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The season was
Rick Frazier's second tour of duty as head coach and he brought
in Sean Ponder as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. The
offensive line took a few weeks to develop and despite the hurries and sacks, quarterback,
Tim Hicks was amazing as he led the league in passing yards and touchdowns
thoughout most of the season and ended up second behind Ryan Vena of
Albany by just a few yards.
The Steamwheelers started their season out
0-4 dropping 3 at home. They ended the season at 7-9 despite a
strong push in the second half of the season. The team got their
first win on the road at Central Valley in a thriller that had them backed
up on their own goal line where they staged a goal line defense on several
attempts thanks to penalties. Central Valley went for a game winning
field goal with the game tied from the 2-yard line. Kika Kaululaau
blocked the kick to send the game in overtime where Quad City wins
it.
While the offense sputtered at times, there
were several game winning situations where they could not convert for
points like the road game at Green Bay where they had four tries on the
one yard line to win it but failed. It was a roller coaster season
with perhaps the best group of talent ever dressed in a 'Wheelers
uniform. The season came down to a road game at Manchester where
there were four scenarios out of 32 that would get the Steamwheelers into
the playoffs but they had to win. The game was a bust and 2006
marked the first time the Steamwheelers posted a losing season and failed
to earn a post season berth. |
Rick Frazier - Head
