Toledo Thunder Making Noise in Debut Season

By: Zach Harig

There are over one-thousand football teams in the United States that refer to themselves as semi-professional. For many of those teams, it takes several years to find success. However, in Northwest Ohio, there's a football team that is beginning to turn heads around the region. In their debut season, the Toledo Thunder earned the Minor League Football Alliance championship following an unbeaten 12-0 season. Not only did the Thunder go undefeated, but their stellar success on the field led to them being ranked number-one nationally. Behind the vision of two local men, the Thunder were able to find success in just one short season.

Toledo Thunder co-founder and head coach, Brad Fields,
gathers the team for a prayer prior to kickoff.

The founders of the Toledo Thunder, Brad Fields and Jamie Young, played semi-professional football together in 1995, when semi-pro football was beginning to catch on. After noticing that Northwest Ohio lacked a quality semi-pro team, the duo looked into bringing back a competitive and organized team back to the area, with the vision of also helping local charities.

After deciding to go through with the plan to form a team, Fields says they focused on finding players first. "We knew we had to get players," Fields said, "We reached out to players from knowing big names or from former guys that we've coached," he added.

Once the roster was completed, the team was nearly 90% Toledo natives, according to Fields. From there, the team began the 2015 season by routing their first two opponents, the Miami County Blitz and Motor City Jaguars, by a combined score of 99-0. The Thunder would continue their success throughout the season, including a 34-0 shutout against their local rival, the Northwest Ohio Knights. At the conclusion of the regular season, the Thunder would celebrate their undefeated season. However, perhaps the more impressive mark, would be their $5,000 total, which was raised by the team for local charities.

Toledo Thunder founders Brad Fields and Jamie Young
celebrate with the MLFA Championship trophy.

Following their success on the field, the Toledo Thunder announced they would play in DeLand, Florida in the NFE AA National Championship against the Portmouth Warriors. With a win in that game, the Thunder would become the only first-year team in semi-pro football history to go undefeated in league play and win a national title. Who could have predicted this kind of start for a semi-professional football team in Northwest Ohio? Well, look no further than Thunder co-founder, Brad Fields.

"Believe it or not, our expectations from the start were to go to this national title game that we are playing in," Fields stated, "We told the guys in our first team meeting in December 2014 that we won't settle for anything less. We told them we can achieve this goal as long as they buy into the system," he continued.

As the season began, the Thunder rested their offense on quarterback, Gary Allen. However, an early season injury to the offensive leader would lead the coaching staff, led by Fields, to turn to former Rogers high school star, DJ Tucker.

"We were extremely confident in both Gary and DJ at quarterback," Fields said, "The only thing is that DJ was our starting safety as well and we needed him more on defense at the time."

Tucker wouldn't disappoint as the starting quarterback, passing for over 1,000 yards on the season along with twelve touchdown passes. A major reason for Tucker's success throughout the season was former Toledo St. John's Jesuit wide receiver Mike White, who caught 34 passes for nearly 800 yards and six touchdowns on the year. Behind the air-raid duo, runningback Ed Toles averaged over ten yards per carry along with six touchdowns, providing nightmares for opposing defensive fronts.

Toledo native and Thunder quarterback, DJ Tucker.

On the defensive side, led by defensive coordinator Tim Ross, the Thunder were extremely solid and pitched several shutouts on the year. Former Rogers standout, Isaiah Ballard racked up 66 tackles and a blistering 12 forced fumbles, averaging one per game. Behind him, in the defensive secondary is Scott high school native, Gene Patterson as well as former Ohio State Buckeye, Derjuan Gambrell, who obviously stole the spotlight after he began his semi-professional career with the Thunder.

"We couldn't have been successful if it wasn't for the players and staff believing in what Jamie and I set as a foundation," Fields, both co-founder and head coach of the Thunder, stated. "We had expectations to be a championship football team and the great support we received from fans and local businesses throughout the season helped make that happen."

As the Thunder begin their journey to Florida to play for a National Championship, they will attempt to make semi-professional football history. It's safe to say the Thunder are quickly exceeding their expectations, especially in just their first season.


For more information regarding the Toledo Thunder, check out their website: www.ToledoThunder.org