Rick Frazier is truly the man with a plan. He doesn’t mind being called a defensive guru. But he can coach at all positions. He’s the fiery journeyman coach who is here to bring some lift to the Nighthawks and to get the team back into the af2 playoffs after a three year absence.
Frazier, a native of Texas, comes to the Nighthawks after serving the Arena Football Toronto Phantoms’ franchise as their assistant head coach and defensive coordinator. Prior to that, Frazier coached (from an assistant coach all the way to the Head Coach position) with the Milwaukee Mustangs. Frazier spent seven years with the Mustangs.
“I felt like the Nighthawks were the best fit for me,” said Frazier. “I really got excited about coming to Norfolk.”
Frazier was courted by several other arenafootball2 teams as well as teams in the AFL. He chose to come to Norfolk and he sites his top goal is to get the Nighthawks back into the playoffs.
“That’s the first step — you’ve got to get into the dance,” said Frazier. “And then you see how well you dance afterwards. That is the challenge and we recruited the talent, I think, accordingly. We kept the best of the team that was here a year ago and we tried to surround them with half of a roster of outside talent. We feel like our players are not just good athletes but they are also good people, with good character and good work ethic.”
While bringing in the best talent, Frazier and his coaching staff (meet them on Page 4) are working to create an unstoppable offense and a stifling defense.
“For the past eight years, my teams always finished in the top four in the league,” said Frazier. “We’ve got those plans here in Norfolk. And we’re really excited about it.”
That’s no guarantee for team success, Frazier will tell you.
“We are excited,” he said. “We are going to make offensive coordinators miserable.”
This was written on behalf of the Norfolk Nighthawks, an af2 franchise, which competed at Norfolk Scope from 2000-03.