Spokane Shock Weekly Update: The Thrill is Back!

We're going to do a new feature here on Just South of North. With plenty of local teams to cover in the Pacific Northwest, we've decided to pick some of them that matter the most to you, the readers, and do weekly updates.

First up? Spokane Shock Saturdays. The af2 dynasty sitting next to the river in the Lilac City and since the AFL has cancelled the season this year, will probably be the best place to watch Arena Football now.

While it's rather strange for the main league to cancel a season but the feeder leagues to keep going, that's exactly what is happening and while many AFL players are out of work, they won't be playing in the af2. The big change will be players looking to move to the AFL from the af2 will probably return to their former team for another year.

One of those players? Raul "The Thrill" Vijil, one of the best wide receivers in Eastern Washington University history and the best WR in the history of the Spokane Shock. Here's his stat line from Kevin Maloney's release on the Spokane Shock website:

After three seasons with the Shock, Vijil is the franchise’s all-time leader in receptions (223), touchdown receptions (62), reception yardage (2,454) and all-purpose yardage (4,164).

Kevin also gave us an interesting number to ponder coming into the 2009 season:

Vijil, 5-10 190, is the 11th member of the 2008 National Conference Champions to re-sign with the Shock.

We're going to see a lot of familiar faces this season, meaning that the team wont have to spend as much time trying to mesh, meaning that the players wont have to spend as much time adjusting to the indoor game, meaning that the rest of the af2 is basically screwed.

Woo hoo! Is the Ninth Man ready to ride again?