the skill positions on offense with a host of former WWU players, including running back Jordan Carey, quarterbacks Chase Lamoreaux and Cody Oakes and receivers Matt Haas and tight end Brandon O'Dore.

Bellingham should also be stout up front defensively, according to Young, with former Western Oregon linebacker Alex Sfetku, former Nooksack Valley linebacker Kevin Davis, ex-Western linebacker Greg Connelly and former Viking defensive tackles Amitoelau Faalevao and Joey Joshua.

Former Western safety Greg Connelly should anchor the secondary, along with Minnesota-Duluth product Justin Mudell, whom Young called a lock-down corner.

Game tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for youth 10-17. Fans under 10 are admitted free.

"I'd love to say we're going to fill Civic for all four games," Young said. "But realistically we're looking to average 500 to 1,000 people, and hopefully we'll get better than that."

2009 BLITZ SCHEDULE

June 20: Pierce County, 6 p.m.

July 11: at Tacoma, TBD

July 18: at Portland, TBD

July 25: at Everett, TBD

Aug. 8: Portland, 5 p.m.

Aug. 15: Everett, 5 p.m.

Aug. 22: Tacoma, 5 p.m.

NOTE: All Blitz home games played at Civic Stadium