The San Diego Strike Force is a professional
indoor football team based in
San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
. It is a member of the
Indoor Football League
The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams amon ...
and began play in 2019 at
Pechanga Arena
Pechanga Arena (historically known as the San Diego Sports Arena) is an indoor arena built in 1966 and located in the Midway area of San Diego, California.
The arena seats 12,000 for indoor football, 12,920 for ice hockey, indoor soccer and ...
in the city's
Midway district. It is the second professional football team in San Diego that began play in spring 2019, after the
San Diego Fleet
The San Diego Fleet was a professional American football franchise based in San Diego, California, and one of the eight members of the Alliance of American Football (AAF). The league began play in February 2019, with the team playing its home game ...
of the
Alliance of American Football
The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan are ...
, more than year after the departure of the
NFL's
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...
in 2017.
The Strike Force is the third indoor team to play in San Diego, after the
San Diego Riptide
The San Diego Riptide was a professional arena football team based in San Diego, California. The team played its home games at the San Diego Sports Arena.
The team was originally coached by Cree Morris, then Mouse Davis and finally by Sean Ponde ...
of
af2
The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...
(2002–2005) and the
San Diego Shockwave
The San Diego Shockwave was a 2007 expansion team from the National Indoor Football League. They played their home games at the Viejas Arena, which is also home to the San Diego State Aztecs basketball teams.
The Shockwave finished the 2007 se ...
of the
National Indoor Football League
The National Indoor Football League (NIFL) was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by either the Arena Football League or its developmental league, A ...
(2007). The team may have planned on being called the San Diego Lightning, as the organization's original email addresses and internal website links used that name.
Due to the effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, the team went dormant for the 2021 season.
History
The team was initially announced as a 2019
Indoor Football League
The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams amon ...
expansion team in November 2018 and was owned by Roy Choi, who was also the owner of the IFL's
Cedar Rapids River Kings
The Cedar Rapids River Kings were a professional indoor football team based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The River Kings joined the Indoor Football League (IFL) as an expansion team in 2011 as the Cedar Rapids Titans and first took the field for the 20 ...
. The team announced their colors as black, navy blue, silver, as well as their initial staff on December 17, 2018.
Brian Cox, a former
sports agent and quarterback, was hired as the general manager, while ex-Chargers defensive end
Burt Grossman was named head coach.
The Strike Force struggled throughout its inaugural season with Grossman remarking the games were like he was "Southwestern College going to play
Clemson or something." In their season opener against the
Quad City Steamwheelers
The Quad City Steamwheelers were a professional arena football team. They were a charter member of the AF2 and played their home games at iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois.
The team was founded on September 1, 1999 when the Quad Cities was ...
, they allowed 43 points in the first half and lost 67–49; Grossman attributed the team's struggles to a lack of headsets for the coaches. He eventually fired the defensive coordinator and released four players on defense; the offensive coordinator had also been fired two weeks prior, though Grossman noted both coaches were on the staff prior to his arrival. The Strike Force's first home game, a 65–44 defeat by the
Tucson Sugar Skulls
The Tucson Sugar Skulls are a professional indoor American football team based in Tucson, Arizona. They are members of the Indoor Football League (IFL) since the 2019 season as an expansion team. They play home games at Tucson Convention Center's ...
, saw a poor playing field consisting of carpet pieces held together with duct tape; four additional players were released a day later. After a 0–3 start, owner Choi brought in the River Kings' general manager Ryan Eucker to replace Cox. The team finished the season with a 1–13 record and last place in the league; their lone win was a 40–34 victory over the River Kings.
Following the 2019 season, Eucker announced the team would undergo a minor rebrand with a new logos and colors, choosing more military tones in olive green, black, silver, and brass to better represent the city. After playing one game, a 50–36 win over the
Bismarck Bucks
The Bismarck Bucks are an indoor American football team based in Bismarck, North Dakota. The Bucks joined Champions Indoor Football (CIF) as an expansion team in 2016, and began play for the 2017 season. The team moved to the Indoor Football Lea ...
, the rest of the
2020 season was canceled due to the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
The Strike Force also withdrew from the
2021 season due to continued pandemic restrictions in California. During the hiatus, Eucker left the team and was replaced by football operations director Geno Gerbo as interim general manager by April 2021. In May 2021, Vivian Lin was announced as the team president and (''
incorrectly'') as the first Asian American woman to be a president of a professional football team.
That honor actually belongs to
Kim Pegula - Owner and President of the Buffalo Bills (NFL) and Buffalo Sabres (NHL).
By November 2021, Gerbo had left the organization and Todd Durkin was named general manager. while Grossman was replaced as head coach by former
Christian High School athletic director and football offensive coordinator, David Beezer.
In March 2022, it was announced that the team had been sold to a new group of local investors, with Lin as the controlling owner, when Choi no longer wanted to be the owner.
However Lin's group was unsuccessful in their purchase attempt, and ownership reverted back to Choi in November of 2022.
Roster
References
External links
*
{{California sports
American football teams in San Diego
Indoor Football League teams
American football teams established in 2018
2018 establishments in California