The Peach State Cats are a machine, on and off the field. They, and the owner James Moreland are just as pivotal to the landscape of the sport as the Nashville Kats or Arizona Rattlers. You may ask yourself, “Aren’t they a developmental arena team?”
Well yes, they are, and they are sorely overlooked in the sport. The team has had trips in several leagues, and almost all of them they have dominated. But winning games isn’t the only goal; it’s advancement for the coaches and players. If you’re new to the Cats, consider this your introduction to the best developmental arena football team in the country. If you’re familiar? This will be a bit of insight into what makes the Georgia-based program so good.
Abbreviated Peach State History (2022-2025)
Before you can truly understand most things you have to understand what molded it into what currently sits. The Cats, as most know, didn’t begin as a “developmental” franchise, instead a pro team in the first version of the American Arena League.
After the league went defunct the Cats were sold to Moreland, this is where things began to shift for Peach State, they moved to Silverbacks Indoor Facility and the focus turned from arena football wins to arena move-ups.
Since that move, they have been a force at the level they play against. Starting in 2022 they played in the EIF, a mostly Alabama and Georgia-based league of AAL2-level teams, that 2022 season saw the first title for the Cats, a clean sweep of the league that saw extremely lopsided blowouts, and a championship game that wasn’t really close,48-16 over the Steam.
The 2023 season was a completely different story, as Peach State wouldn’t officially join a league, instead opting to go completely independent, playing a variety of teams from the EIF, AAL2, and AIFA, having a respectable ten-game schedule, going 8-2, while maintaining the focus on move-ups and advancing the franchise.
The 2024 season found them in yet another league, the American Arena League 2 (the league they won in 2026). Unlike the 2026 campaign, the season wouldn’t see them undefeated in league play, instead 4-3 and squeaked into the playoffs.
What was similar was the run to the AAL2 Championship Bowl. Though the run was one for the books, they would run into a current AAL team, Wheeling (who was a developmental team only in title), and get crushed.
After a fairly successful 2025, Moreland and his team would roll the dice on a move to the PAIA. From the outset, it looked like a solid lower-level league, but once the ball got rolling? Well, it fell apart, essentially leaving just the Cats to play a mostly independent schedule, once again leaving Peach State to find a new home, which they did for 2026, the AAL2. As you’ll find in the next section, Moreland and the Cats took full advantage of the move!
2026 Cats Dominance
This is where you really get the chance to see what hard work, preparation, and running a program a step above the rest really gets a team. Coming off of the 2025 PAIA collapse, and a hard reset you don’t always know what to expect, but Peach State never missed a beat, and as far as we can tell, they improved.
Moreland runs Peach State the way you would expect a team at the AAL or NAL level to. They have set practice, they study film, and he and his coaching staff hammer down the nuances of the arena game to experienced and rookie players alike.
If you really dive into what made the season special it was the absolute control on the defensive side of the ball, even against AAL competition, the scores never got out of hand, only allowing 34 and 54 to Mississippi and Columbus. As for the AAL2 opponents?
Well, they only averaged 19 points a game in the regular season.. An extremely low mark for the arena game… no matter the level! Though the defense was good, the offense was what many would consider great, only failing to score under 20 once, to AAL-level competition. Competition brings the best out of players, and this is never more apparent than with QBs Tommy Neely, and Luke Kennedy. The two, despite being in competition with one another, drove one another to strive for perfection.
It wasn’t a bitter situation, better yet they pushed, encouraged, and even coached one another up as the season progressed. The progress they made really showed through when they traveled to Columbus, though it was a loss, 54-30 is extremely close considering the Lions were beating AAL teams by 55+. They never seemed entirely out of the game until the last ten or so minutes!
The AAL2 South regular season title was never going to be enough, as we had the pleasure of witnessing, the Cats’ determination didn’t just stop, instead, they locked in. After the first-round bye, they rematched what most consider the third-best team in the AAL2, the Carolina Aviators.
Most fans knew it was going to be close, but not many expected the last-second heroics that resulted in a walk-off Peach State win 45-44. Much like we saw in both postseason games, the offense stole the show.
When you have an offensive line that can control the line of scrimmage and give your passer 5-6 seconds to make his progressions, you’ll be able to score at will, as they did averaging 44.5 points a game in the playoffs!
AAL2 Championship Game Highlights
The Championship game wasn’t any different, the Cats came to play. Moreland admitted that coming in he did not doubt his offense, the likes of Mike Swann, Sammy Johnson, and Mike Figgers at Wide Receiver. Those four can give any AAL2 coach confidence. The worry was more than the high-flying Steel City offense, and a mobile quarterback was going to give them trouble down the stretch.
He and the Cats had to show up on defense if they were going to claim a title! Not only did they show up, guys like Dorell and Marcus locked down the dual threat across from them… playing assignment football.. spying the QB and ensuring that he could barely make it past the line of scrimmage!
Running back James Monroe pushed the Offense above what it had seen most of the year, clawing for yards and starting scoring off! No matter the situation, you have to have an offensive line to really make things happen, which is where Horace Roberts, Mark Paris & Erick King come in. They held blocks and gave both Neely and Kennedy the ability to make good we’ll placed throws the entire night!
Once we hit the fourth it was all but over, but they kept pushing, the Cats DL accounted for ten total sacks! Overall it was a dominant performance! All topped off by the special teams (remember there are three sides to football) where we saw Antonio Turner get crucial turnovers and add scores, and Sharif Daniels using his skill to pin the Stampede deep!
At the end of the night, the scoreboard read 44-12, and the championship wasn’t won by one player.. one group, or one coach, but rather by a group of men that were molded into a team and put it all on the line for 60 minutes in Wesbanco Arena!
A Quick Aside
Scheduling the two championship games on the same day as a double-header, and allowing the AAL2 teams to play their championship in an actual arena was a very intelligent move. This not only gave AAL2 fans even more reason to attend the AAL Championship game, it also drew in more AAL fans for the AAL2 Championship. This is an approach I personally hope continues in the future. – Sam Shady
Talent Factory & GIFL Effect
Most fans won’t know what the GIFL, or Gridiron Indoor Football League, is but behind the scenes it has produced quite the list of call-ups.
If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a developmental league that plays in late winter but ends before the spring, ensuring it gives its athletes the chance to take opportunities in higher professional leagues. As of recently it has been a primarily single-venue league made up of teams from the Carolinas, Alabama, and Georgia. Moreland owns the league, which has found gems like Evan DiMaggio.
DiMaggio played for the 29ers, then Peach State before winning Defensive Rookie of the Year in the NAL for the Southwest Kansas Storm. Since its inception in 2024 (then as the Georgia Indoor Football League) it has served as a machine in the south for training players that may only know outdoor-style football in the ways and maneuvering that it takes to break into the arena game, even at some points giving vets of the game a place to rebound, polish skills, and make the move back up.
The plan for the 2027 season will see even more of a move up, as the league has expanded rapidly, ballooning to 15 teams, reaching all the way from the Atlantic to the Smokies! The single venue option is also a thing of the past, with plans for games in 3-4 venues, though those venues won’t be set in stone until later on in the offseason!
To the Athlete:
If you are a player, with or without college experience and just want a chance, check the GIFL social media and see if you have a team near you. If you’re in the eastern half of the Southeast, chances are you do.
The opportunity that can arise out of a good season in the league is endless, even more compounded when you consider who will be watching, the best team in all of developmental football, the team that since 2022 has sent up over 80 players to the pro ranks, and 8 in 2026 alone.
If you are a rebounding arena player or fresh out of college, give the Cats a glance, the skills you can gain from the Cats ( and a chance to be drafted into the AAL) are worth showing up to a tryout! Moreland has aspirations to move his team up the pro ranks in the coming years, you might just get a chance to rise with them, like so many did with Wheeling in 2024 to 2025, or Mississippi and Jersey did from 2025 into 2026. No matter what you are looking for there is an opportunity if you have the talent, heart, and drive to prove yourself!
Huge thanks to Jame Moreland for the inside look into his team, his league, and all the Deep South arena ball happenings! We appreciate his love and dedication to the sport, and his openness to share it with us and everyone trying to make the sport better as a whole!
Enjoy AAL2 Content? Check out the shows and articles on the AAL2 and Peach State:
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We are currently doing a giveaway to win a piece of Sioux Falls Storm turf that the team once used in games. There is now a second way to enter. Donate any amount of money to Sammy Strong Foundation, take a screenshot of the “Thank You for Donating to Sammy Strong” image after your donation, and send it to us on any social media platform to automatically enter to win.
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