The Duke City Gladiators reside in the Western Conference of the Indoor Football League, which stands as the toughest conference year in and year out. This has resulted in some challenges for the Gladiators as they made the leap from the Champions Indoor Football League. Namely, a dry spell when it comes to playoff wins.
New League, New Challenges
Joining the IFL brought new challenges for the Duke City Gladiators. Before as a member of the CIF, they were one of just 8 teams, not one of 13 that the IFL had at that time. The Gladiators had operated in the CIF for five seasons finishing with 39 wins and 20 losses including a 5-1 record in the playoffs. Capped off by back-to-back Champion Bowl victories.
2020 may have been the year Covid changed everything, but it had already turned into a year full of positive changes for the IFL. Not only did they add a very stable team in the Gladiators, but they also brought in the Oakland/Bay Area Panthers co-owned by Marshawn Lynch and Rob Choi, the Spokane Shock owned by Former NFL Player Sam Adams, just as Charlie Bosselman tried to sell his Nebraska Danger.
The biggest changes came when the league added the Frisco Fighters and the Germaine family to the equation. Not only did the Germaine’s launch the Frisco Fighters one of the best Jersey designs, team names and color schemes in any football league, but the family purchased sponsorship rights for the entire league as well as the rights to launch another franchise in Columbus Ohio the Wild Dogs, intended to begin their life in 2021.
While not all of these changes panned out well, with Spokane ending up folding, and Nebraska not finding a buyer the bulk of the changes coming in 2020 have helped the future growth of the league. Over the next four seasons, the IFL weeded out teams that had any substantial issues and continued to add stable and respected franchises.
This has amounted to the most consistent and competitive indoor league in America at this point. With the Western Conference becoming a murderers row of playoff-caliber teams. A mixture of the most well-known franchises indoors; the Arizona Rattlers, Duke City Gladiators, and respected newcomers like the Vegas Knighthawks, Bay Area Panthers, San Diego Strike Force, and NAZ Wranglers. The Sioux Falls Storm a member of the East had won 9 of the last 12 Championships before NAZ and Bay Area were able to go worst to first in successive seasons.
A Gladiator is Meant to Entertain
Gladiator (Latin: gladiator, “swordsman”, from gladius, “sword”) was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals.
A gladiator is defined as a combatant who entertained the audiences of the Roman Empire. The Duke City Gladiators may not reside in Rome, but they do their best to entertain audiences at the Rio Rancho Event Center every season. However, in 2024, the bottom seemed to fall out of the Gladiators season.
It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn
The ownership group for the Gladiators has shown tremendous loyalty to Fred Griggs. He worked his way up to General Manager and later Head Coach after winning Championship MVP back in 2018 as a Gladiators player. He had been with the organization for almost seven years straight, nearly unheard of in indoor football. He was also the first head coach to lead the Gladiators into two IFL seasons.
This season things needed to change. So the owners felt it necessary to dip into their past and pull out a former coach for assistance. Dominic Bramante a former owner and Head Coach was brought back to serve as Co-Head Coaches with Griggs, a dynamic that is difficult to navigate especially when egos get in the way. Bramante is regarded as a great practice coach who does a good job of running a tight ship and getting things done. These changes were supposed to help change the fortunes of the Gladiators, 2024 was supposed to be their “Road to Glory”.
Losing could no longer be tolerated, except that’s exactly what happened. The Gladiators stumbled out of the gate. Losing by 6 to conference rival San Diego. In their second game of the season, they played a rare game against an Eastern Foe…the Frisco Fighters, one of if not the best teams in the East every season. They lost by 9 points. In week four another conference game this time against the Billy Back-led Tucson Sugar Skulls. Duke City fell by 7 points. Three games and a total loss margin of 22 points or 7.3 points per game. Duke City looked like they were on the verge of finding victory heading into their first bye.
After a bye week, they had their worst loss of the season to this point against NAZ losing by 16 points. Then came a 15 point loss to undefeated Vegas. Another bye week seemed to help get things back on track but it didn’t stop the losing as this time Duke City lost by 3 to San Antonio.
An outlier of a game came against San Diego. Something about facing Nate Davis, Duke City lost 47-21, then rebounded by putting 53 points up in Arizona against the Rattlers and still lost by 2. Finally, in week 12, they found their first victory against Tucson winning 21-20. The hope was the team had turned a corner, and that this would be the start of a winning streak.
The next week they saw San Antonio once again and this time lost 46-45. This seemed to break the team and spell the end of the Griggs era. The following week was week 14, the Gladiators stood 1-9 and were facing the 7-3 Vegas Knight Hawks a team who easily could have still been undefeated at this point. The Gladiators would lose this game by 14 points. This was the final straw, 1-10 eliminated from playoff contention once again.
A New Dawn
The Gladiators parted ways with Coach Griggs after seven long years. In speaking with the team the message was clear “We want to finish strong and move into 2025 on a positive note.” The Gladiators’ staff hinges heavily on coaches with ties to New Mexico whether it was previous coaching stops, or their own playing careers. This includes multiple coaches with ties to University of New Mexico.
One trend seems to become obvious, the Gladiators value playing experience in their coaching staff. Several former Gladiators players have returned in an effort to rebuild a once great team, and every coach on the staff has played at some point. It’s important to note this is not expected to be on an interim basis with the staff expected to issue the remainder of 2024 to evaluate the talent on the roster, and determine where and how to proceed in their rebuild.
The new staff leading this charge:
Kerry Locklin, Head Coach
The Los Cruces, New Mexico native began the 2023 season as the Head Coach of the Billings Outlaws. After a bumpy start to the season the Outlaws let go of Locklin, and let him find his way to another team. Locklin then joined the Topeka Tropics to try and turn around the team late in the season helping them get their first win in franchise history. This led him to be hired as the next Head Coach of the Tropics in anticipation of the 2024 season. Unfortunately for Locklin, the ownership group for the Tropics backed out and allowed the team to fold. Not long after this, Locklin joined the Gladiators hoping to help turn another team around. Now he’s being given the keys to the car for what could amount to a short term rental if things get any worse for Duke City.
Locklin spent five seasons playing in the NFL, after a stellar playing career at New Mexico State in the late 70s-early 80s. After his playing career ended in 1988 he began his next chapter in New Mexico once again this time with Western New Mexico University as a running backs coach. A position he held twice in his career before transitioning to coaching the defensive line. He would spend the next three decades coaching at every level including college, NFL, CFL, UFL, AFL, IFL, and CIF. He was slated to coach in the NAL in 2024 before Topeka folded. The well-traveled coach may be more respected than he is experienced and that’s saying a lot as he nears his 40th year of coaching football.
Martino Theus, Offensive Coordinator
Martino Theus is another former Gladiator’s Head Coach. He had previously served as the Head Coach for three other teams before joining the Gladiators as their offensive coordinator adding assistant head coach duties as well. It didn’t take long before he was promoted. He would take over for Pig Brown in 2021 at the time Fred Griggs was his defensive coordinator.
His run was short-lived, and it says a lot about the man for returning and taking a lesser role after being promoted to head coach in the past. Theus is a long-time offensive coordinator spending time with the Omaha Beef, Monterrey Steel, Marion Blue Racers, and of course Duke City. Now the former Mississippi Hound Dogs Head Coach and record-setting wideout returns to calling plays for Duke City assisting an experienced head coach.
Landrick Brody, Run-Game Coordinator/RB Coach
Brody Landrick was previously the offensive coordinator. The first time IFL play-caller needed some more guidance on calling plays indoors. Known for being a great high school coach, Brody may have just needed time to adjust to the indoor game, but Duke City only had so long to wait. Rather than move on from a promising coach, the Gladiators saw an opportunity to have him work directly with one of the best play-callers in team history. Now Brody can prepare for a future where he can step into the role with more experience.
Brody was originally hired as the running backs/linebackers coach for 2024. The former New Mexico Lobos running back recently watched for of his high school players commit to colleges, one of which was particularly special:
Chris Hemphill, Defensive Coordinator
Chris Hemphill is an experienced defensive coordinator who has been around the block in the indoor/arena game. Hemphill began 2024 in the same capacity as the Louisiana Voodoo. A team that ironically signed former Gladiators Mason Newton and Andre Sale. The Voodoo would end up folding early in the AFL season and Hemphill focused on youth coaching for a little while until the Gladiators came calling.
Hemphill also is no stranger to the owners of the Gladiators, or the IFL. Hemphill spent years with the Bismarck Bucks in multiple roles, including Defensive Coordinator. Knowing the rule set is key to his success with Duke City. Hemphill is also assisting with player acquisition although it sounds like the roster may be mostly set going forward. Hemphill is well-liked among players, he brings with him a resume that commands respect and his professional demeanor has kept him in consideration for many positions over the years. Watch for Hemphill to be a head coach in the near future.
Chris Choice, Defensive Line Coach
Coach Choice is another New Mexico Alum and current youth coach as well who also coaches basketball on top of football. About 6 months ago he announced he was named the head coach of Boulter Middle School in addition to his duties with the Gladiators. He is another staple in the New Mexico community that has drawn fans to games simply due to his exploits outside the IFL.
He has been with the Gladiators since 2022 assisting in corporate sponsorship sales, and coaching. He began coaching youth football professionally in 2019 according to his LinkedIn profile. Choice is well-liked by his players and has done a fairly good job of developing the players Duke City has brought in whether they were unknown players or former NFL draft picks.
Sherman Carter, Offensive Line Coach
Sherman Carter is another long-time Gladiator, who once spent a short time as the head coach as well. A former player in his own right his specialty is coaching the line. He’s spent time coaching both sides of the line but it appears he will focus on the offensive line.
Carter was a key piece to the back-to-back championships for Duke City before transitioning to coaching. Spending the next two years as an assistant coach he saw a short stint as the head coach before he would end up back in his assistant coach role.
Donovan Porterie, Quarterback Coach
Porterie is a long time professional quarterback who played as recently as 2023 with Topeka. After spending some time playing for Coach Locklin last season, now he will coach alongside him. Porterie’s career as a player has spanned over a decade and the 37-year-old former New Mexico alum has a wealth of knowledge to glean on the younger generation of players just beginning their indoor football careers.
Porterie will directly be tasked with cleaning up mistakes in Javin Kilgo’s game, but his biggest and arguably most important task is teaching Hassan Rogers how to read defenses more quickly indoors and to use his athleticism as a supplement to his passing ability. While Porterie may not have been named a coordinator or head coach, looking back at the performance by the quarterback room his job might be the most important of any coach if Duke City is expected to find success.
Porterie is a familiar face for Duke City fans, who were treated to a clinic in 2017 when Donovan started for the Gladiators during an MVP season that saw him throw 60 touchdowns. His understanding of the game is next level and he will make a tremendous coach…Although it sounds like Porterie has the itch to play again in 2025. Longest Yard anyone?
Table of Contents
Striving for Success
Ultimately the staff hasn’t seen many changes over the past few years. Primarily it’s been a shuffling of current coaches. This amounts to the biggest shake up for Duke City in a long time. At this point though, the only direction the Gladiators can go is up. With six games decided by 9 points or less, the Gladiators are looking at coaching as the necessary area for change to get over the hump. I have the utmost respect for Coach Fred Griggs, but I believe it was time for both parties to move on to prosper in the future. Griggs immediately becomes a top defensive coordinator candidate, but could also latch on with teams as a DB Coach, General Manager, or even as a head coach. His coaching and front office experience will be valuable in his next step.
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Next crony in line to do Gina’s dirty work … Duke City will implode!!! Lol
About time!!