Stockton Wolves
 | |
| Founded | 2009 |
|---|---|
| Team history | San Jose Wolves (2010) Stockton Wolves (2011) |
| Based in | Stockton, California |
| Arena | Stockton Arena |
| Colors | Black, Orange |
| Owner | Ryan Petersen |
| Head coach | Bennie King |
| Dancers | She Wolves |
| Mascot | Wolfie |
The Stockton Wolves are a professional indoor football team that currently plays an independent schedule. The Wolves are based in Stockton, California. As the San Jose Wolves, the team played its home games at the Cow Palace, located in Daly City. The team is owned by Ryan Petersen, CEO of computer hardware manufacturing company OCZ Technology.
The Wolves were the first indoor/arena football team based in San Jose since the San Jose SaberCats, who played from 1995 until the Arena Football League suspended operations in 2009. For its first season, the Wolves played in the American Indoor Football Association's Western Conference. When the new AFL announced it was reviving the SaberCats for 2011, the team relocated to Stockton. On top of this, after the AIFA spun off its eastern teams and several of its Western teams failed, the resulting "AIFA West" had too few teams to field a league that year; this prompted two of the remaining three teams, Stockton and the Reno Barons, to defect from the league, ensuring its demise. Reno and Stockton are playing a schedule comprising independent teams and each other, under the name "Western Indoor Football Association."
After what has been a season of finding replacement teams, the Wolves wish to find a more stable league to play in. Bennie King, head coach, said that he is currently looking into two leagues for the future.[1] King did not specify if he was looking into the American Professional Football League, the only league the Wolves played against when they played at the Sioux City Bandits one game this year, their old league which was trying to start up in 2012 with a western division, the American Indoor Football Association, or the Indoor Football League, with 3 teams in Washington and one in Arizona.
The revived AIFA, now going under the shortened name American Indoor Football, announced that there would indeed be a team in Stockton during the 2012 season, but that it would go under the name of the California Eagles.
Television series
The 2010 television series Wolves on the Hunt was filmed during the team's training camp, and is centered around the AIFA's unique league requirement of having nine local players on the 30-man final rosters. It chronicles both the open combine system and training camp. The show was hosted by Bay Area sports personality Vern Glenn, and aired through the league's training camp and pre-season period. The show was broadcast locally in the San Francisco Bay Area on KRON-TV.
Season-by-season
| Season | W | L | T | Finish | Playoff results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose Wolves | |||||
| 2010 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 2nd Western | Lost WC Championship (Wyoming) |
| Stockton Wolves | |||||
| 2011 | 8 | 2 | 0 | Independent | |
| Totals | 17 | 8 | 0 | (including playoffs) | |