San Angelo Bandits owner Randy Sanders was appointed interim league commissioner of the Champions Indoor Football League for the 2016 season. Sanders fills in for outgoing commissioner Darlene Jones, also from San Angelo, who is stepping down for health reasons, a press release today stated.
“It a true honor to serve my CIF partners in this capacity and I hope to do as good a job as Darlene has done,” Sanders said in a statement.
Team owners from across the league met in Wichita, Kansas over the past weekend, preparing for this year’s season that begins Feb. 27 when San Angelo travels to face Dodge City (see schedule).
To honor Jones, who was the inaugural commissioner of the young league, team owners will award the “Darlene Jones Franchise of the Year” prize to the best-run team each year. The first award was given to the Dodge City (KS) Law.
Prior to Sanders assuming the role of interim commissioner, Ricky Bertz, owner of the Dodge City Law, was the acting commissioner. Jones is a pioneer of the arena football game in west Texas. She purchased the San Angelo Stampede in the mid-2000s, changing the name to San Angelo Stampede Express. Sanders bought the team from Jones in 2012 and renamed it the Bandits. Sanders also helped form the initial arena football league with Jones as commissioner. This will be his fourth year as the San Angelo Bandits owner.
The CIF is a successor of the now-defunct Lone Star Football League, where the Bandits originally played starting in 2013. It folded in 2014. The CIF moves into its second season with 12 teams—six in the north and six in the south—and has two more teams waiting to join in 2017. The CIF ownership group has decided to cap the membership at 16 this next season and focus on fostering a strong ownership group.
For more on the San Angelo Bandits, see the 2015 article “The San Angelo Bandits and the Business of Arena Football.”
For other stories on the Bandits, click here.
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