The Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL) was an

indoor Indoor(s) may refer to: *the interior of a building *Indoor environment, in building science, traditionally includes the study of indoor thermal environment, indoor acoustic environment, indoor light environment, and indoor air quality *Built envi ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

league based in the Southern and Eastern United States. The most recent incarnation of the league was a consolidation of an earlier league of the same name that was formed by Thom Hager along with Dan Blum, Robert Winfrey and Dan Ryan in 2009 and the

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

, which traces its roots to the founding of the Atlantic Indoor Football League in 2005. The SIFL broke up into three regional leagues after the 2011 season.

History

2009 season

Based in Texas and Louisiana, it had five teams for its inaugural season. The Acadiana Mudbugs, Austin Turfcats, Houma Conquerors, Texas Hurricanes, and Louisiana Swashbucklers are the teams that comprised the first season. The 2009 SIFL staff included Commissioner Dan Blum, Director of Operations Robert Winfrey, Director of Communications Dan Ryan, Director of Quality Control Bryan Shoemaker and Director of Creative Services Scott Blanchard. The first round of the playoffs had #1 Louisiana defeating #4 Houma, and #2 Austin defeating #3 Acadiana. The inaugural SIFL season concluded with the President's Cup Championship Game which saw the Louisiana Swashbucklers defeat the Austin Turfcats 59-38.

2010 season

The second season of the SIFL played with five teams. The loss of the Austin Turfcats, Houma Conquerors, and Texas Hurricanes were countered with the addition of the Albany Panthers, Columbus Lions, and Greenville Force. The Lafayette Wildcatters, who changed its name from the Acadiana Mudbugs, and the Louisiana Swashbucklers returned for the 2010 season. The 2010 SIFL staff included Commissioner Dan Blum, Director of Operations Robert Winfrey, Director of Communications Matthew Hester, and Director of Quality Control Bryan Shoemaker.

2011 season

After the 2010 season, the Greenville Force was dropped from the SIFL. With the exit of the Force, the SIFL added the Alabama Hammers, Houston Stallions, Mobile Bay Tarpons, Rio Grande Valley Magic, and Trenton Steel for the 2011 season. At the same time, the Abilene Ruff Riders and Corpus Christi Hammerheads made the move to the SIFL from the IFL. Gary Tufford took over the reins of the league as Commissioner and built the SIFL into the 16 team league that would compete in the 2011 season. On November 9, 2010, the SIFL announced its merger with the East Division of the American Indoor Football Association, adding the Carolina Speed, Erie Explosion, Harrisburg Stampede, and Richmond Raiders. It was thought that the Fayetteville Guard would also move to the SIFL but another sports marketing group from Fayetteville announced it would field a new team from the Fayetteville market independent to the Guard. This brought the league total to 16 clubs. In March 2011 it was reported that sports management company Fanteractive was acquiring the league (as well as owning the Trenton and Fayetteville teams), with plans to make it "interactive" by giving fans a voice in team decisions. The Lafayette Wildcatters suspended operations the day before the 2011 season started and the Mobile Tarpons folded roughly a month into the 2011 season.

Breakup

A June 2011 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' article noted the league's instability. In September 2011, the majority of teams in the SIFL broke off to join two new leagues, the Texas-based

Lone Star Football League The Lone Star Football League (LSFL) was a regional professional indoor football minor league that played three seasons from 2012 to 2014. All of the LSFL's charter teams were based in the state of Texas, with five teams coming from the Southern ...

and the Southeast-based

Professional Indoor Football League The Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) was a professional indoor football league that played four seasons from 2012 to 2015. Like the Lone Star Football League, the PIFL was mainly composed of teams formerly part of Southern Indoor Foo ...

. The remaining three teams were claimed by the revived

. The SIFL itself has been silent since July 2011, and its Web site was taken down several months later and it is assumed that the league is completely defunct.

Former teams

Austin Turfcats The Austin Turfcats were a professional indoor football team based in Austin, Texas. The Turfcats were a member of the Indoor Football League (IFL) during the 2010 season, after being a charter member of the Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL ...

– voluntarily left SIFL after inaugural season to join Indoor Football League for 2010 season. *Florida Kings – traveling team for 2009; expelled from SIFL after one game (an 81–0 loss) for failing to pay travel expenses. * Greenville Force – were not listed on SIFL page for 2011 season * Houma Conquerors – team was dormant for the 2010 season and did not return * Texas Hurricanes – team was dormant for the 2010 season and did not return *

Lafayette Wildcatters The Lafayette Wildcatters were a professional indoor football team based in Lafayette, Louisiana and a charter member of the Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL). They played their home games at the Cajundome, the Wildcatters are Lafayette's s ...

– team was dormant for the 2011 season *

Mobile Bay Tarpons The Mobile Bay Tarpons were a professional indoor football team in the Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL). Based in Mobile, Alabama, the Tarpons were to play their home games at the Mobile Greater Gulf State Fairgrounds. The Tarpons were the ...

– team was dormant for the remainder of the 2011 season. *

Fayetteville Force The Fayetteville Force was a professional ice hockey team. based in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The franchise was a member of the Central Hockey League (1997–2001). They played their home games at the Crown Coliseum. Background In 1996, the C ...

– original team left league midway through the 2011 season. Temporary team backed by the

played out the remainder of the season in the Force's place under the Force name. *

Erie Explosion The Erie Explosion was a professional American indoor football team based in Erie, Pennsylvania. Founded in 2007 as the Pittsburgh RiverRats, the Explosion played in the Professional Indoor Football League, the United Indoor Football League, the ...

– team left for the

Ultimate Indoor Football League The Ultimate Indoor Football League (UIFL) was a regional professional indoor football league that began its inaugural season on February 18, 2011 as the Ultimate Indoor Football League before playing as the United Indoor Football League in 2012 ...

. *

Abilene Ruff Riders The Abilene Bombers were a professional indoor football team. The Bombers played their home games at the Taylor County Expo Center, in Abilene, Texas. Team history The Bombers began play as the Katy Ruff Riders, a 2007 expansion team of the Inte ...

– team left for the

. *

Corpus Christi Hammerheads Corpus is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of linguistics Music * ...

– team left for the

. *

Houston Stallions The Houston Stallions were a professional indoor football team that competed in the Lone Star Football League (LSFL). Based in Houston, Texas, the Stallions played their home games at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas. 2011 inaugural season In ...

– team left for the

. *

Rio Grande Valley Magic The Rio Grande Valley Magic were a professional indoor football team based in Hidalgo, Texas. The Magic were charter members of the Lone Star Football League (LSFL) in 2012, after playing as an expansion team in the Southern Indoor Football League ...

– team left for the

. *

Laredo Rattlesnakes The Laredo Rattlesnakes were a professional indoor football team in the Lone Star Football League that began play in the 2012 season. Based in Laredo, Texas, the Rattlesnakes played their home games at the Laredo Energy Arena. Previously, the Rat ...

– team originally set to be part of 2012 SIFL season, but left to help start

. *

Alabama Hammers The Alabama Hammers were a professional indoor football team based in Huntsville, Alabama. The team played in the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) from 2012 to 2015. The Hammers originally began play as an expansion team in the Souther ...

– team left for the

. * Albany Panthers – team left for the

. *

Columbus Lions The Columbus Lions are a professional indoor football team based in Columbus, Georgia and are a member of the American Indoor Football Alliance. The were a founding member of the National Arena League (NAL) for the 2017 season. The Lions were ...

– team left for the

. *

Louisiana Swashbucklers The Louisiana Swashbucklers were a professional indoor football team based in Lake Charles, Louisiana. They were formed in 2005 as an expansion member of the National Indoor Football League (NIFL) and were originally known as the Southwest Loui ...

– team left for the

. *

Richmond Raiders The Richmond Raiders were a professional indoor football team located in Richmond, Virginia the Richmond Coliseum as their home arena. The Raiders began play in the 2010 as an expansion team of the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA). The ...

– team left for the

. *

Trenton Steel The Trenton Steel was a professional indoor football team that began play in the Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL) in the 2011 season. The team suspended operations December 27, 2011. The Steel were based in Trenton, New Jersey, with home gam ...

– team claimed by

American Indoor Football American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

, but did not operate in 2012. *

Harrisburg Stampede The Harrisburg Stampede were a professional indoor football team based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Stampede participated in several different leagues over their history: the American Indoor Football Association in 2009 and 2010, the Southern ...

– Team claimed by

. * Carolina Speed – Team claimed by

Timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:2009 till:2012 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.5,0.95,0.4) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:green from:2009 till:2011 text: Acadiana Mudbugs/Lafayette Wildcatters (2009-2010) bar:2 color:green from:2009 till:2010 text:

(2009) bar:3 color:green from:2009 till:2010 text: Houma Conquerors (2009) bar:4 color:green from:2009 till:2012 text:

(2009-2011) bar:5 color:green from:2009 till:2010 text: Texas Hurricanes (2009) bar:6 color:green from:2010 till:2012 text: Albany Panthers (2010-2011) bar:7 color:green from:2010 till:2012 text:

(2010-2011) bar:8 color:green from:2010 till:2012 text: Greenville Force (2010) bar:9 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) bar:10 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) bar:11 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text: Carolina Speed (2011) bar:12 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) bar:13 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) bar:14 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) bar:15 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) bar:16 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) bar:17 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) bar:18 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) bar:19 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) bar:20 color:green from:2011 till:2012 text:

(2011) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2009

Champions

President's Cup

Award winners and notable players

2009 SIFL Award winners

*MVP: Kimmie Lewis (Acadiana) *Offensive Player of the Year: Marcus Wilridge (Louisiana) *Defensive Player of the Year: Kimmie Lewis (Acadiana) *Special Teams Players of the Year: Tommy Hebert (Louisiana) and Darric Wallace (Austin) *Lineman of the Year: John Paul Jones (Louisiana) *Coach of the Year: Darnell Lee (Louisiana) *Franchise of the Year: Louisiana Swashbucklers

2010 SIFL Award winners

*MVP: Cecil Lester (Albany) *Offensive Player of the Year: Chris McCoy (Columbus) *Defensive Player of the Year: Damian Daniels (Columbus) *Special Teams Player of the Year: Trey Crum (Columbus) *Lineman of the Year: Franklin Lloyd (Columbus) *Coach of the Year: Lucious Davis (Albany) *Franchise of the Year: Albany Panthers

2011 SIFL Award winners

*MVP:

Adam DiMichele Adam DiMichele (; born July 26, 1985) is an American football coach and former quarterback. He was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles as an undrafted free agent in 2009. He played college football at Temple. DiMichele was also a member of the Calg ...

(Erie) *Offensive Player of the Year: Kevin Concepcion (Erie) *Defensive Player of the Year: Damian Daniels (Columbus) *Special Teams Player of the Year: Craig Camay (Trenton) *Coach of the Year: Gerald Dockery (Houston)

References

{{Professional gridiron football leagues in North America Defunct indoor American football leagues in the United States