A week after suffering a gut-wrenching loss at home, the Orlando Predators bounced back with their best performance of the season. The Preds blew out the league’s best team, the Jacksonville Sharks, 70-48 in front of a season-high 14,010 at Amway Arena.
The Orlando Predators started the 2010 season ranked No. 5 according to the Arena Football League Writers Association. But then they dropped the first three games of the season and suffered losses to the rival Tampa Bay Storm and newly-formed Jacksonville Sharks.
It was a tough Friday night for local sports fans in Orlando. The NBA’s Magic and AFL’s Predators each suffered big losses to rival teams. Football spectators at Amway Arena were treated to a double dose of heartache as the NBA game was shown on the arena jumbotron.
A Kissimmee native leads the hometown arena football team… A former FCSL player becomes the first to get a call from the majors… A former Bishop Moore lax standout plays for a title in his last game… and several student-athletes signed college papers last week.
It’s official. Again. What was initially being tabbed as Arena Football One (AF1), the resurgent indoor football game is back to being called what it always has been – the Arena Football League. Same name, same logo, and some familiar franchises.
Local pro sports teams are hosting a variety of events throughout the area over the next two months as the Predators hold tryouts, the Titans put on a lacrosse clinic, and the Magic keep kids busy over spring break with basketball camps.
Orlando Predators’ managing partner Brett Bouchy vowed all along to bring arena football back to town in some form or another and he backed it up by banding with several other AFL owners to help form Arena Football One.