Pirates didn't do what was necessary to ensure stay

Note: However, things weren't so rosy off the field for the Pirates, who left Port Huron midway through the second season for Flint, only to have attendances go from bad to worse. Here's a column I wrote after the team's unceremonious exit from town. This ran June 21, 2007.

One thing that Josh Reasoner said to me about a year ago has been sticking in my head lately.

I asked the then-president of the Port Huron Pirates if the team would be sticking around for the offseason in the Blue Water Area.

"No," he said. "We came in like Pirates, and we're going out like Pirates."

Now, as the team sets sail down I-69 to head to Flint, the former team president's words seem prophetic.




The Blue Water Area has been burned a second time in a second year by an owner of the Port Huron Pirates.

This time, Pete Norager and the team are headed for greener pastures.

(Like an online poster mentioned in storychat, did you ever think you'd see the day when Flint looked like a more appealing money-making city?)

Money is money, turnouts are turnouts, and the bottom line is boss in business. However, if Norager and the team were truly committed to making it work here, it would've been nice to see them try something new.

Players too good

Quick confession: I can probably count on my two hands the amount of notes I took during the second half of home games this season.

Here's why: The Pirates were usually ahead by several touchdowns, and none of these plays mattered.

The team was too good for this league and too good for its own good.

Sure, as I wrote a couple weeks ago, going to a game once is a great time. But why would you return to another game when you know the outcome before the game starts?

Note to Norager and his team: 60-10 blowouts are boring. Nobody wants to see them. Not Port Huron. Not Flint. Not anywhere. It's not smart business.

What irks me the most is the argument that if the Detroit Lions blew everybody out, they would sell out every game.

That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Comparing the National Football League to the Continental Indoor Football League is one of the more absurd things you can do, and clearly demonstrates that you don't know how to make a minor-league football franchise work.

The problem was that the Pirates were closer to an NFL team than they were to some of the sad sacks of local players that they went up against on some Saturdays.

Another problem: At least those other teams' players are getting paid each week.

Not enough area talent

Sure, there are not enough former football stars in the area to make up an all-star team at any football level in our area.

But there are some.

Just before the National Anthem began at the May 12 game against Muskegon, a fan summed up the feelings of me and many in attendance with a single question yelled in the middle of a silent crowd.

"Where's Josh Collier?" the fan bellowed.

Good question.

Two weeks earlier, Port Huron's Collier and Doug

Warren, and Sterling Heights' Jim Roth made their season debuts against the Summit County (Ohio) Rumble.

Those players drew the loudest ovations and the announcement of their playing drew a respectable crowd to an otherwise unwatchable game.

Collier has not played in a game since.

That, my friends, is ridiculous.

Even when they did play, Collier, Roth and Warren only received garbage time minutes wellafter the game was decided.

Coach Karl Featherstone was just doing his job - winning games and developing players for possible shots at the next level. He was doing what he was hired to do.

But it was obvious a long, long time ago that was not going to be enough to make the franchise a thriving one in this area.

What could work

After the confetti flew and the trophy was handed over last season, two goals should've been implemented to remedy the team's two most obvious problems.

First, somehow, the team needed to be at a more competitive level with the rest of the league. And second, more local players needed to be involved.

With expansion looming in the CIFL, the message was clear: The Pirates needed to get worse.

Both of these problems could've been solved easily and with the same moves as some players moved on to other leagues and some chose not to return to Port Huron.

Those spots should've been filled by local practice players from last season like Tommy Longo and Brian Towns. And more of an effort to bring in local former standouts such as Tedaro France of New Haven should have been made.

At open tryouts, the first cut should have been every single player that does not live in the 810 and 586 area codes. Keep the local guys and see who might be able to become players in the future.

With returning stars such as Shane Franzer, Ernie Smith, Shawn Hackett and Eddie Bynes, the Pirates would've still been the class of the league. Those stars could also have continued to become more a part of this community. Plus, local players could continue to develop and become contributors.

Instead, the Pirates sought out more out-of-town talent. Guys such as Felix Joyner, Reggie Eubanks and Daniel Urquhart were nice additions competitive-wise, but did the Pirates need more firepower?

Amazingly, the Pirates not only cut new local players that came out for tryouts, they also cut players such as Towns and Longo. In turn, they added a bunch of players that people from this area could care less about.

That was the beginning of the end of this franchise in Port Huron.

The final straw

What did Norager possibly expect to gain from announcing midseason that the team would leave if attendance numbers did not go up?

Predictably, attendance numbers stayed near the same and even fell.

Norager was perfectly willing to not answer his phone when the deal was all but done, but he should have kept his mouth shut all along if he truly wanted to stay.

That makes rumors that he was all but headed to Flint well earlier in the season seem true. That would mean that Port Huron was never really given a chance.

So, the fans did what they should have done after Norager said he was jumping ship - collectively giving him the middle finger by not showing up to his games.

Norager could have sucked it up, gotten some better attendances to close the season and enjoyed good crowds during the playoffs here in Port Huron.

Now, he's trying to do the same in unfamiliar territory.

It should be interesting to see if Flint provides the crowds Norager is looking for on such short notice. Here's one guess: They won't.

Flint is getting a quality football team, one that will likely win them our championship about a month from now.

But if they think they are getting a team totally committed to their community, they are wrong. That's fool's gold.