The NEPA Miners are counting down the hours until their opening kickoff Saturday night, 7pm at Scranton Memorial Stadium; only one more film session and practice to go. The NEPA Miners will be hosting the Schuylkill County Coal Crackers in their 2nd Annual Anthracite Classic. Tickets for the game are available online or at The Mall at Steamtown in Scranton. Scroll down to the bottom of our main page to watch the WNEP 16 Miners Season Preview and stay tuned this week for the 2008 NEPA Miners Roster to be updated online. The NEPA Miners had an outstanding first season going 8-4, making the playoffs and being voted the Best New Team on the East Coast by Minor League Football News. After a switch to the Regional American Football League which also received award recognition by being voted Best New League by Minor League Football News, the Miners have had a strong off-season. The team believes they were only a few key pieces away from making a title run last year are on a mission to take their team to the next level in season two. On offense the Miners have added running back Mahmoud Elbattah from Millersville University and Wide Receiver Josh Steely from Rowan University to an already strong skill set of players for the Miners. The Defense which had a stellar 2007 has reloaded with Defensive Back Craig Haywood from Kings College who was playing Arena Football last season and Defensive Tackle Eyad Elbattah from Lackawanna College. Many other Miners rookies are making a name for themselves in camp along with a veteran crew that has played together for a while and have their hearts set on bringing home a championship. Only time will tell how far the team can go but they know to take it one game at a time and it starts this week as they look to protect the Coal Miners Trophy that they won 44-14 last season. The Coal Crackers seek revenge and boast a strong offense led by Quarterback Chuck Andrew and a veteran defense led by Joe Zelonis. The Miners are also proud to announce the additions of former WNEP 16 sports anchor Paul Grippi and the Voice of the Yankees John Davies who will anounce various Miners games. The Miners Girls Entertainment Team is reloading with local talent, Buttons the Clown returns with her new Black & Gold Miners outfit, Karen Pepe will sing our opening night National Anthem. The team will have the Mayor Of Scranton and the Lackawanna County Commissioners at upcoming games and different half time entertainment throughout the season. Year one was fun and year two will be even better for our fans, we look forward to seeing you Saturday. Miners players will be available for autographs after the game. GO MINERS!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 and is filed under Miners News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.