Hawks fire Foggie

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, May 13, 2006

EVERETT – It’s no longer Foggie in Everett.

The winless Everett Hawks, who lost their sixth straight arenafootball2 game Friday night, fired head coach Rickey Foggie and two members of his coaching staff on Saturday.

Tony Wells, who joined the team last week as the defensive backs coach, was named head coach of the first-year af2 team by club owner Sam Adams.

“Wells is the type of coach who can right this ship,” Adams said in a prepared statement.

On May 5, one day before the Hawks played their fifth game of the season – a 50-40 loss to the Stockton Lightning – Adams said Foggie’s job was secure.

But Adams, a defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL, changed his mind after the Spokane Shock built a 35-7 halftime lead Friday en route to a 58-29 victory over the Hawks at the Everett Events Center.

Adams said the team “decided to go in a different direction,” and “wishes Foggie and his crew the best.”

Assistant head coach Alvin Ashley and defensive coordinator Matthew Steeples were fired along with Foggie. The Hawks are in the process of hiring their replacements, the team said.

Foggie came to Everett after serving as offensive coordinator of the Amarillo Dusters of the af2 in 2005.

“I admire him, it was a tough situation,” Wells said. “Rickey Foggie’s a great coach, a great person and I respect him the utmost. He’s also a friend of mine.”

The 0-6 Hawks are in last place in the five-team National West division and are one of two winless teams in the 23-team af2. Everett is 21st in the league in scoring offense (40.2 points per game) and 19th in scoring defense (52.2 ppg).

“I’m a drill sergeant and Rickey’s more of a laid back player’s coach,” Wells said of the changes he brings to the Hawks. “It’s not that one way is better than the other, it just depends on what the team needs.

“We have to pay attention to the details, the little things that make the difference on and off the field,” Wells said. “Punctuality at meetings, being on time for training, treatments, even public appearances. The kind discipline that can carry over onto the field.”

The dismissal of Foggie and his two assistants is the latest in a series of personnel moves made by the Hawks this month.

Everett traded quarterback Julian Reese, who started the first four games of the season, to the South Georgia Wildcats for three players on May 4.

Reese played for Foggie at Amarillo and threw 65 touchdown passes and rushed for 28 touchdowns with the Dusters in 2005, and was selected as the National Conference All-af2 first-team quarterback.

In his four games with Hawks, Reese threw 13 TD passes and six interceptions. Reese also rushed for 10 touchdowns, which tied him for the league lead going into this weekend’s games.

Reese led South Georgia to its first victory in six games Saturday night, as the Wildcats defeated the defending af2 champion Memphis Xplorers 48-41.

Chris Dixon, who started the season with the Billings Outlaws of the National Indoor Football League, replaced Reese as the Hawks’ starting quarterback.

Fullback/linebacker Jason Null, one of the three players acquired from the Wildcats in the Reese trade, scored a touchdown in Friday night’s game. The other two players – quarterback Brian Baker and lineman Tracy Flounoy – have not played for Everett.

Offensive specialist AJ Street, who played for Everett’s NIFL team in 2005 and was the Hawks’ leading receiver with 22 receptions after four games, was released on Friday. Street was suspended by Foggie prior to the Hawks’ game against Stockton “for conduct detrimental to the team.”

Wells, who played his college football at Kent State and played eight seasons as a wide receiver/defensive back in the Arena Football League, began his coaching career as a player/coach with the Arena league’s Florida Bobcats in 1999.

Wells was the assistant offensive coordinator for the Pensacola Barracudas of the af2 in 2002, the offensive coordinator/assistant head coach for the Charleston Swamp Foxes of the af2 in 2003 and the offensive coordinator for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers of the af2 in 2204.

Wells joined the Miami Morays of the NIFL as offensive coordinator in 2005, but resigned after six games.

Wells was named head coach of the NIFL’s Cincinnati Marshals midway through the 2005 season. The Marshalls were 6-2 in Wells’ eight games as head coach and finished the season with a record of 10-6.

“It’s hard switching the guard, I understand that,” Wells said. “But, they (the players) want to stay here and make this right.”