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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27,1000
NEWCOMERS GUIDE 2000
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Stingrays: Semi-pro football coming to Hancock County
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The Gulf Coast Stingrays
Prospective football players from the entire region try out for the Gulf Coast Stingrays, Hancock County’s first and only semi-pro football team.
Here’s a little-known fact that won’t be little-known for long: Hancock County is getting its own North American Football League team, the Gulf Coast Stingrays.
“This is real football,” Stingrays co-owner, general
manager and offensive coach Matt Karl said when he announced the team’s formation in December. “None of that indoor stuff.”
Karl, lead investigator for the Hancock County Sheriff’s office, played semi-profes-
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sional football in the 1970s. He said he began the process to start a semi-pro team locally after going to a Louisiana Hurricanes game last year.
Karl’s co-owners in the team are team President Dr. Robert K. Hillier, an orthopedic surgeon at Hancock Medical Center; and business manager Gus McKav
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part of the NAFL’s Western Conference Gulf Division, along with the Hurricanes and the Baton Rouge Bandits.
The team’s first game is scheduled for July 29 against the Bandits at Baton Rouge.
Team management is in the process of selecting players, coaches and sponsors, and has already conducted two talent searches with a third scheduled for March 18.
Anyone interested in trying out for the team can call the Stingrays at 467-4404.