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Owner: Arena football to stay in Wheeling

WHEELING — With the West Virginia Roughriders still celebrating their perfect American Arena League indoor football season which concluded Saturday night with a 55-29 victory over the Carolina Energy, a social media site Monday announced their possible demise.

“Purely rumor. That’s all it is. I’ve never heard of the site and never talked to anyone from the site,” Roughriders team owner Gregg Fornario said late Monday afternoon during a telephone interview of the report on Twitter. “It’s just someone making noise … someone trying to spoil our celebration.”

The Arena/Indoor Football Insider News wrote, ‘West Virginia of AAL will likely fold. Owner wants out of the sport.’

“Not true at all,” Fornario stressed. “We plan on coming back bigger and better. We’ll try to get more season ticket holders and more sponsorships. We’ll definitely return. We love the Ohio Valley.”

While he assured the Roughriders would be coming back, that doesn’t mean they will be playing in the same league.

According to a source who wished to remain anonymous, there are several options out there for Fornario, who was overcome by emotions during his celebration speech following the championship game.

The AAL was not a stable league as several of its members ceased operations just prior to or during the 2019 season.

Fornario told the crowd following the victory that Wheeling was chosen out of 26 cities that he and his management staff visited following the 2018 season in which they played in Richmond, Va.

“We loved this area. I had never heard of Wheeling, W.Va., before, but I’ve heard of it now,” he said.

While the franchise is apparently calling the Friendly City home for the 2020 season, that doesn’t mean any of the players on this years team will return.

ROUGH RIDES

≤ Tony Zefiretto, CEO of the AAL, was in attendance for Saturday’s championship game, along with his son. He presented the runnerup trophy to Carolina management and then the newly named Jack Bowman Trophy to Fornario and head coach Mook Zimmerman. Bowman was one of the AAL founders and recently died.

≤ The Roughriders went 13-0 and brought the Ohio Valley its third indoor football championship. The Ohio Valley Greyhounds won the National Indoor Football League championships in 2002 (12-1) and 2003 (14-0).

≤ Former Linsly basketball standout C.J. Goodwin, a defensive back with the Dallas Cowboys, and the Rev. James Cummings presented the game ball prior to the contest and then took part in the opening coin-toss.

≤ It was unusual that no MVP Award was presented following the game.

≤ Former OV Greyhounds coach Ervin Bryson was head coach of the Energy. He recalled his days in Wheeling.

“You have to tip your hat to them. They played a good ball game,” Bryson said of the Roughriders. “They had good fan support. It was just like the good old Greyhound days. They (the crowd) were a very big part of the ballgame.”

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