Official Website of the Central Valley Coyotes

Fresno, Ca – Representatives from the Central Valley Coyotes and 15 other teams gathered earlier this week in Tulsa, Oklahoma to participate in the first ever Arena Football 1 league meeting. The 16 teams in attendance included teams from the now defunct AFL, the af2 and other indoor football leagues.

The Coyotes along with teams from Arizona, Arkansas, Bossier City/Shreveport, Chicago, Iowa, Jacksonville, Kentucky (Lexington), Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Spokane, Tennessee Valley (Huntsville, AL), Tri-Cities (Kennewick, WA), Tulsa, and Utah met with Arena Football 1 league officials to discuss applications and memberships. As announced at the league’s first press conference the applications from the above mentioned 16 teams were all accepted, including that of the Coyotes. The league expects more teams to join and more details will be available in the coming weeks.

 

“First and foremost we are grateful to have our application accepted by Arena Football 1,” stated Coyote representative Fred Biletnikoff Jr. “The ownership groups from each of the teams that were accepted are very solid business people and we look forward to potentially doing business with them.”

The Coyotes had competed in the arenafootball2 league since 2004 before deciding not to continue with them after the 2009 season. During the Coyotes 6 seasons in the league they made the playoffs 3 years in a row from 2006-2008. The Coyotes 20006 season was highlighted by QB Scott Rislov as the Coyote signal caller threw, at the time, an all-time arena football record 106 touchdown passes. The Coyotes finished the regular season 12-4 after winning their final 7 in a row.  The Coyotes won their first ever playoff game in 2007, as they traveled Manchester, as the underdogs, to defeat the Wolves in the first round. In 2008, the Coyotes again played the role of the underdog in the first round of the playoffs when they traveled back to Little Rock and beat the Arkansas Twisters.

 

“After doing business with the majority of the members of the new league, including Commissioner Jerry Kurz, for the last 6 years there is a state of familiarity and comfort for us,” Biletnikoff continued. “However, it is a new league with new documents and I need to meet with our owners, the Tachi Yokut Tribal Council, and their attorney, to review everything and see if playing Arena Football 1 is the best business decision for us.”