Madison Mustangs: Semi-pro football team plays simply for the love of the game
By A. David Dahmer
Having once again wrapped up a playoff spot this year, the Madison Mustangs semi-pro football team is looking to make it to the Ironman Football League (IFL) championship game for the third year in a row.
“We want to get over the hump and get a championship,” says head coach and owner Bob Gingras. “We’d like to get a ring.”
Despite their success over the past few seasons, the Mustangs have flown under the radar for most Madisonians, who are more often than not caught up in other summertime activities. But more and more people are beginning to notice that Madison’s semi-pro football team, the Madison Mustangs, are pretty darn good and that the IFL, which has grown from two to 14 teams since its inception in 1996, has proven to be a very exciting league.
“The quality of football is very, very good,” says Gingras. “These players are playing for free and because they love football. When you put those together, you get an exciting brand of football — all-out hustle and a good, prideful performance.”
Gingras, a 51-year-old lawyer whose lived in Madison since 1973, fondly remembers playing football in the sandlot growing up in North Dakota. When he was 2 years old, he had a kidney removed. His parents let him play tackle football until high school, when his doctor stepped in and said he couldn’t play on the varsity team because he only had one kidney.
“I couldn’t get a physical, and it upset me a great deal,” he says. “I think because of that I have this need to enjoy the game.”
Gingras had been asked to take over the Mustangs a few times but repeatedly said ‘no,’ because he knew what a huge commitment it would be.
“But then they caught me at a weak moment,” Gingras laughs. “I said ‘yes,’ and I have to tell you that I’m glad I did, because this has become a passion for me; and I’m going to keep doing this for years to come. I’m going to develop this team into a class A professional team that will be in Madison for a long time.”
The Mustangs have provided an avenue for many local athletes to continue playing in a highly competitive league after their high school and college playing days are over.
“We have a lot of talented players,” Gingras says. “We have guys on the team that have tried out with the pros. Many have played four years in college.”
Gingras says that some of the top Mustang performers this year are wide receiver and safety Zak Gordon, wide receiver Reggie Davis (a former Madison East and UW-Platteville athlete), and quarterback Marquis Carpella. On defense, he says linebacker Joseph Conduah, defensive lineman Adrian “Ace” Smith, and defensive back Jackson Clerveaux are the key players.
Conduah, a standout player for Heidelberg College in Ohio, has been with the team for the last six years.
Joe Conduah
“It was something I was missing, that I wanted to continue doing, that I loved to do,” says Conduah, who had pro tryouts with the Green Bay Packers and the Indianapolis Colts immediately after college. “When I first heard about the team, I jumped at the opportunity to continue to play.
“I think that the level of talent and the type of football — the quality of football that you’ll see out there — is comparable to Division III football,” says Conduah, who was named the Woody Hayes Division III Man of the Year for his work on the field, in the classroom, and in the community at Heidelberg. “It’s not quite Big Ten football, but I think you can see flashes of it on the field — guys who are very talented making spectacular plays.”
Unlike high school, college, and professional football teams who compete in the cool autumn weather, the Mustangs have a summertime schedule, which can mean running around in full pads and uniforms in 94-degree weather.
“We’re all men. The heat is the heat, and you just block that out and play the game,” Conduah says.
“The tougher part of playing in the summer is not having your weekends to yourself or to spend with your family,” Conduah adds. “We have to have guys missing a game almost every week because of some important family issue or commitment. That makes it challenging.”
Coach Gingras is impressed that on top of game time and travel (which can take up an entire Saturday), the players also spend a significant amount of their free time training, lifting weights, practicing, and looking at game film.
“They have all kinds of pressures to make this work, including their family and their professions,” Gingras says. “It’s amazing that they’re able to pull it off.”
The Mustangs have been around since 1999; they were called the Verona Trojans last year and the Madison Seminoles before that. They switched to the Mustangs this year to draw on the memory of a highly successful semipro team — the old Madison Mustangs — which played in Madison from 1964 to 1974 in the Central States Football League. That team won two championships and only had one losing season, its first season.
The current crop of players has experienced similar success. “The majority of guys have been together the past few seasons, and we’ve done pretty well,” Conduah says. “In the six seasons I have played, we’ve been in the finals three times and in the conference championship three times.”
This year, the Mustangs started out 4-1 before, according to Coach Gingras, becoming a little bit complacent. They narrowly lost to two teams, the West Allis Crusaders and the Foud du Lac Predators, that Gingras felt they should have beaten.
“We’ve had a roller-coaster type of season, with some tremendous ups and downs,” Conduah says. “We’re really looking toward putting together the perfect game. We’ve had a great game on the offensive side of the ball one week and a great game on the defensive side the next. As far as putting it all together, that’s what we are hoping to do.”
Last week, the Mustangs turned in a great performance tying the undefeated and first-place Milwaukee Hitmen. “We clearly outplayed them,” Gingras says. “We came together as a team Saturday night [against the Hitmen].”
As it turns out, that tie was as good as a win, as the Mustangs won a series of tiebreakers, launching them into the playoffs.
The Mustangs have received a big boost the entire 2007 season getting to play, for the first time, in front of their home crowd. Prior to this season, almost all of the IFL games were played in Milwaukee. This year, the Mustangs will have played four games at Mansfield Stadium (behind Madison Memorial High School) and one at Lussier Stadium (behind Madison La Follette High School).
“That’s new, and it’s huge. It makes such a difference to the players that we have home games where all of their friends and families can come,” Gingras says. “We haven’t been beaten here, and that’s something that we want to establish — we aren’t going to lose at home.”
Gingras says that the Mustangs are drawing good crowds and that he is pleased with the attendance. It’s clear that the players truly appreciate it, too.
“We’re continuing to see more and more numbers as the season progresses, just from my perspective looking up in the stands,” Conduah says. “I think that speaks volumes for the type of football we are putting on the field.”
The Mustangs are looking to put it all together for this year’s playoff run, clearly setting the IFL championship as their ultimate goal. “I feel very confident going forward that we can win this thing,” Gingras says.
Regardless of how they do in this year’s playoffs, it’s clear that the Mustang coaches and players have much broader goals in mind.
“We want to continue to get good players of high character who enjoy playing football,” Gingras says. “We want to build a football team that Madison can be proud of. We want to continue to grow a fanbase where more and more people come out to watch us.”
The Madison Mustangs will close out their regular season against the Burlington Blue Devils this Saturday, Aug. 4, 7 p.m. at Mansfield Field behind Madison Memorial High School.
For more information about the Madison Mustangs, visit the web site http://www.madtownmustangs.com/
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September 17th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Anyone know if star player Aaron Zurbachen is still the state record holder in the clean and jerk?