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Road Friendly Schedule Helps Team and Fans

April 3, 2006

Simply brutal summed it up a year ago when the Erie Illusion Women’s Football Team stared down a schedule that included road trips to Massachusetts, Maine and twice to Connecticut.

Better than four-thousand miles of lessons in compatibility, adaptability and "overcome-ability" later, Illusion Head Coach Bob Beres thinks his team can transform its road-trials into blessings.

"Those massive road trips helped us unbelievably as a team," Beres said. "And we hope to capitalize on that. Cohesion is a huge strength for our team this season."

With 24 returning players on his roster and a more road-friendly schedule on the horizon, Beres, now in his third season at the helm of the Illusion, is spouting a lot of sunshine about his team’s prospects.

"A lot of our games are so close compared to last year that they’ll feel like home games to us,” Beres said. “It will be much easier for us to prepare not having to factor in extensive road trips and so much time away from home."

Opening up with an April 15 contest in Toledo, Ohio, the Illusion will launch its fourth season in the National Women’s Football Association with four-straight away games. Trips to Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburg and Cleveland follow before the Illusion returns home on Memorial Day weekend to host four-straight games in Erie.

This season, Beres is actually looking forward to taking to the road with his veteran-laden team."I’m really excited about the schedule and the opportunities we have this year," he said. "The location of the teams we play by it self will help us build up some pretty good rivalries. I think the core group of veterans we have on the team this year will really respond to that. And I think our fans will also appreciate and be enthusiastic about teams from neighboring cities like Cleveland and Pittsburg coming into play. We definitely have a lot of bright spots to focus on this year."

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