Ron Selesky Speaks PIFL, Cleveland Gladiators 2017 Season

Before he coached the Cleveland Gladiators, Ron Selesky was the director of football operations for the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL). The league seemed to do well until it folded all of a sudden in 2015. He was also a full-time US scout for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL).

There were some solid franchises with committed owners. There just weren’t enough of them,” Selesky said. “One of the owners ran two teams and he just couldn’t afford to keep doing it.”

Selesky went on to become the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach for the Gladiators. After head coach Steve Thonn’s contract was not renewed following the 2016 season, Selesky was named their coach for the 2017 season. After just one week of training camp, the team cut quarterback Arvell Nelson. He had been the leader of the team in the 2016 season.

“At the time the other two quarterbacks [Shane Boyd and Tanner Marsh] were progressing well and Arvell was struggling,” Selesky said on that decision. “I was running our defense and I entrusted our offensive coordinator [Siaha Burley] to give me his objective assessment. Hindsight is always 20/20.”

After two weeks in which both Boyd and Marsh had started and gotten injured, Selesky decided to bring Nelson back. Despite him coming back to lead the team, Cleveland got off to a 1-6 start to the season. Had it not been for the expansion Washington Valor having the same record, Cleveland would have been in jeopardy of missing the postseason.

On May 22, Cleveland traded both Boyd and wide receiver Brandon Thompkins to the other expansion franchise in the Baltimore Brigade. Cleveland got former defensive back Brandon Stephens, who Baltimore drafted in the AFL Dispersal Draft. They also acquired KC Obi, who went on to record 6.5 tackles and a sack.

“Baltimore asked for Boyd and Marsh was getting healthy,” Selesky explained why he traded Boyd. “With Thompkins, he’s a great player, but we felt like we had other wide receivers that fit what we were doing offensively a little better.”

Cleveland overcame their very slow start to the season and after a win in Washington at the end of July, they clinched a playoff spot. In the final week of the season, Baltimore lost, which meant that Cleveland would get the three seed.

Unfortunately for them, they fell one game short of the ArenaBowl for the second consecutive season.

Now, the focus is on 2018. Selesky knows exactly how him and the team will prepare for next season.

“Consistency. Starting from day one. Stick to the plan and execute it,” he said. “Injuries hit us hard but we’ll be better prepared. We found our offensive identity [in] the second half of the season so we’ll build off of that.”

The Philadelphia Soul defeated the Tampa Bay Storm in ArenaBowl XXX on Aug. 26. Philadelphia had to overcome a 13-point deficit to win, the largest comeback in ArenaBowl history.

Cleveland Gladiators 2017 Season Preview

If there was ever a year for a city to believe in all of their teams, 2017 is the year for Cleveland. Four of the five professional teams that call Cleveland home have a legitimate shot at winning a title. The only team truly struggling season after season is the Browns (we still love them). Outdoor football in Cleveland has not been great lately, that’s all the more reason to go inside the arena (no pun intended.)

In 2014 the Cleveland Gladiators won 19 games, winning their conference and earning the right to host Arena Bowl XXVII and playing in front of over 18,410 fans at the Quicken Loans Arena. Last season, they won a playoff game on the road despite it being their eighth straight road trip on the season. This team is better than the 2014 team.

Cleveland is led on offense by wide receiver Collin Taylor, 30, who is going into his fourth season with the Glads and saw his streak of games with at least one touchdown reach 32 straight. He is now joined by a man who scored 45 times on his own just last season. 29-year old Brandon Thompkins, who played the last two seasons for the Orlando Predators, was named AFL Player of the Year last season. Out of his 45 touchdowns, six were on kickoff/missed field goal returns. In case you are new to arena ball, yes there are missed kicks the players can return and it really happens often.

There was a training camp surprise, however, when Cleveland native and Jack Linebacker turned quarterbck, Arvell Nelson was placed on recallable reassignment. It was quite a shock, but Nelson did have trouble hitting receivers in late game situations. A lot of the fans will point to this as new head coach Ron Selesky’s first major move.

Selesky is in his first season as the Glads’ head coach, but he’s entering his seventh overall in Cleveland. Selesky was named as the 2014 Assistant Coach of the Year during their 19 win season.  Taking Nelson’s place at quarterback is 34 year-old Shane Boyd, who had spent the last two seasons as a backup for the Arizona Rattlers, the class of the Arena Football League the last several years.

When Boyd did get playing time he went 50/92 passing (52.5 percent) with 13 touchdowns to only two interceptions. Coach Selesky (8-14 as a head coach 2003-04) stepped up early in the season last year when couch Steve Thonn (90 wins all time, eighth best in AFL) started to have trouble breathing before a game at the Q vs the Tampa Bay Storm. Thonn finished the season and most believe the move to step down was just a health decision. Selesky is a defensive leader who last year helped develop AFL rookie Joe Powell five interceptions, three taken back for scores), who is now a member of the Buffalo Bills.

Selesky should be able to make this team really dangerous with such great talent on the offensive side as well. The major addition this offseason on defense for Cleveland has to be Euclid, Ohio native and local college product out of Walsh, Rayshaun Kizer. Kizer, 32, helped anchor a solid Los Angeles KISS team the last two seasons. In those two seasons he grabbed sven picks and took three back to the house. Kizer is entering his eighth AFL season and should quickly become a new fan favorite.

The Gladiators enter 2017 with a great deal of talent on both sides of the ball and they rank #1 among returning teams in average attendance at just over 11,000 a game. The Q really sounds like a great place for Arena Bowl XXX.

Cleveland Gladiators Name Ron Selesky Head Coach

Today, the Cleveland Gladiators made a coaching move. Not a shock to many they stayed in-house, giving the official title to Ron Selesky. He replaces former Head Coach Steve Thonn. Selesky has been with the Glads for six of the last seasons and had been defensive coordinator and asisstant head coach, making him the leader of the stronger side of the ball for Cleveland on.

Thonn’s only logically reason for leaving has to be health issues. He had to leave a game right before kickoff early in the season, but Selesky was able to fill in fine fashion. Thonn will finish with a record of 66-67 as Cleveland’s head man. He also got to eighth all-time in wins during a road overtime victory against the Tampa Bay Storm. 

Selesky was named the AFL’s Assistant Coach of the Year in 2014, the same season the Glads went 17-1 and an appearance in Arena Bowl XXVII. Cleveland also announced that head line coach Mike Smith would not return and that the team would announce new moves at a later date.