Duke City Gladiators

The Duke City Gladiators are a professional indoor football team based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, a suburb of Albuquerque, New Mexico. They began play in March 2015 as members of the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league. The Gladiators played at Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque from 2015 to 2019, [3][4] but are playing the 2021 season at Rio Rancho Events Center in nearby Rio Rancho due to availability during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team played the entire 2022 Indoor Football League season at Rio Rancho Events Center. After winning back-to-back CIF championships in 2018 and 2019, the Gladiators left the CIF for the Indoor Football League (IFL) in the 2020 season.

Duke City Gladiators
Current season
Established 2015
Play in Rio Rancho Events Center
in Rio Rancho, New Mexico
dukecitygladiators.com
League/conference affiliations
Champions Indoor Football (2015–2019)
  • Southern Division (2016)
  • South Conference (2017–2019)

Indoor Football League (2020–present)

  • Western Conference (2022-present)
Current uniform
Team colorsSilver, black, turquoise, white
       
Personnel
Owner(s)Gina Prieskorn-Thomas[1]
General managerFred Griggs[2]
Head coachFred Griggs
Team history
  • Duke City Gladiators (2015–present)
Championships
League championships (2)
  • 2018, 2019
Conference championships (2)
  • 2018, 2019
Division championships (0)
Playoff appearances (5)
Home arena(s)

History

The team was formed in February 2015 by an ownership group called Duke City Sports Entertainment Group, Inc. a New Mexico corporation consisting of several investors, which also included Gladiators founder and general manager Matt Caward, along with co-founder and head coach Dominic Bramante, and director of media relations Andres Trujillo.[5][6][7][8] The Gladiators joined Champions Indoor Football (CIF) in the league's inaugural season after the Rio Rancho-based New Mexico Stars cancelled their entry into the league shortly before the season began.[9][10][11] (In April 2015, the Stars announced that they would instead join the North American Indoor Football for 2016.)[12] The Gladiators had originally looked to join the X-League Indoor Football but geographical and financial considerations as well as the sudden availability of the CIF franchise slot led the team to change directions.[13][14]

In 2015, the Gladiators played an abbreviated 11-game CIF schedule in 2015, as a direct replacement for the New Mexico Stars, but with some modifications and non-league games because of prior scheduling maneuvers and arena availability.[14][15][11] The team opened training camp on March 15.[16] Their first indoor practice session was March 24.[4] Regular season promotions included Hispanic Heritage Night on March 28 and Public Service Day on April 26.[17]

The Gladiators won the 2018 CIF championship. In February 2019, it was announced the Gladiators had been sold to Gina Prieskorn-Thomas, one of the former co-owners of the Gladiators.[1] The team then won its second CIF championship. After the season, the CIF granted the Gladiators petition to be released them from their commitment to play the 2020 season.[18] The team joined the Indoor Football League on August 20, 2019.[19] Head coach Dominic Bramante, who had been with the team since its inaugural season, was not retained during the offseason after his contract had ended.[20] The Gladiators then hired Pig Brown as head coach from the Nebraska Danger.[21] The day they were to play their first IFL game on March 12, 2020, the league postponed all games due to venues instituting social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.[22] The IFL eventually cancelled the entire season in April, but the Gladiators stated they would play exhibition games for their 2020 season once they were allowed to use the venues again.[23] By May, plans for exhibition games were ended and the team split with head coach Pig Brown without ever coaching a game.[24] Assistant coach Martino Theus was promoted to head coach in July 2020 while preparing for a 2021 season.[25]

To start the 2021 season, the Gladiators had to move at least the first three home games to the nearby Rio Rancho Events Center in Rio Rancho as Tingley Coliseum was being used as a COVID-19 vaccination clinic.[26] They subsequently would play the rest of the season in Rio Rancho. Head coach Martino Theus was replaced at the end of June 2021 after a 2–4 record by former Gladiator quarterback Robert Kent Jr.[27]

Roster

Duke City Gladiators roster

Quarterbacks

Running backs

  •  4 James Harden

Wide receivers

  • 11 Xavier Amey
  •  5 Greg Dent Jr.
  •  6 Gary Brown
  • 18 Vincent Gregory

Offensive linemen

  • 60 Kyle Lester
  • 56 Daunte Ogburn
  • 65 Dejour Simpson
  • 75 Josiah Hunter

Defensive linemen

  •  7 Byron Cooper
  •  9 Jimmy Thomas
  • 50 Mason Newton
  • 44 Courtney Ledyard

Linebackers

  • 24 D'Darrin Primes
  • 28 Jayson Serda

Defensive backs

  •  3 Roderick Chapman
  •  1 Zachary Hannibal
  • 19 Jeremy Lewis
  • 26 Dexter Reese

Special teams

 Reserve lists
  • Currently vacant

Rookies in italics
Roster updated March 26, 2023
21 Active, 0 Inactive

→ More rosters

Season-by-season results
League Champions Conference Champions Division Champions Playoff berth League leader
Season League Conference Division Regular season Postseason results
FinishWinsLossesTies
2015 CIF 5th740
2016 CIFSouthern 4th660
2017 CIFSouth 4th750Lost Conference Semifinal (Amarillo) 41–70
2018 CIFSouth 1st1020Won Conference Semifinal (Wichita) 44–39
Won Conference Championship (Texas) 41–28
Won Champions Bowl (Sioux City) 31–27
2019 CIFSouth 1st930Won Conference Championship (Amarillo) 70–62
Won Champions Bowl (Salina) 35–29
2020 IFL Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021 IFL 4th770Won First round (Iowa) 34–33
Lost Semifinal (Arizona) 55–58
Totals 46270All-time regular season record (2015–2021)
62—All-time postseason record (2015–2021)
52290All-time regular season and postseason record (2015–2021)

References
  1. "Professional Arena Football Team, Under New Ownership, Prepares to Bring Championship Trophy Back to Albuquerque". Duke City Gladiators. February 6, 2019.
  2. "FRED GRIGGS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR". Duke City Gladiators. May 19, 2021. Retrieved February 14, 2022. Our Defensive Coordinator and General Manager!
  3. Christ, Bob (February 23, 2015). "Gladiators plan to call Tingley home in maiden season". Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  4. Christ, Bob (March 26, 2015). "Tingley getting ready for Gladiators' home debut". Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  5. "Duke City Gladiators Professional Indoor Football presents to Albuquerque, NM, entrepreneurs | 1MillionCups.com". 1MillionCups.com. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  6. "This is Albuquerque: Duke City Gladiators". alibi. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  7. "Duke City Gladiators Professional Indoor Football". www.newmexico.org. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  8. Christ, Bob (February 25, 2015). "Owner of Gladiators made things happen in a hurry". Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  9. Christ, Bob (February 22, 2015). "NM Stars owners pull plug on season". Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  10. Jones, Darlene (February 22, 2015). "New Mexico Stars will not play the CIF 2015 season". Champions Indoor Football. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  11. Christ, Bob (May 23, 2015). "Arena of the absurd: Local indoor football has had funny bounces". Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  12. Christ, Bob (April 18, 2015). "Stars announce plans to play in upstart indoor league in 2016". Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  13. Herron, Gary (February 25, 2015). "New football team comes to Albuquerque". Rio Rancho Observer. Rio Rancho, NM: RR Community Publishing LLC. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  14. Christ, Bob (March 3, 2015). "Gladiators will compete in Champions League". Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  15. "CIF Enjoys Relief and Balance with Replacement Team in New Mexico". Champions Indoor Football. March 4, 2015. Retrieved March 7, 2015 – via Our Sports Central.
  16. Walker, Amy (March 19, 2015). "Duke City Gladiators begin spring training". Albuquerque, New Mexico: KRQE-TV. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  17. Tate, Van (March 25, 2015). "Gladiators ready for home opener". Albuquerque, New Mexico: KRQE-TV. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  18. "Duke City Gladiators Leaving the CIF". OurSports Central. July 25, 2019.
  19. "Duke City Gladiators Join IFL". Indoor Football League. August 20, 2019. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  20. "Bramante will not return as Gladiators head coach". Albuquerque Journal. September 4, 2019.
  21. "Duke City Gladiators select new head coach". KRQE. September 11, 2019.
  22. "IFL To Postpone Games". IFL. March 12, 2020.
  23. "Indoor football: Duke City still hopes to play exhibition games". Albuquerque Journal. April 15, 2020.
  24. "Gladiators split with Brown, who never coached a game". Albuquerque Journal. May 21, 2020.
  25. "Gladiators promote Theus to head coach for 2021 campaign". Albuquerque Journal. July 28, 2020.
  26. "Duke City Gladiators to face Tucson in home opener". Albuquerque Journal. May 29, 2021.
  27. "Former Gladiator player takes over as coach". Albuquerque Journal. June 30, 2021.
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