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ON TO CAMBRIDGE
Three long weeks of road trips finally end after this weekend's trip to Cambridge, Ontario in Canada.
There the Patriots will look to hopefully right the ship after a rough first half of the season.
The season kicked off on a rough start after an in house situation led to the firing of William Donahue as
Head Coach just weeks before the opening game of the season. This happened shortly after the team
already lost its first member of the coaching staff, Assistant Head Coach Tony Tubaro due to Cancer
complications. Director of Operations Brad Lyon took over as Interim Head Coach with very limited time to
install his Offensive and Defensive systems. Lyon had worked previously as an assistant coach and as
the Defensive Coordinator in previous seasons for the Patriots and is currently the Offensive Coordinator
for Southwestern Academy.
Adding to the list of problems was horrendous schedule complications brought on by the folding of two
Canadian franchises, the Niagra X-Men and Steeltown Eagles. This lead to a travel heavy schedule that
included two match ups a piece with highly ranked Indiana Warriors and the defending NAFL 2 National
Champion London Silverbacks. To top it off, Lapeer County was awarded its own expansion franchise,
highly impacting player recruitment and free agent signings. The loss of several veterans who were in the
immediate area of the new franchise impacted roster depth early.
Skip ahead a month or so and the Royal & Scarlet look to head to Tri City starting their third string
Quarterback in Alan Russ. However, Russ has showed potential early on with solid showings versus
Detroit and Indiana before a team wide poor performance while facing the Lions in Lapeer. The team will
also be without a couple other starters for the rest of the season including Ryan Walker (DE), who has left
to play at Albion University as well as Ben Etherly (RG) who leaves for CIU. Though loosing players for the
season to see them continue their careers in college is never a negative.
"Things look like they are finally starting to calm down now," said Lyon. "With the wild roller coaster start to
the season in the rear view mirror our guys can really focus on improving in the weeks ahead. There is a
great core group of guys here that we can build a foundation on. Winning isn't always about what the
score board said this week, sometimes it is about getting better each week so that you can win on a
consistent basis in the future. I believe the guys we have now can do just that, win, and consistently. We
just have to keep working."
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