Orlando Predators arena football returns to Amway Center on Saturday night

It all comes full circle for Ben Bennett and the Orlando Predators this weekend.

Thirty years after suiting up as a Preds quarterback during the franchise’s inaugural arena football season, Bennett leads the 2021 version into its first home game in two years.

“Finally, after all these years I have a head coaching job with my old team in my own hometown,” said the former Duke star, who passed for 8,469 yards and 162 touchdowns in five seasons with the Preds from 1991-95 after having been with the NFL’s Bengals and Bears for a couple of seasons in the late 1980s.

“I made lifelong friends here and we really made an impact, both in the Arena Football League and in the Orlando community. It’s meant a lot to me,” Bennett said. “People here love the Predators. It’s just been kind of out of sight and out of mind for a while.”

Bennett, 59, is hopeful that changes this summer.

The Predators (1-1) host the Albany Empire (3-0) in a National Arena League regular-season game Saturday at 7 p.m. at Amway Center. Lower-bowl tickets are available at Ticketmaster starting at $23. First-responders receive two free tickets when showing a badge or work identification at the arena.

Bennett, who previously had stints as a Preds assistant, has been working to rebuild the brand after a similar effort to do so fell apart in 2019. The Preds had been dormant since folding following the 2016 AFL season when former player Kenny McEntyre attempted to relaunch the franchise as part of the fledgling NAL.

While beset by numerous issues off the field, the team missed the playoffs for just the third time in its 26-season history while finishing with a 2-12 record, which ranks below the 3-7 expansion team in 1991 and 4-14 team in 2012 for fewest wins.

“To see that deteriorate to what it did in 2019 was heartbreaking,” Bennett said. “They’d taken something I worked a lot of hours and put a lot of blood, sweat and tears to build up, and they destroyed it.”

Bennett, along with a new ownership group led by Nathan Starling Jr., took control of the franchise early last year. Then the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the fourth year without arena football in Orlando dating to 2009 when the original version of the AFL ceased operations.

While the new era of arena football — which does not play with nets in each end zone like in the old AFL — looks much different from its mainstream peak in the mid-2000s, it is not far removed from Bennett’s playing days in Orlando when fans passionately cheered for blue-collar players in a unique fast-paced version of the sport.

“The game itself is only one part of the program,” Bennett said. “The entertainment value, the showmanship, all of the things that go along with arena football are still there. The rules change a little bit, but the game and experience itself is still pretty amazing and people will see that when they come out Saturday night.”

Familiar faces

Only four Preds players entered the season with arena football experience, including three that remain on roster from the 2019 team. That’s made for a steep learning curve for both coaches and players since workouts began May 24.

“We signed two guys from the corner 7-Eleven and we got one guy from the local Chevy dealership,” Bennett joked this week. “I don’t know hardly any of them, and hardly any of them know me, but they’re willing to work hard, and the harder they work the better we’ll get.”

Quarterback Brian Hicks has thrown for 398 yards with 12 touchdowns and one interception in the first two games of the season. He accounted for 7 TD passes last week during a 52-40 road win against the Jacksonville Sharks, the 2019 NAL champions.

Fullback and linebacker Desmond Maxwell scored on a 25-yard reception during a 55-40 loss at the Columbus Lions two weeks ago.

Offensive lineman Darius Tolbert has not yet made an appearance this season. Newcomer Freddie Booth, a fullback and defensive lineman, had one solo tackle vs. Columbus.

Early standouts

Josh Jenkins and D.J. Myers emerged as playmakers for the Preds over the past two games and have already earned recognition this season as NAL defensive players of the week.

Jenkins, who Bennett called “one of the best defensive backs in the league,” has intercepted two passes, broken up three pass attempts and compiled 12 total tackles.

Myers celebrated his birthday Tuesday after coming up big on both sides of the ball last Friday at Jacksonville. A wide receiver by trade, Myers was on the receiving end of five touchdowns passes and recorded one interception while lining up at linebacker for the first time. He now has 12 catches for 151 yards and seven scores.

“When somebody goes down [with injury] someone has to step in there, and D.J. did an amazing job with that,” Bennett said.

Looking ahead

The six-team NAL regular season concludes with the Predators hosting the Carolina Cobras at Amway Center on Saturday, July 31.

The Preds host rival Jacksonville on Friday, July 2, and the Jersey Flight on Saturday, July 10, in other games scheduled to be played in Orlando.

Remaining road games for the Preds take place June 25 at Jersey and July 17 at Carolina.

“We are now fighting both the pandemic and the inertia of what the team had become, and we’re trying to overcome all of that. We’re doing it one fan at a time,” Bennett said. “Once we get them back through the door, it’s our responsibility to put on a good show and have a good football team, and people will come back.”

This article originally appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email J.C. Carnahan at jcarnahan@orlandosentinel.com.