Indoor football AWFC championship game set in Tri-Cities

It’s been 16 years since an indoor football team played host to a championship game.

In 2005, the Tri-Cities Fever defeated the visiting Rome Renegades from Georgia 47-31 in the Tri-Cities Coliseum (now called the Toyota Center) to win the National Indoor Football League in front of a packed house.

On Saturday night, the Tri-City Rush play host to the defending champion of the American West Football Conference, the Idaho Horsemen, in the league title game called American West Bowl II.

Kickoff is at 8 p.m. Sept. 4 at the HAPO Center (formerly known as TRAC) in Pasco.

Brandon Tate, the owner and head coach of the Rush, is enjoying the excitement the team is causing the community. He certainly see this situation about six months ago

“It’s been pretty exciting,” said Tate. “I imagined that I always wanted to have a championship team. But realistically, this year I wanted to get everything together.”

That meant putting together a roster, finding a facility where the team could play, and then finding the correct equipment needed to play — such as dasherboards, turf, etc.

But this? A title game?

“Now we’re in a championship game, and we get to host it at home. It turned out pretty good,” Tate said.

Last year, Tate offered his team’s services to help the AWFC out when the Tri-City Fire folded just before the season was to start.

Tate’s outdoor semi-pro team, the Tri-City Rage, would play the Fire’s road games so that the remaining AWFC teams wouldn’t lose any home games.

It all became moot quickly when COVID shut down the season.

But AWFC leadership took note, and it allowed Tate to become a fellow owner with his own team.

But perhaps the fellow owners didn’t expect the Rush to finish with an 8-2 record and become the top seed in the playoffs.

The team has many weapons, starting with quarterback Les Obie, who has accounted for over 40 touchdowns this season.

“Our general manager (Matthew Cooley) came across his highlight film,” said Tate.

Obie had been playing in California, and Tate brought him up here after everyone determined Obie’s schedule would work out to spending time here.

“His main strength is his quick release,” said Tate. “It’s a John Elway-type of release. It’s the fastest I’ve seen.”

Still, what’s been hampering opposing teams is the Rage’s DeShon/Dashun attack.

The Rush’s biggest strength may be its outside speed at receiver in DaShon Williams and Dashun Salgado Jr.

Williams is from the University of Washington, and he received some interest from the Seattle Seahawks this summer.

The 6-4, 230-pounder who played for the University of Washington can play tight end. But in the indoor game, Williams can be devastating to a small cornerback as a wideout.

Salgado is Obie’s top target.

But passing is not everything in the indoor game.

The Rush has played the Horsemen three times this season. It lost at Idaho on July 3 by a 61-48 score, but won the next two contests — both in Pasco — by scores of 46-39 and 47-40.

“The main key is we learned after the first game against Idaho is to have a consistent running game,” said Tate.

By doing that, the team could control the ball and keep it out of the Idaho offense’s hands.

Whatever happens Saturday night at the HAPO Center, it’s been a dream season for Tate and his team.

“A lot of people were kind of skeptical after the Fever left, then the Fire left,” said Tate.

But the team and the game has grown on the locals.

There are plenty of seats for tonight’s title tilt, and how many times does one get to witness and championships contest?

“We definitely have got seats available,” said Tate. “(This whole thing has) been a hit, definitely more than we could imagine.”

▪ Tickets are available at www.tricityrush.com/tickets, or at the door. … Idaho qualified for the title game by beating the Oregon High Desert Storm 55-37 last Monday on the road.

This story was originally published September 4, 2021 at 11:11 AM.