D.C. Armor: Players get outlet to showcase talent

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By Bob Cohn

At almost 5 a.m., it was 15 degrees and dark except for a few headlights from the vehicles idling in the parking lot, heaters running. Daniel James, the coach and keeper of the keys, was nowhere to be found, meaning practice would start a little late for the new D.C. Armor indoor football team.

Some of the players dozed. Quarterback Mike Scipione, sitting with assistant coach Willie Wood and owner Corey Barnette, studied video on a laptop.

"You get the work in when you can," Scipione said later.

Finally, James wheeled in, delayed by the icy conditions from last week's storm, and opened the place up.

A 5-foot-9, 300-pound spark plug with a booming voice and outsize personality, James offered greetings and held the door as the players straggled into the sprawling, warehouse-like Soccerdome, located in Jessup, Md. They brought their helmets and shoulder pads and suited up in the picnic area next to the concession stand. It was nearly as cold inside.

This is how the world looks from the lowest rung of the professional football ladder.

"It's the life we chose," said Roland Minor, a cornerback who played at H.D. Woodson High School and Virginia Tech.

A member of the 3-year-old American Indoor Football Association, the D.C. Armor are an expansion team comprising mostly refugees from the two Arena leagues, other indoor leagues and semipro teams. A select few have sampled the NFL. The club will play its seven home games at the D.C. Armory (get it?) against the likes of the Reading Express, Erie RiverRats and Carolina Speed. The first game is Friday in Reading, Pa. The home opener is April 4.

Local talent like Scipione, who grew up in Chantilly, and Minor stocks most of the roster, set at 30 players. Wood, the offensive coordinator and son of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Famer, attended Wilson High School and also coached there. Nearly all the players have jobs outside of football because the pay is $200 a week, an extra $50 if they win. Some have commitments that will keep them from making the opener. Minor works in a sports apparel store, Scipione for a government contractor. The out of town players live in a house provided by Barnette.

"If you love the game, you don't think about the money," said Sean Chisley, a 40-year-old defensive lineman who went to Coolidge High, toured a variety of indoor and semipro leagues and said he once impressed Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome during a tryout. He hasn't played in three years.