Wilkes-Barre AF1 team
| Wilkes-Barre AF1 team | |
|---|---|
| Established 2024 Play in Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township, Pennsylvania | |
 | |
| League/conference affiliations | |
| |
Current uniform | |
| Team colors | TBA |
| Nicknames | TBA |
| Personnel | |
| Owner(s) | Matt Rowland |
| Head coach | Shawn Liotta |
| Team history | |
| |
| Championships | |
| League championships (0) | |
| Conference championships (0) | |
| Division championships (0) | |
| Playoff appearances (0) | |
| 0 | |
| Home arena(s) | |
| Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza (2025โfuture) | |
The Wilkes-Barre AF1 team are a future professional arena football team based in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. They were founded in 2024 as an expansion team in Arena Football One and are owned by local businessman Matt Rowland. They will play their home games at the Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township, Pennsylvania beginning in the 2025 season.
History
[edit]The Wilkes-Barre AF1 team are only the second arena football team to play in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton region and the first since the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers of the original af2 that played from 2002 to 2009, playing in two ArenaCup title games losing to the Tulsa Talons in 2007 and the Spokane Shock in 2009.
The Beginning
[edit]Fifteen years after the Pioneers played their final game in Wilkes-Barre, Arena Football One, (a reorganized offshoot of the failed second revival of the Arena Football League) granted an expansion franchise to local owner Matt Rowland, a graduate of Misericordia University, a private Catholic university in Dallas, Pennsylvania. In a press released posted by AF1, they were quoted as describing Rowland as an "extensive experience as an innovative boxing promoter and has several large boxing cards to his credit."[1][2] The team will play their home games starting in the 2025 season at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in the Wilkes-Barre Township. League president Jared Widman was quoted to say, โThe (Mohegan) Sun Arena has been wonderful to work with. Bringing arena football back to Wilkes-Barre, it is something that is exciting and the league is happy about.โ[3] Rowland and Widman were college classmates at Misericordia and teammates on that school's lacrosse team.[4]
The team will play in the AF1's East Division along with the Albany Firebirds, Nashville Kats and Orlando Predators.
On November 21, Shawn Liotta was announced as the team's inaugural head coach.[5]
Current roster
[edit]Quarterbacks
Running backs
Wide receivers
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Offensive linemen
Defensive linemen
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Linebackers
Defensive backs
Special teams
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Reserve lists
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Staff
[edit]|
Front office
Head coaches
Offensive coaches
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Defensive coaches
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References
[edit]- ^ "AF1 Announces Expansion Team in Wilkes-Barre for 2025". Arena Football One. 2024-09-10. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
- ^ "New arena football league awards expansion franchise to Wilkes-Barre". Times Leader. 2024-09-11. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
- ^ "Arena football returning to Wilkes-Barre". The Citizen's Voice. 2024-09-11. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
- ^ Bennett, Steve (2024-09-11). "Arena football returning to Wilkes-Barre". The Citizens' Voice. Retrieved 2024-11-09.
- ^ @WBArenaFootball (2024-11-21). ""This is an exciting time for football fans in Northeast PA, Arena football is back in a big way and ๐ ๐๐๐ง'๐ญ ๐ฐ๐๐ข๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐๐ง๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ค ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐๐๐ก ๐ฐ๐๐๐ค." - Shawn Lotta, Head Football Coach, Wilkes-Barre Arena Football Team" (Tweet). Retrieved 2024-11-21 – via Twitter.