Cellar-dwelling Colorado Ice have tumultuous season on and off the field

Professional sports teams are not meant to have seasons like this. In this season the Colorado Ice have had three owners, used three quarterbacks, have twice as many losses than wins, and just when things looked like they couldn’t get any worse, a tornado ripped through the Ice’s community.

While 2008 has had more downs than ups for the Ice as a whole, quite a few players have moved on to larger leagues. Offensive lineman Ross Weaver signed with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, while kicker and Fort Collins native Deric Yaussi signed with the Arena Football League’s Colorado Crush. Wide Receiver George Hill also missed games while trying out with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.

The bad omens this season for the Ice started with the bizarre way that founding owner Danny DeGrande left the team during the first weeks of the season. Rumors abounded that DeGrande had stopped paying players and staff, however nothing was ever confirmed by the club.

Eventually, the Ice’s league, the United Indoor Football Association absorbed the team in the first week of April. The UIF had its hands full, but decided to buy the club before the Ice’s ownership but bring any harm to the club.

 “The Fort Collins market is a great sports market and a great football market,” UIF Executive Director Paul Aaron said at the time. “The league felt that the fans and the community’s best interests were not being served under the circumstances and decided to take action before the 2008 home schedule began.”

Two weeks later came the announcement that Fort Collins businessman John Cunningham had purchased the team after having an interest in owning an expansion UIF franchise. Cunningham vowed to keep the team at its current home.
"The Budweiser Events Center is the premier sports venue in Northern Colorado, as evidenced by the success of the Colorado Eagles," Cunningham said. "We look forward to a long-term relationship with the BE.”

The first step that Cunningham made after buying the team was to announce that he would personally cook dinner for fans if the team lost its May 2 contest against the Billings Outlaws. Luckily for Cunningham, the game provided one of the lone bright spots for the Ice, as they secured a 39-37 victory due to a kickoff return for touchdown by Hill.

Other bright spots for the Ice were a 32-30 home victory over the River City Rage, in which, the Ice defense held the Rage on a potential game-tying two point conversion in the final minutes, and a 55-32 blowout over the Sioux City Bandits in the season debut for quarterback Ryan Clement. Clement, a former Miami Hurricane, has played admirable for the Ice, throwing for 11 touchdowns against just three interceptions.

Colorado also had five of its players named to the UIF all-star game that will take place on July 19 in Sioux Falls, Iowa. The five players were offensive lineman Brandon Alconcel, defensive lineman Steve Frye, defensive back Travis Garcia defensive back Dorsey Golston and special teams player Ryan Palmer.

Despite having five all-stars, the Ice were the only Western Division team not to have a position player named to the game. The lack of position players is due to the fact that Colorado ranks last in its division in points, yards, and first downs on its way to a 4-8 season.

The Ice’s troubles were compounded when on May 22 a tornado ripped through Windsor, a town that lies only a few miles from the Ice’s home arena, Budweiser Events Center. Players and coaches responded by traveling to Windsor to volunteer their time and help clear debris from some affected areas.

In addition to the manual help, the team also offered free tickets to all Windsor residents for the first home game that took place after the tornado.

Even though the Ice’s season didn’t go as hoped, they do have one thing to look forward to that not all teams in their league do: Next season.