The Dayton Wolfpack were a professional indoor football team and a charter member of the National Arena League (NAL) in its inaugural 2017 season. Originally to be based in Dayton, Ohio, the Wolfpack had announced their home venue as the Nutter Center but apparently failed to reach a lease agreement. The Wolfpack were then listed as a traveling team by the NAL.

The Wolfpack would have been the sixth indoor football team to call Dayton home, following the Dayton Skyhawks of the original Indoor Football League (1999–2000), the Dayton Warbirds/Bulldogs of the National Indoor Football League (2005–2006), The Marshals also of the NIFL (2007), the Dayton Silverbacks of the Continental Indoor Football League (2011–2012) and finally the Dayton Sharks also of the CIFL (2013–2014).

History

On August 11, 2016, the Arena Developmental League (which then became the National Arena League) officially announced the Wolfpack as its fourth charter team, following the previously announced Columbus Lions, High Country Grizzlies and Lehigh Valley Steelhawks. The team was originally announced to be led by head coach Derrick Shepard and owners Jerome and Jesse Clark.

Over social media, the owners of the Wolfpack announced they would be playing at the Nutter Center and the NAL made the schedule listing the Nutter as their home venue. Due to the Jacksonville Sharks needing to fulfill their previous eight home contract with their arena from their time in the Arena Football League, the Wolfpack and Corpus Christi Rage each were only scheduled for five home games, with four home games of the Wolfpack's falling on a Monday. However, by February 2017, several signed players reported over social media that they had all been released from their contracts due to lack of a home venue. By February 20, the NAL had removed their home games from the schedule, leaving the Wolfpack as a traveling team. Also over social media, Marcus Ray announced he would be operating the Wolfpack traveling team out of the Atlanta area for the season.

Later in the season, Erasmus Harvey announced his new team, the Georgia Doom, would play the Georgia Firebirds as the Dayton Wolfpack for the April 29 game in Albany.

The Wolfpack were not listed as members of the league after the NAL 2017 summer meetings concluded.

Season-by-season results

League ChampionsConference ChampionsDivision ChampionsPlayoff BerthLeague Leader
SeasonTeamLeagueConferenceDivisionRegular seasonPostseason results
FinishWinsLossesTies
20172017NAL7th070

2017 season

Schedule

Key: Win Tie Loss Bye

All start times were local time

WeekDayDateKickoffOpponentResultsLocation
ScoreRecord
1SundayMarch 194:00pmat Lehigh Valley SteelhawksL 25–660–1PPL Center
2MondayMarch 277:00pmat Monterrey SteelL 24–610–2Arena Monterrey
3SaturdayApril 17:00pmat High Country GrizzlesL 6–940–3George M. Holmes Convocation Center
4MondayApril 107:05pmMonterrey SteelCancelled
5SundayApril 167:05pmCorpus Christi RageCancelled
6BYE
7SaturdayApril 297:00pmat Georgia FirebirdsL 32–350–4Albany Civic Center
8SaturdayMay 67:00pmat Lehigh Valley SteelhawksL 6–680–5PPL Center
9MondayMay 157:05pmHigh Country GrizzliesCancelled
10SaturdayMay 207:00pmat Columbus LionsL 0–770–6Columbus Civic Center
11MondayMay 297:05pmLehigh Valley SteelhawksCancelled
12SaturdayJune 37:00pmat Jacksonville SharksL 32–770–7Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena
13BYE
14MondayJune 197:05pmLehigh Valley SteelhawksCancelled

Roster

2017 Dayton Wolfpack roster
Quarterbacks 4 Efi Eyo Fullbacks 12 Aaron Appleby Wide receivers 9 Cory Alberty 15 DeQuavious Barbin 1 Lajuantae Hicks 2 Brian Robinson 3 DeMarcus SweatOffensive linemen 30 Kirk Holcombe 75 Terry Johnson 70 William Kohliem 44 Zachariah Taylor Defensive linemen 78 Dillon Berryhill 11 Darrick Cannon 10 Carl Green 48 Darius Murphy -- Stephen WilliamsLinebackers 6 Vaughn Cornelia 8 Justin Spruill Defensive backs 15 Vincent Bridges 5 Louis Brown 14 Daryl Thomas 7 Terez Wilkins Special teams 25 Zach HolleyReserve lists -- Malcolm Moulton DB (Susp.) 20 Rashawn Robinson FB (IR) Rookies in italics Roster updated June 3, 2017 23 Active, 2 Inactive

External links