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The AF2 was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup championship in August. The AF2 continued to operate while the AFL suspended operations for its 2009 season. The league was effectively disbanded in September 2009 when no team committed to playing in 2010, but several of the stronger franchises transferred into the reconstituted AFL.
The New Orleans VooDoo were a professional arena football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The VooDoo were a member of the East Division of the American Conference of the Arena Football League (AFL). They played their home games in Smoothie King Center. The VooDoo were unrelated to an earlier AFL team, the New Orleans Night, who had competed in the 1991 and 1992 AFL seasons in the Louisiana Superdome.
The Bossier–Shreveport Battle Wings were an Arena Football League team based in Bossier City, Louisiana. They played at the CenturyTel Center in Bossier City and took their name from the metropolitan area that consists of Bossier City and neighboring city Shreveport in the Ark-La-Tex corridor. Playing in the defunct af2 from their inception in 2001 until the league's folding in 2009, the team had its best seasons in 2002, 2007, 2008, and 2009 having clinched division titles in the latter two years. They were also the only seasons in which the team had more wins than losses. In 2007, the Battle Wings clinched their first-ever playoff berth, beating the Arkansas Twisters and Rio Grande Valley Dorados before being beaten by the eventual Arena Cup champion Tulsa Talons. Despite having little success in their earlier days, the Battle Wings turned out some players who went on to appear in both the Canadian Football League and for other teams the Arena Football League, in which the team itself played for a single season after the AFL emerged from bankruptcy and resumed operations. Following the 2010 season, the team moved to New Orleans, Louisiana for the 2011 AFL season and became a successor to the New Orleans VooDoo.
The Brookshire Grocery Arena is a 14,000-seat multi-purpose arena, in Bossier City, Louisiana. The naming rights were purchased by the company Brookshire Grocery Group of Tyler, Texas in 2021.
Raymond 'Ray' Philyaw is a former arena football quarterback who was most recently the offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Sharks of the Arena Football League (AFL). He also played for the Cleveland Gladiators Chicago Rush, Kansas City Brigade, Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings and the Albany/Indiana Firebirds, leading the former to the American Conference championship game in 2004 and 2005. Prior to his Arena Football career, he played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League and the Madison Mad Dogs of the Indoor Football League. After leaving to coach with the New Orleans VooDoo in 2011, he attempted a return as a player in 2012 with the San Jose SaberCats, but later became OC for the San Antonio Talons. He holds the record for the highest career TD-to-INT ratio in AFL history and threw a school record 52 TDs while attending Northeast Louisiana.
John Charles Fourcade, Jr. is a former professional American football quarterback in the National Football League for the New Orleans Saints and recent head coach of the New Mexico Stars of American Indoor Football. Fourcade was the most valuable player of the 1982 Senior Bowl after passing for 115 yards and running for 33 yards and two touchdowns. He had gained 6,713 yards at Ole Miss from 1978–1981, breaking the career record of Archie Manning.
Breznev Maduaubuchie Ibeh is a former American football wide receiver and defensive back who played for the Chicago Rush of the Arena Football League. He then played for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers in the 2007 season, and traveled with them to the 2007 af2 Arena Cup in Bossier City, Louisiana. Ibeh joined the South Georgia Wildcats in 2008, and played for the Bossier–Shreveport Battle Wings in 2009. He attended Temple University.
The ArenaCup was the af2's championship game. For the league's first five years, it was held at the arena of the higher seeded team. However, the 2005 ArenaCup was the first to be played at a neutral site in Bossier City, Louisiana. The 2006 ArenaCup was played in Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan. On August 25, 2007, ArenaCup 8 returned to Bossier City, LA. ArenaCup 9 was played at the arena of the higher seeded team, the Spokane Shock. ArenaCup 10 was held at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
The Shreveport-Bossier Bombers were an indoor football team of the Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) in 2000. The Bombers, based out of Shreveport, LA/Bossier City, LA, were one of four IPFL expansion teams for that season. They played their games in the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport. The Bombers owner was Don Rafferty and Matt Ingram was the general manager of the team.
Derek Stingley Sr. is an American football coach. Prior to his coaching career, he had a nine-year playing career in the Arena Football League.
The 2010 Bossier–Shreveport Battle Wings season was the 9th season for the franchise, and the first in the Arena Football League, coming from the AF2, which dissolved following the 2009 season. The team was coached by Jon Norris and played their home games at CenturyTel Center. With a 3–13 record, the Battle Wings failed to qualify for the playoffs, finishing last in the American Conference.
The 2011 Arena Football League season was the 24th season in the history of the league. The regular season began on March 11, 2011 and ended on July 23, 2011. The Jacksonville Sharks, in their second year of existence, defeated the Arizona Rattlers 73–70 in ArenaBowl XXIV on August 12, 2011 to conclude the playoffs.
Pharisse J. Berry is a former American football wide receiver. Berry played collegiately at Virginia State University.
The 2009 Arkansas Twisters season was the franchise's tenth season as a football franchise, last in the arenafootball2 league, and final season as the "Arkansas Twisters". The National Conference team, led by head coach Chris Siegfried, played their home games on Allstate Field at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The Diamonds finished the 2009 regular season with an 11-5 record and 2nd place in the Southwest Division. The team's playoff run ended with a 36-77 loss to the Boise Burn in the first round.
Thyron Lewis is an American football wide receiver for the Atlanta Havoc of the American Arena League (AAL). He played college football at Howard University and attended William H. Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California. He has also been a member of the Stockton Lightning, Tri-Cities Fever, Bossier–Shreveport Battle Wings and Los Angeles KISS. Lewis was also drafted by Team Tennessee in the supplemental 2008 AAFL Draft and by the Georgia Stallions in the 2009 UNGL Draft.
Andrico Hines is a former American football quarterback who played three seasons in the Arena Football League (AFL) with the Cleveland Gladiators and Pittsburgh Power. He first enrolled at Middle Georgia College before transferring to Southwest Mississippi Community College and then Middle Tennessee State University. He attended Riverdale High School in Riverdale, Georgia. Hines was also a member of the South Georgia Wildcats, Chattahoochee Valley Vipers, Spokane Shock, Bossier–Shreveport Battle Wings and Alabama Vipers.
Moqut Ruffins is an American football offensive lineman who is currently a free agent. He played college football at Louisiana Tech University. He has also been a member of the Lakeland Thunderbolts, Laredo Lobos, Lubbock Renegades, Bossier–Shreveport Battle Wings, New Orleans VooDoo, Pittsburgh Power, San Antonio Talons and Washington Valor.
Former football teams in New Orleans include the New Orleans Breakers of the United States Football League (1984), the New Orleans Night of the Arena Football League (1991–1992), the New Orleans Thunder of the Regional Football League (1999), the Louisiana Jazz of the Women's Football Alliance (2002–2014), the New Orleans VooDoo of the Arena Football League, the New Orleans Jazz football club of the Stars Football League (2011) and New Orleans Krewe of the US Women's Football League (2016).
References
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"Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings — Team History". Arena Fan. Retrieved January 15, 2010.
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