New Faces Behind the Scenes
17 Jan 08
As this gets posted it's less than six weeks until the 2008 AFL season begins.
The Philadelphia Soul have retooled for a run at the championship with a revamped offense and overhauled defense. To help those new parts work the Soul have replaced departed coaches Pat Downey and John Kirk with AFL coaching newcomers.
New line coach Mickey Mays has been around the block. The Rhodes College grad comes from Charleston Southern University where he was the defensive line coach.
Mays brings with him high school, college and professional coaching experience. In 2001, he was the defensive line coach for the Eastern Division Champion Orlando Rage in the XFL. Previous to the Rage, Mays worked outside of the U.S. spending one year with the Berlin Thunder in the NFL Europe, and one year in the CFL with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
From 1993-98, Mays spent time at the University of Texas-El Paso, where he coached the defensive line, linebackers and also running backs.
New linebackers coach Jerry Odom also migrates north to join the Soul. A former Arena League player with the Orlando Predators for six seasons from 1992-98. During part of that time, he roomed with Soul head coach Bret Munsey.
Odom starred at the University of Florida, starting every game of his junior and senior year at linebacker and being named a captain of the 1990 team, which was Steve Spurrier’s first in Gainesville. He later played in the AFL while serving as a graduate assistant at Florida and Texas Christian. He coached in the high school ranks in Florida with stops in Orlando, Apopka and New Smyrna Beach before returning to the Gators as an assistant coach in 2000. He later served as the defensive coordinator at East Carolina before coming to Coffee High School prior to the 2005 season.