*Norfolk Legends: Seawolves of the Past

[Guunar]

Welcome to the second article on the series Norfolk Legends: Seawolves of The Past! In this article, we will take a look at the second season of the DSFL officially named DSFL Season 4. After a disappointing Ultimini appearance in the inaugural DSFL season, the Seawolves were looking to make it back there with a strong draft and a shift of general managers to @Rindee and then @RavensFanFromOntario . I wasn’t able to find all the trade details, but Norfolk ended up with the 1st, 9th, 10th, 15th, 16th, 25th, 33rd, and 39th picks overall. These players would go on to help the team revamp its roster and there was a supplemental draft that consisted of inactive players where Norfolk added some decent talent to fill in their ranks.

The Seawolves ended the season with an improved 7-6-1 record and some key wins on the road this season. Their offense faltered with a new quarterback at the helm in GM player, Wolverine Justice, but managed to sneak some wins with the league’s 3rd best rushing offense. The team improved it’s defense greatly from the previous season with new additions of Luke Kraken, Tanner Hendrix, and Luke Pierce. In the West division playoff game against the Portland Pythons, the Seawolves greatest weakness was on full display as they struggled mightily in stopping Portland’s air offense. The Seawolves finished the season with the league worst in passing defense and Portland took full advantage of that with a seasoned quarterback and incredible receiving corps. They would go on to lose this game to the eventual season 4 Ultimini champs in a blowout loss of 0-31.

In retrospect, I’m not sure why the Norfolk GMs didn’t stick with Christian Adams from last season even though the GM was a quarterback himself. They improved their receiver group by adding Kenny Omega in the draft and having Hunter Mason with Wes Washington returning this season. I’m also surprised they didn’t keep Shawn Ariel from season 3 either and used a tandem of Ariel and O’Sullivan. It makes me wonder if there was a reason for it like these players lost eligibility after a season or they got called up. I’m not entirely sure since neither Adams nor Ariel appear in ISFL seasons 5 or beyond.

Here were the biggest stars from that season’s team:
Conall O'Sullivan (@Kristy95 ) – RB
O’Sullivan put up some great numbers despite not having a true back-up. The Seawolves heavily relied on him due to Justice’s struggles in passing and O’Sullivan finished the regular season with the most (1,383) rushing yards and set the season record for the longest carry of 56 yards. Again, not sure why they didn’t bring back Ariel because I think the 2 of them together would have easily given the team a couple more wins due to their struggling passing game.

Hunter Mason (@hmason91 ) and Kenny Omega (@CFJ ) – WR
Adding Omega was a great addition to the team and if it was Adams at QB1, we would see the return of a league best all-around offense. Mason didn’t earn the top receiver crown this season, but he put up some efficient numbers finishing the season with 865 yards, 13.5 average, and 4 touchdowns. Omega wasn’t too far behind him in catches and was even more efficient with a 14.4 average.

Donovan Maric (@CommunistSweden ) & Rick Sanchez (@picklerick ) – LB
These pair of linebackers brought a big impact to the defense in season 4. Maric was a jack-of-all trades on the field ending the season with 90 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, 1 interception, and 11 pass deflections. Sanchez brought a similar presence to the defense as the top linebacker in pass deflections. He had a similar stat line garnering 82 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, and 4 interceptions. This was a great defense that had more potential to develop with more active secondary. These 2 had more pass deflections and interceptions than the Norfolk cornerbacks which showed how important they were to the defense.

So, there you have it for the second article in this series! I’ll tackle DSFL season 14 next! Norfolk was a bot team from season 5 to season 13. Until then, let’s go Norfolk!

[Jimi64]

Love this series! Great job!