COYOTES SELECT WORLD DEVELOPMENTAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE FOR 2017

(INDIO) – Bring on the world.

SoCal Coyotes team president Don West Jr., J.D., made good on his promise today when he announced that America’s #1 Developmental Pro Football Program™ had reached agreement for 2017 play in the World Developmental Football League, a five-year old operation with 32 teams in six different countries.

WDFL Commissioner Michael Greer confirmed the four-time champion Coyotes, California’s only Top 20 ranked team in fall 2016, will anchor the Pacific Coast Division for an inaugural season that will kick off mid-2017, with home-and-away schedules that culminate in a title game.

“Short of an NFL or CFL franchise, the SoCal Coyotes organization has no peers,” Greer said. “The Coyotes are a model developmental franchise, a standard in this industry. Their brands, reputation, and business acumen instantly raises the value of the WDFL across the nation, and around the world.”

More teams will be selected in coming weeks from dozens of business applications currently under review by the WDFL. Ownership groups in San Diego, Los Angeles and Arizona are front-runners to field teams stocked with NFL, CFL and Arena talent.

Expectations are high – but so is excitement, as teams vie to get in the ring with the powerhouse Coyotes, who went undefeated for a second time in 2016, and are 73-13 lifetime.

West, a former NFL agent and executive with Steinberg Sports, said the Coyotes infrastructure, knowledge and expertise, access to adequate capital, and cultural alignment speaks volumes to NFL brass.

“Our goals are clear,” West said. “The Coyotes will continue to drive the narrative in our retail space.”

The WDFL praised the Coyotes’ scalable model, spotless five-year operating track record, verifiable data, youth curriculum, sales, public-private sector alliances, and measured results.

“Our passion is only exceeded by our principles,” West said.

The Coyotes have a broad array of powerful corporate partners, including the City of Indio, home to Coachella, the nation’s largest outdoor music festival. Indio Councilman Glenn Miller and California State Senator Jeff Stone are vocal Coyote advocates, and their vision of an Indio sports complex includes a new permanent home for the Coyotes.

Championship football is a platform for the Coyotes as committed civic servants, who volunteer and support over 100 community programs and agencies across the Coachella Valley. The Coyotes offer an impressive lineup of alternative youth programming, with camps, clinics, symposiums and leadership curriculum that affect over 30,000 youth each year.

Other ‘soft processes,’ like the team’s Head of Household Work Leadership initiative (HOWL), address issues like sustainable income, child support and generational poverty.

The Coyotes outreach to at-risk youth has led to cooperative programs with the Riverside County District Attorney’s office, and law enforcement agencies in four cities. Coyote players and coaches host leadership programs each month in local churches, schools, and juvenile hall.

THE WDFL AND COYOTES will host a West Coast combine within the next 90 days, prior to training camps.

THE 2017 SCHEDULE will follow next, as teams are announced.

DISCOVER how The Pro Football Educator, operated by former Denver Broncos GM and two-time Super Bowl winner Ted Sundquist, selected the SoCal Coyotes as America’s #1 Developmental Pro Football Program™. Visit www.facebook.com/thesocalcoyotes.

FAITH, FAMILY, FOOTBALL is the real mission of the Coyotes – and not surprisingly, something that dates back to the great Vince Lombardi in 1959. More than game tape. More than a weight room. More than a 40 time. The Coyote mission of Building Champions, Building Men™ reaches far beyond the actual gridiron, deep into the development of young athletes as fathers, husbands, and men.

SEVENTY PLAYERS EACH YEAR earn the distinction to ‘Defend the Shield™’ in the uniform of the SoCal Coyotes. Many will earn a shot with NFL, CFL or AFL opportunities, or graduate into business careers.

For more information, email SVP Ron DiGrandi at [email protected].