Florida Tarpons
Established 2011
Folded 2019
Played in RP Funding Center
in Lakeland, Florida
LakelandTarpons.com
League/conference affiliations
Current uniform
Team colorsRoyal blue, red, sea blue, grey, orange, white
         
MascotTimmy the Tarpon
CheerleadersReel Girls
Personnel
Owner(s)A-League Sports[1]
General managerMichael Taylor
Head coachMichael Taylor
Team history
  • Florida Tarpons (2012–2018)
  • Lakeland Tarpons (2019)
Championships
League championships (2)
  • UIFL: 2013
  • X-League: 2015
Conference championships (1)
  • UIFL South: 2012
Division championships (0)
Playoff appearances (6)
  • UIFL: 2012, 2013, 2014
  • X-League: 2015
  • AIF: 2016
  • APF: 2017
Home arena(s)

The Florida Tarpons were a professional indoor football team based in Lakeland, Florida, out of the RP Funding Center. Originally established in Estero, Florida, and playing out of Germain Arena, they began play in 2012 as an expansion team of the Ultimate Indoor Football League (UIFL). The Tarpons joined the X-League Indoor Football (X-League) during the 2015 season when the UIFL merged with the X-League. They played in the Arena Pro Football (APF) league in 2017 before the league became the American Arena League (AAL) for 2018. For 2019, there was an ownership transition that formed their own Florida-based league, called the A-League, and the team rebranded as the Lakeland Tarpons.[2] The team was removed from the A-League schedule at the start of the 2019 season.

The Tarpons were Estero's second indoor football team; their first since arenafootball2's Florida Firecats which played from 2001 until the af2's demise in 2009. In addition, they are the fourth indoor football team in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area, with them and the Firecats joining the unrelated Fort Myers Tarpons which played in the National Indoor Football League's final season of 2007 and the Florida Stingrays which played the 2008 American Indoor Football Association season. (Both teams played at the Lee County Civic Center). The founders of the Tarpons are Andrew and Leah Haines and Michael & Anna Taylor. The Tarpons moved to Lakeland prior to the 2019 season.

Franchise history

2012: Expansion

In July 2011, the Florida Tarpons were announced as an expansion team for the 2012 UIFL season.[3] On July 6, 2011, the Tarpons named, UIFL Co-Founder, Michael Taylor, as the team's inaugural head coach.[4] The Tarpons went undefeated during the regular season, and advanced to Ultimate Bowl II after defeating the Lakeland Raiders in the UIFL South Finals. The Tarpons lost Ultimate Bowl II to the Cincinnati Commandos.[5] Four players from the Tarpons 2012 roster were invited/signed to NFL Rookie Mini Camps: DL Joshua Long, WR Dwayne Frampton, DB Willie Williams, and DB E.J. Whitley. WR Carlos Singleton signed with the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League after the Tarpons season ended.[6]

2016: Move to the AIF

On October 7, 2015, the Tarpons announced that they were joining American Indoor Football.[7] On July 18, 2016, the AIF ceased operations, leaving the Tarpons without a league.

2017: Arena Pro Football

On October 20, 2016, the Tarpons were added to the Arena Developmental League (ADL) for the league's inaugural 2017 season.[8] However, on November 10, the Tarpons announced they had joined the new Arena Pro Football (APF) instead and the ADL was soon renamed National Arena League upon the addition of the Jacksonville Sharks.

The Tarpons would play their first APF game against the Alabama Outlawz, also formerly of the X-League. The Tarpons won 42–18. At the end of the season, the Tarpons and the Richmond Roughriders played for the APF championship, losing to the Roughriders 61–75.

2018: American Arena League

During the 2017 APF season, the league announced it would be merging with the Can-Am Indoor Football League to create the American Arena League (AAL) for the 2018 season. By the end of the 2017 season, the Tarpons and Roughriders were to only teams that had played a complete season in the APF and both teams joined the AAL. The Tarpons relocated to Lakeland, Florida, and the RP Funding Center after their lease in Estero expired.[9] The Tarpons opened the season on the road with a 48–21 loss to the Atlanta Havoc.[10] The following week they traveled to play the High Country Grizzlies, but the game was cancelled at the last minute due to winter weather and the game was not rescheduled.[11] They played their first game at RP Funding Center on April 14, a 58–20 loss in a rematch with the previous season's APF champions, the Richmond Roughriders.[12] The Tarpons would not win their first game until a 50–20 win over an AAL-affiliated travel-only team, the Austin Wild, on May 5.[13] After another win over an AAL travel-only team, the Peach State Cats, the Tarpons were to travel to play the Georgia Doom in Macon, Georgia. However, the Tarpons then cancelled all remaining away games and announced their final game of the season would be at home against the Upstate Dragons on May 26.[14] The Dragons then announced they would not travel to Lakeland and the Tarpons would then play the semi-professional Gulf Coast Tigers, thus ending their AAL season with a 2–3 record in league games actually played and a final league record of 3–5 after the various forfeits.[15]

2019: A-League

After one season in central Florida, the team rebranded as the Lakeland Tarpons.[16] The Tarpons' ownership was also reorganized, with Micheal Taylor joined by former owner Andrew Haines, as well as Gary Tufford, Kacee Smith, and other locals.[17][18] The new ownership group then announced on September 13, 2018, that they were launching their own league, called the A-League, to begin play in 2019 with several Florida-based teams, including the Gulf Coast Fire, Manatee Neptunes and Sarasota BigCats.[1][2] However, the season was initially pushed back and then scheduled to only have games at RP Funding Center and Hertz Arena over several weeks in May and June 2019. In May 2019, the Tarpons and all games at RP Funding Center were removed from the schedule. The Gulf Coast Fire went undefeated and won the league championship, but after the season ended all other A-League websites, including the Tarpons, were redirected the Fire's website, which itself eventually suspended.

Players

Awards and honors

The following is a list of all Tarpons players who have won league awards:

SeasonPlayerPositionAward
2012Terrance JonesDBUIFL South Defensive Player of the Year
2012Ross GornallKUIFL South Special Teams Player of the Year
2012Chris WallaceQB1st Team All-UIFL North
2012Carlos SingletonWR1st Team All-UIFL North
2012Donald FusilierWR1st Team All-UIFL North
2012James BarkerOL1st Team All-UIFL North
2012Greg WallsOL1st Team All-UIFL North
2012Josh LongDL1st Team All-UIFL North
2012Darrell RosemanDL1st Team All-UIFL North
2012Harriel MooreLB1st Team All-UIFL North
2012Tavares WoodleyLB1st Team All-UIFL North
2012Terrance JonesDB1st Team All-UIFL North
2012Ross GornallK1st Team All-UIFL North
2012Sean CallahanOLHonorable Mention All-UIFL North
2012E.J. WhitleyDBHonorable Mention All-UIFL North
2012Steven TurnerAll-PurposeHonorable Mention All-UIFL North
2015Javarous FaulkDLX-Bowl MVP

Staff

Lakeland Tarpons staff
Front office
  • President– Michael Taylor

Head coach

  • Head coach – Michael Taylor
  

Offensive coaches

  • Assistant/Special Teams Coordinator – Tim Culver

Defensive coaches

  • Defensive coordinator/player personnel – Brent Burnside
  • Assistant – Steve Perry

Statistics and records

Season-by-season results

League Champions Conference Champions Division Champions Playoff Berth League Leader
Season Team League Conference Division Regular season Postseason results
FinishWinsLossesTies
2012 2012UIFLSouth 1st110Won UIFL South Finals (Raiders) 60–29
Lost Ultimate Bowl II (Commandos) 44–61
2013 2013UIFL 1st51Won Ultimate Bowl III (Fury) 40–32
2014 2014UIFL 2nd44Lost Ultimate Bowl IV (Fury) 23–60
2015 2015X-League 1st62Won X-Bowl II (Marine Raiders) 65–23[19]
2016 2016AIFSouthern 2nd710Won Southern Semifinal (Steam) 71–20
Lost Southern Championship (Lions) 66–79
2017 2017APF 2nd510Lost Championship (Roughriders) 61–75
2018 2018AAL DNF2[lower-alpha 1]3[lower-alpha 2]0
Totals 40120All-time regular season record (2012–2018)
44—All-time postseason record (2012–2018)
44160All-time regular season and postseason record (2012–2018)
  1. ↑ 3 wins including a forfeit win
  2. ↑ 5 losses including the games they decided to forfeit

Head coaches' records

Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2018 American Arena League season

Name Term Regular season Playoffs Awards
WLTWin%WL
Michael Taylor2012–present40120.76944UIFL South Coach of the Year (2012)

References

  1. 1 2 "A-LEAGUE SPORTS ACQUIRES TARPONS, FOR NEW ARENA LEAGUE PLAY IN 2019". www.aleaguefootball.com. September 13, 2018.
  2. 1 2 "A-League website". ALeagueFootball.com. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Florida Tarpons Football at Germain Arena". Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  4. ↑ Woody Wommack (July 6, 2011). "Pro football: Florida Tarpons name UIFL co-founder as first head coach". www.naplesnews.com. Naples Daily News. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  5. ↑ Adam Fisher (July 2, 2012). "Indoor football: Perfect season not in the cards as Tarpons fall in championship". www.naplesnews.com. Naples Daily News. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Tarpons WR Carlos Singleton Moves up to AFL". www.oursportscentral.com. OurSports Central. July 22, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Florida Tarpons Join AIF". www.oursportscentral.com. OurSports Central. October 7, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  8. ↑ "League to Welcome Former Two-Time Champion Florida Tarpons". ADL. October 20, 2016. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  9. ↑ "FLORIDA TARPONS MAKE RP FUNDING CENTER HOME". Florida Tarpons. September 21, 2017.
  10. ↑ "OFFENSE CAN'T GET ON TRACK AS TARPONS FALL IN OPENER TO ATLANTA, 48-21". Tarpons. March 17, 2018.
  11. ↑ "TARPONS GAME AGAINST HIGH COUNTRY GRIZZLIES CANCELLED BECAUSE OF WINTER WEATHER IN NORTH CAROLINA". Tarpons. March 24, 2018.
  12. ↑ "TARPONS FALL TO 0-2 AS RICHMOND ROUGHRIDERS TAKE DOWN FLORIDA, 58-20". Tarpons. April 14, 2018.
  13. ↑ "TARPONS TAME AUSTIN WILD, 50-30, TO PICK UP FIRST WIN OF 2018 CAMPAIGN". Tarpons. May 6, 2018.
  14. ↑ "TARPONS WILL BRING 2018 SEASON TO CLOSE AT HOME MAY 26 VS. UPSTATE DRAGONS". Tarpons. May 19, 2018.
  15. ↑ "2018 American Arena League Final Regular Season Standings and Playoff Pairings". AAL. June 12, 2018. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018.
  16. ↑ "TARPONS AMEND NAME TO REFLECT LAKELAND IDENTITY". LakelandTarpons.com. September 4, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Florida Tarpons Office Staff". FloridaTarpons.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  18. ↑ "A-League Football Staff". ALeagueFootball.com. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  19. ↑ "Edge season over as X-League skips to title game". The Pantagraph. Bloomington, IL: Lee Enterprises. June 4, 2015. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
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