8. With awards season upon us, make up an award for your player win for something not on the football field?
Season 28 was a "blah" season for Adam Schell statistically. He was solid, averaging almost 6 tackles per game, but for a player who has topped 100 tackles his first two seasons in the ISFL, 92 tackles in the season with his best yet TPE was disappointing. That aside, the exciting part of Schell's season was his fashion explorations. Each game of this season, Schell debuted a new attire in the pregame walkup - from a lei and grass skirt against Honolulu to a slick all white tuxedo for the final home game of the season, Schell did not disappoint each week as fans looked to see what new attire he would debut. Therefore, Schell's award for this season is the MDM "Most Daring Model" Award (sponsored by Old Spice - "live on the wild side with Old Spice") As we recognize Schell's fashion sense this season, let's look to his top three gameday outfits. Number three was during this year's breast cancer awareness week when Schell stepped out of the team van dressed head to toe in hot pink. From a pink sport coat to a pink button up shirt, pink tie, pink slacks, and even pink loafers and socks. Schell went all out to raise awareness for breast cancer, even wearing two pink "eye black" stickers throughout the game with #beaware and a link for donations written on them. Second was the aforementioned lei and grass skirt that Schell came off the team bus in after landing in Hawaii. When asked why he pulled this stunt, Schell's response was simple, "Football is fun - why not enjoy it?" And enjoy it he did. At the top of the list is Schell's week 16 attire. Celebrating Berlin's clinching of their conference, Schell came out in a gold metallic suit with gold shoes and a gold watch. He was heard saying, "We number one, baby!" when going through the tunnel into the visitor's locker room. When asked after the game how much this attire had costed him, Schell shied away from a true answer. Instead he replied, "I'm giving this to a local theatre after we get back home, so really it's an investment in the community. No donation can be too big, right?" Wearing a sly grin, Schell concluded the press conference before any further questions could be asked. Perhaps this outfit has something to do with Schell's rumored difficulty to afford team equipment this year...There's no question Schell had fun this year - maybe next season he can have a bit more fun on the field as well!
14. Describe your player and/or team’s journey through this latest season. What were the highlights? What were the lower points? What might you have done differently? What are your expectations for next season?
What a season for Berlin! After accumulating 3 wins in our first season as an organization, 7 wins in our second, and 6 in our third, Berlin came to play this year with a league leading 12-4 record! I expected this team to perform well, but 12-4 was beyond my expectations for our team. A 9-10 win season would have been satisfying, so to win our conference and 12 games was a heck of a ride. Berlin began the season 6-0, with especially clutch wins against NYS by a single point and the defending champions Sarasota. At this point, the locker room was ready for a 16-0 regular season and to just ride this wave all the way to the Ultimus championship. Of course, that is an exceedingly rare thing to wish for, and we did get our first loss in week 7 at the hands of the Butchers and their 21 fourth quarter points against a defense that was stellar all season long. Everybody has a bad quarter, I suppose! From there we had another big win over the SaberCats before dropping another nail biter, this time to the Copperheads - shoutout to Austin for having a similarly radical turnaround this season! With a tough matchup against the vengeful Sailfish coming up, it seemed likely that we'd see our first losing streak but NO! We came to play and pulled out another close victory over the defending champs to win the season series 2-0. We followed that up with wins over Honolulu, Philly, and Baltimore to stretch our record to 11-3 with all of the momentum in the world. Then came the toughest loss of the season week 15 against the Wraiths where a missed extra point and a long bomb at the end of the game landed us a one point loss. With a challenging game at Chicago looming, a 2 game losing streak heading into the playoffs seemed very possible, but our quarterback rallied the troops and got us the W against the Butchers. We watched to see who we would get after our week one bye and our latest loss came to town. The Wraiths were stifling on defense in our playoff match and we simply could not sustain a drive against the Ultimus champs to be. A terrific regular season ended in a disappointing one and done in the playoffs, and I had to apologize to my team for bringing that Cincinnati playoff magic to town (it's not magical at all...). However, despite the disappointment at the end of this season, there is much optimism in Berlin. We have a killer QB, several players who are either peaking or well prepared to face regression, and a GM pair that is savvy and proven to be capable of big time winning. I expect 10+ wins next season and at least one playoff win as the Fire Sallys continue their quest for greatness in the ISFL. Can't wait to be a big part of that in the coming seasons!
Season 28 was a "blah" season for Adam Schell statistically. He was solid, averaging almost 6 tackles per game, but for a player who has topped 100 tackles his first two seasons in the ISFL, 92 tackles in the season with his best yet TPE was disappointing. That aside, the exciting part of Schell's season was his fashion explorations. Each game of this season, Schell debuted a new attire in the pregame walkup - from a lei and grass skirt against Honolulu to a slick all white tuxedo for the final home game of the season, Schell did not disappoint each week as fans looked to see what new attire he would debut. Therefore, Schell's award for this season is the MDM "Most Daring Model" Award (sponsored by Old Spice - "live on the wild side with Old Spice") As we recognize Schell's fashion sense this season, let's look to his top three gameday outfits. Number three was during this year's breast cancer awareness week when Schell stepped out of the team van dressed head to toe in hot pink. From a pink sport coat to a pink button up shirt, pink tie, pink slacks, and even pink loafers and socks. Schell went all out to raise awareness for breast cancer, even wearing two pink "eye black" stickers throughout the game with #beaware and a link for donations written on them. Second was the aforementioned lei and grass skirt that Schell came off the team bus in after landing in Hawaii. When asked why he pulled this stunt, Schell's response was simple, "Football is fun - why not enjoy it?" And enjoy it he did. At the top of the list is Schell's week 16 attire. Celebrating Berlin's clinching of their conference, Schell came out in a gold metallic suit with gold shoes and a gold watch. He was heard saying, "We number one, baby!" when going through the tunnel into the visitor's locker room. When asked after the game how much this attire had costed him, Schell shied away from a true answer. Instead he replied, "I'm giving this to a local theatre after we get back home, so really it's an investment in the community. No donation can be too big, right?" Wearing a sly grin, Schell concluded the press conference before any further questions could be asked. Perhaps this outfit has something to do with Schell's rumored difficulty to afford team equipment this year...There's no question Schell had fun this year - maybe next season he can have a bit more fun on the field as well!
14. Describe your player and/or team’s journey through this latest season. What were the highlights? What were the lower points? What might you have done differently? What are your expectations for next season?
What a season for Berlin! After accumulating 3 wins in our first season as an organization, 7 wins in our second, and 6 in our third, Berlin came to play this year with a league leading 12-4 record! I expected this team to perform well, but 12-4 was beyond my expectations for our team. A 9-10 win season would have been satisfying, so to win our conference and 12 games was a heck of a ride. Berlin began the season 6-0, with especially clutch wins against NYS by a single point and the defending champions Sarasota. At this point, the locker room was ready for a 16-0 regular season and to just ride this wave all the way to the Ultimus championship. Of course, that is an exceedingly rare thing to wish for, and we did get our first loss in week 7 at the hands of the Butchers and their 21 fourth quarter points against a defense that was stellar all season long. Everybody has a bad quarter, I suppose! From there we had another big win over the SaberCats before dropping another nail biter, this time to the Copperheads - shoutout to Austin for having a similarly radical turnaround this season! With a tough matchup against the vengeful Sailfish coming up, it seemed likely that we'd see our first losing streak but NO! We came to play and pulled out another close victory over the defending champs to win the season series 2-0. We followed that up with wins over Honolulu, Philly, and Baltimore to stretch our record to 11-3 with all of the momentum in the world. Then came the toughest loss of the season week 15 against the Wraiths where a missed extra point and a long bomb at the end of the game landed us a one point loss. With a challenging game at Chicago looming, a 2 game losing streak heading into the playoffs seemed very possible, but our quarterback rallied the troops and got us the W against the Butchers. We watched to see who we would get after our week one bye and our latest loss came to town. The Wraiths were stifling on defense in our playoff match and we simply could not sustain a drive against the Ultimus champs to be. A terrific regular season ended in a disappointing one and done in the playoffs, and I had to apologize to my team for bringing that Cincinnati playoff magic to town (it's not magical at all...). However, despite the disappointment at the end of this season, there is much optimism in Berlin. We have a killer QB, several players who are either peaking or well prepared to face regression, and a GM pair that is savvy and proven to be capable of big time winning. I expect 10+ wins next season and at least one playoff win as the Fire Sallys continue their quest for greatness in the ISFL. Can't wait to be a big part of that in the coming seasons!