Today I will answer a question from one of our great fans in Erie, PA. I hope you enjoy this feature where I will answer questions submitted directly from our fans. There have been many outstanding questions submitted and I will attempt to personally answer as many of them as possible. One question each month will be selected as the “question of the month” and that fan will receive two tickets to a game of their choice in 2011. You may submit your question directly through this website by following the “ask the coach” link- Keep those great questions coming!

Ask The Coach – August 5, 2010

Question– Coach what do you and your staff look for when evaluating players at your tryouts and when are the tryouts scheduled for next year. – James F. – Erie, PA

Answer– Our open tryouts provide a tremendous vehicle for prospective players to catch the eye of our coaching staff. Although the bulk of our training camp roster is signed through our traditional recruitment methods we value the importance of our open tryouts. The open tryout provides an opportunity for players who may have been “under the radar” the opportunity to showcase their skills to play professional indoor football. Each season we sign several players from our open tryouts to our training camp roster, and we have had several of these players go on to make an impact on our squad over the past several seasons. We get some tremendous local talent at our tryouts and our coaching staff enjoys looking for the true “diamond in the rough” at these workouts. At one of our open workouts players are timed in the 40 & 10 yard dash, pro agility, and put through a variety of position specific drills. The workout concludes with several team periods where we can evaluate how well select players can absorb coaching and fundamental work. Our tryouts usually last about two and one half hours. Our tryout schedule will be finalized over the next several weeks and we are planning to have our first open workout in late September 2010 or early October 2010. Stay tuned to this blog or http://www.stormerie.com for complete details on our upcoming open tryouts. – SL