War Report

Many believe that they know what it takes to play Minor League Football. It is hard enough just to be able to compete at this level especially when you compete in arguably the most competitive league in the nation. Add on a 60 hour work week running heavy equipment, weight training, conditioning, practice three times a week and you have now entered the life of center Thomas Shimarack. Shimrack a 12 year veteran who has played Minor league football in North Carolina, Ohio and Pennslyvania. A graduate of Neshanock Sr. High Shimrack never attended college but, still had the love and desire to compete. With a move to North Carolina the cleats were laced up again to play in the Mason Dixon League. When asked about the extremely demanding schedule nothing negative about Minor league football could be thought of. The closest thing to a complaint would be that “at

time practice gets old”.

A former adversary of the Warriors Shimrack played for the now defunct Penn-Ohio Raiders in 2005 and 2006. An attest to his dedication drove an hour to practice while living in Beaver County to play for a team located in Sharon, PA while working the schedule spoke of previously. When asked how he felt about playing locally for the Warriors he simply stated I should have done it a lot sooner. Shimrack under all he faces on a given day still says he has two to three years left in him to compete at a high level.

When getting a little deeper into his likes and dislikes we found that his favorite athlete was Julius Peppers, a defensive end for the Carolina Panthers. He was able to coach against him in high school while Peppers was still in high school. Shimrack feels that his greatest athletic accomplishment was being named an All Star in 1998. It is also no surprise that when asked who he would like to meet his answer was Jesus Christ in Shimracks own word "Through him all things are possible". We are proud to have the experience and leadership that number 67 brings to or franchise, and look for great things from him in 2008.

War Report April Issue --

In 2008 the Warriors and the NAFL have been focusing on educating prospective fans as well as players on what it is we do. The NAFL is a Minor League that is committed to establishing itself as the premier “AAA” league in the country. The NAFL has established relationships and endorsements from the NFL,NCAA and newly formed professional league the AAFL The NAFL has received national sponsorship from Verizon and was the only league to pay traveling teams in the play offs (over $100,000 ) in 2007. This has not been done by any other league in Minor League history. The NAFL as a league was established in 1996 and was incorporated in 1998. There are more the 140 Minor League franchises from coast to coast with a few in neighboring Canada. In the off season the league made a deliberate attempt to recruit more West coast teams and so far they have been successful in bringing in 8 to date. The 2007 the All-Star game was held in Las Vegas NV and in 2008 the game will be played in Orlando FL at Disney World.

The Warriors are entering our 4th year and are also trying to promote not just what we do on the field but off. In the past year we have seen players move to play at local colleges (3) have one player entering the CFL draft and 4 players looking at Arena I and II try-outs. The Warriors are a Minor League franchise not a Semi-Pro team. Our staff is amassed of area head coaches, collegiate coaches and ex-NFL players. We have acquired services through a national marketing company as well as with a major media outlet out of New York City. They have agreed to not only cover the Warriors and the Steel Valley conference but, will have the games broadcasted via the internet and posted to their media site. The Warriors have also acquired a team agent to represent players as they navigate through the process of entering the professional ranks as well as an NFL agent that will let the players know exactly what it is they need to do to “make it” on an NFL roster. As one can se we are a lot more detailed and tailor made to the players then people may know.