Pensacola Flyers
| Pensacola Flyers | |
| Founded | 1998 |
| League | EISL |
| Team History | 1998 |
|---|---|
| Arena | Pensacola Civic Center |
| Team Colors | Red, Royal Blue & White |
| President | Lynn Broadway |
| Head Coach | Jimmy Graham |
| Championships | 0 |
| Division Titles | 0 |
The Pensacola Flyers were a professional indoor soccer team in the Eastern Indoor Soccer League (EISL), based out of Tallahassee, FL. The Flyers only season was 1998. The EISL began play in June 14, 1997 as a regional developmental indoor soccer league, positioning itself as a minor, professional league. It was in effect the first minor indoor soccer league in the USA. It had aspirations to be similar to the Major Indoor Soccer League. The league, which played in the summer, only lasted two seasons before folding in which the Lafayette Swampcats would become league champions both years. The commissioner was John MacKenzie.
Most indoor soccer games are played with six active players per team, one of which is the goalkeeper. Substitute players are permitted and executed hockey style on-the-fly. Players use hockey-style boards to pass and manuever play, without any offside rule. The goals protrude beyond the back section of each end with curved boarded corners just like in hockey arenas. Scoring is usually quite high.
Pensacola would have several teams with the same name: The Pensacola Fliers of the Southeastern League from 1946-1950, and the Pensacola Ice Flyers of the Southern Professional Hockey League whose first season is 2009-2010.
1998 Season[edit]
The team moved to Pensacola from Tupelo and were renamed the Flyers. The owners were Dan and Lynn Broadway with ticket prices ranging from $7 to $18. The team finished 10-18, sixth in the standings out of seven teams and did not qualify for the playoffs. The Flyers scored 321 points, two more than the divison leading Swampcats. However, the defense leaked profusely as they allowed 352 points--second worst in the league. The Flyers averaged 1,032 fans per game. Former Flyer Midfielder John Molet is currently a member of the Denver Dynamite of the Professional Arena Soccer League. Another former player, Oleg "Bal" Baleyev, is the head coach of the Jones County Junior College soccer team in Ellisville, Mississippi. He served as the head women’s coach for two years before concentrating solely on the men’s team in 2008. Although teams such as Pensacola and Lafayette had a decent fanbase, the EISL folded after the season due to team owners' loss of confidence in the league's future. The Swampcats to this day maintain a fan website.
1997 Season[edit]
The Flyers began the 1997 season as the Tupelo Hound Dogs, based in Tupelo, Mississippi. The Dogs went 12-12, finished 5th out of the league's seven teams and missed the playoffs.
