Kansas City Renegades Midseason Review

First this is not a midseason review where I give each position a grade of A, B, C and so forth. This is more of an overview of the organization as a whole. Where I try to point out what is being done right and what could be improved.

First up is the on the field product. The Renegades stand 4-2 at the midway point. Given that the team started 0-2 and seemed to be allergic to holding on to the ball this is as good as you could hope. Kansas City has used six different quarterbacks during the first six games of the season. The team started out with Dennis Gile for the first two games of the season. While Gile has experience in the indoor game the offense did not seem to be very consistent with him under center. Next came former FSU Seminole and KC Command player Xavier Lee. The Renegades righted the ship with Lee and got their first two victories of the season. Then came Carlos Cavanaugh who has filled in for Lee while he was away dealing with a family matter. Now that Lee is back and Cavanaugh has game time experience with this team I think Kansas City is dealing from a position of strength.

While the running game has been good enough I would like to see more out of this position. Keithen Valentine and O.J. Simpson are nice local talents but I get concerned about Simpson getting spread too thin rotating between rb, wr and returner.

The defense has been fairly decent all season but has really come on in the last three weeks. This is backed up by the fact that Teon Wilson and Donta Moore are the last two Defensive Player Of The Week award winners.

The special teams can be summed up in one name, OJ Simpson. He is arguably the best return man in the league. This is evidenced by the fact that the Outlaws last week refused to kick to him. Kicker Thomas Frevert seems to be serviceable and steady. I see no problem with him so far.

So far this team has more wins at the halfway point than the Brigade/Command had in three of the five seasons.

The front office has been outstanding. This ranges from making sure that players are making plenty of appearances around the city to making appearances on local radio to get the word out about the team and league to owner Jeremy Ploeger tailgating with The Posse. They have also made sure that I am kept up to date on all team activities and functions. This organization learned from the mistakes of the Brigade/Command and have both listened to and embraced the fans instead of keeping them at an arm’s length.

The places where I see an opportunity for improvement is to hire an intern to do post game press releases. It is very difficult to do a postgame write up when you do not have game stats or a scoring summary. This is a common practice among all minor league teams. The other opportunity I see is getting a dedicated page on the website for both game and season stats (both team and individual). I know some of this is covered under the Game Center tab on the site but a dedicated page would be more efficient.

The social media aspect has been maintained very well. The team has done an adequate job on facebook but I feel they have excelled when it comes to Youtube and Twitter. The front office has been very quick to get player and coach interviews up on their Youtube channel  (usually within 24 hours) and are really on top of Twitter. Retweeting both player and fan tweets almost immediately. I have tweeted something about the team as late as 1am CDT and had it retweeted by the team within five minutes. This is the way to endear yourself to and generate loyalty from your fan base.

While the season got off to a rocky start, the course was corrected, and things look pretty good after six games. Now if things keep improving over the next six we could be looking at the inaugural CPIFL Champions. It has been a long time since any football team in Kansas City (indoor or outdoor) has been able to say that. Now if the crowds will continue to grow we could be looking at indoor football in town for a long time.