Southwest Kansas Storm Playbook: League Leaders

The Southwest Kansas Storm won Arena Football One’s inaugural game on Saturday night. It was a thriller over the Kats of Nashville. Now, they quickly turn their attention to the Washington Wolfpack, whom they’ll face on the road Sunday evening, March 16th. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET. As the “Game of the Week,” it’ll air on VICETV.

storm defeat kats 40-26

“It’s a hell of a lot easier to correct mistakes after a win than a loss” is how Coach Gary Thomas started our weekly conversation. “I think we got a little confidence, and we feel good.” As most coaches tend to do, Coach Thomas focused on the team's early mistakes that could have given the Storm a bigger lead to open up the game. “We left a lot of points out there early.” But he is very happy that his guys kept their focus and composure and finished the game strong. 

The main focus in practice this week has been on simple corrections and cleaning things up. “The thing you can’t duplicate is the adrenaline, there’s no substitute for game day action.” Coach Thomas feels there's an advantage to getting those first-game jitters and the physicality of a real game out of the way before most of the other teams. 

on to washington

The coaches decided to give the players Sunday off to celebrate the big win and recover from an extremely physical game. Monday was film day, and Tuesday was a lighter practice to get their feet back under them. Wednesday and Thursday, the Storm hit it hard preparing for the Wolfpack. 

The team will head out Saturday to Everett, Washington, for Sunday night’s showdown. The Storm will treat preparing for Washington the same way they did last week for Nashville. “We’ll be prepared for whatever they throw at us.” “We’ve just got to be the best version of ourselves.” Coach Thomas also knows the Wolfpack have the advantage of watching last week’s film, but said the team just needs to “execute at a high level and put ourselves in a good position.” 

Tune in Sunday night on VICETV to watch the Storm battle the Wolfpack!