Friday, September 21, 2001
[ ARENA FOOTBALL ]
Guy Benjamin had been through it all before, and said he was skeptical at first. Benjamin thrilled
about AF2Star-Bulletin staff
Benjamin had coached the Hawaii Hammerheads to the 1999 Indoor Professional Football League championship, only to see the franchise fall apart financially. When he heard another indoor team was coming to Honolulu, he wasn't sure what to think.
"One meeting changed everything," he said.
"I said, 'Boy, I want to be a part of this team. This is going to work.' "
The arenafootball2 Hawaiian Islanders announced Benjamin as its coach yesterday. "We're so happy to have hired locally," managing director Jerry Kurz said in a release.
Benjamin is a former offensive coordinator at the University of Hawaii, and has coached at Stanford with Bill Walsh, at Contra Costa College and at Campbell and Kapolei High Schools locally. He had a six-year career in the NFL, including two Super Bowl seasons with San Francisco, following All-America honors as a quarterback at Stanford.
Benjamin said he is excited about the prospect of AF2 bringing an avenue for further development of local players and coaches beyond the high school and college levels.
"There's a lot of players here," Benjamin said of Hawaii. "There's so much talent here."
The Islanders are perfect for "local players who had the talent to play major college or pro, but who didn't get the chance for a variety of reasons," Benjamin said. He expects to fill the roster with former UH standouts as well as those who went to the mainland to play college football but are looking to return home -- and perhaps a surprise or two as well. Benjamin hopes to work with college coaches, including June Jones and Rich Miano at UH, to identify potential prospects.
The 37-team AF2 is a developmental league for the Arena Football League, and in the AFL players can actually make a living playing football, Benjamin said. The AFL is also owned and operated in part by the NFL, and a handful of NFL owners and ex-players are involved in owning AFL teams.
The Islanders' owner is Charles B. Wang, who also owns the NHL's New York Islanders and the AFL's New York Dragons.
"After being involved with the other stuff, this is the real deal," Benjamin said.
Islander tryouts will be Oct. 20 at the Blaisdell Arena. An informational meeting will be held Oct. 2 at Blaisdell, Benjamin said.