Both participants in the 2009 MCFL Championship Game, the Kings Comets and Columbus Fire, have been invited play in national bowl games in Florida. The MCFL champion Comets will face the Monroe County (NY) Sting (12-1) of the Northeastern Football Alliance in the 2009 USA Bowl 3A/DI National Championship on Saturday, January 16 at Harris Field Sports Complex in Homestead, just south of Miami. At noon the following day, the Fire will face the Orlando Rage in the Florida Bowl in Deland as part of the National Football Events 2010 National Bowl Weekend.

The Mid-Continental Football League (MCFL) has announced the 2009 All Conference selections with first team, second team, third team and honorable mention categories. The league includes representation covering five states: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Kentucky. The MCFL has also announced its Most Valuable Player of the Year, Offensive and Defensive MVP, Coach and Executive of the Year.

Quarterback Antwaun Gibbs of the Columbus Fire and quarterback/receiver Dominick Goodman of the Kings Comets each led their respective teams to an 8-0 regular season record and will share the league’s most prestigious annual award, the Most Valuable Player of the Year. Gibbs led the league with 17 passing touchdowns and finished second in rushing touchdowns with six. Goodman, who split his time between quarterback and receiver, was amongst the leaders with 319 passing yards and five touchdowns and finished second among receivers with 24 catches for 455 yards. Goodman also ran for 181 yards and scored nine touchdowns, six receiving and three rushing. Brandon Williams of the Indiana Mustangs earned the Offensive Player of the Year award after leading the MCFL with 29 receptions for 728 yards and 10 touchdowns, scoring a league-best 62 points. Columbus Fire defensive tackle Mike Cross was named the Defensive Player of the Year. Cross led a defense that allowed fewer than 10 points per game, recording at least one sack in each game he played while finishing with 14 tackles for a loss and forcing a league-best three fumbles.

The Coach of the Year went to Brian Wells of the MCFL Champion Kings Comets. Wells led the Comets to the biggest turnaround in MCFL history. Wells took over a team that went 1-7 in the league each of the two previous seasons and guided it to an 8-0 record and the team’s first MCFL championship. Scott Beard of the Southern Michigan Timberwolves earned Executive of the Year honors, helping Southern Michigan to its best overall record since 1999.

“It is through the effort of its players and organizations that the MCFL is able to maintain its high quality of competition each and every year,” remarked MCFL President Dan Wright. “We appreciate the efforts of every player and staff member, and it is an honor to recognize their achievements.” Wright went on to explain the process used to identify the league's top players. The league receives player nominations by position from each team owner. This information is then consolidated into a ballot by position, and each team votes for players by position although each team is prohibited from voting for players from its own team. A mathematical model identifies the highest-ranked players by position. The committee also tries to ensure that all teams are appropriately recognized and the selections are weighted based on the team's success each year.

Following are the league's First Team, Second Team, Third Team and Honorable Mention selections by position:

With the fate of the 2009 Mid-Continental Football League Championship Game resting on a 31-yard Eric Schnatz field goal attempt with 25 seconds remaining, Kings Comets head coach Brian Wells had simple advice for his team.

“I said block it,” Wells said. “We’ve got to shoot the ‘A’ gaps in the middle of the field. People were like let’s wide rush. The quickest way is up the middle. We’ll put Hop (James Frazier) and Phil (Barnett) in there and (Tommy) Sewell and (Sean) Middlebrooks. Middlebrooks holds the record for most blocked field goals in a season. We have guys who can get some pressure up the middle and that’s what we needed.”

The Comets got what they needed, and the blocked field goal secured a 16-14 victory over the Columbus Fire at Grove City Christian School in Columbus on Saturday and the team’s first league championship in its eighth season of play.

Preliminary indications were that the push was strong enough to cause the ball to be blocked by the back of one of the Fire players, although it appears James Spikes may have also gotten a hand on the ball.

Regardless, the play made a winner of the Comets and Travis Johnson, the game’s Most Valuable Player, who was in a similar situation to Schnatz moments earlier.

“You’re either a goat or you’re a hero. You’re either going to be the guy everybody hates or everybody likes,” Johnson said. “I’m lucky we were a winner.”

Johnson converted a 48-yard field goal, his third in three tries, with 2:33 remaining in the game to give the Comets’ their 16-14 lead.

Johnson had suggested the Comets go for the first down with less than a yard to go on fourth down from the 31, but Wells’ confidence in Johnson won out.

“Earlier the wind had been blowing that way, and it’s 30 degrees outside. That’s not what I would call ideal kicking situations,” Johnson said. “I said we could get closer- it was only a foot, but oh well.”

Wells countered by saying, “I’d rather take the chance with the field goal with Travis’s leg. He’s the best kicker in the league.”

A 45-yard kick return by Mike Tatum and a 28-yard run by Maurice Douse positioned the Fire inside the red zone on their final drive, but Douse was tackled for a loss on consecutive runs and Larry Byndon stopped Antwaun Gibbs on third down to force Columbus’ last-minute field goal attempt.

Byndon, the game’s Defensive MVP with 13 tackles, had just as big a play at the start of the game. Douse ripped off three runs for 41 yards among the first four plays of the game, but on the fifth, Byndon picked off a pass and returned it 62 yards for a touchdown.

“By watching film we saw he likes to throw to the middle of the field a lot,” Byndon said. “So basically, by reading the eyes of the quarterback I made a great play on the ball, and took it back for six.”

Byndon was also one of a number of players who returned to the Comets in an effort to gain a championship for the first time in their long semi-pro football careers.

“It’s been a weight taken off all our shoulders,” Byndon said. “That’s why we came back, for this title. It feels great”

Kings took advantage of another turnover, a punt that hit off Mike Cross as he was blocking downfield, to extend its lead to 10-0 on a 22-yard field goal by Johnson.

Johnson added a 32-yard field goal early in the second quarter, and the Comets appeared poised to add to their lead again when Reggie Jones helped the Fire get back into the game.

With the Comets at the Columbus 18 inside the two minute warning, Jones intercepted a pass in the end zone, got up untouched, and returned the ball out to the Fire 35. Gibbs completed passes of 28 yards to Ahmona Maxwell and 15 yards to Mike Tatum before finding Douse for a 19-yard touchdown on fourth-and-goal 18 seconds before halftime.

Gibbs was the game’s Offensive MVP with 99 passing yards and 118 rushing yards, while Fire linebacker Cardell Derby won the Sportsman Award after recording 11 tackles.

Gibbs led another scoring drive in the third quarter with a 17-yard pass to Lance Wilson and an 18-yard run. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after an incomplete pass on third-and-nine from the Comets 32 kept the drive going, and Gibbs hit tight end Mark Ratliff for a 10-yard touchdown to put Columbus ahead, 14-13, with 3:47 remaining in the third quarter.

To make matters worse for the Comets, starting quarterback Dominick Goodman appeared to have injured his ankle and had to be replaced by James Frazier.

Frazier had set team records for completions, passing yards, and touchdowns in a season before switching positions with Goodman five games ago, and completed two-of-five passes for 21 yards and ran five times for 26 yards, including three key runs for 17 yards on Kings’ game-winning drive.

“Hop (Frazier) made plays,” Wells said. “I was a little worried, but he made plays.”

The win completes the greatest turnaround by a team in MCFL history, with the Comets going undefeated in MCFL play after finishing 2008 with a 1-7 mark.

“I thought we were going to be in a rebuilding mode, maybe make the playoffs,” said Wells, who returned to his duties as head coach this season after taking the past two years off.

With those expectations exceeded, not even a bout with the flu could keep Wells from missing a chance at winning the championship.

“I couldn’t get out of bed Friday,” Wells said, “but if I was alive I was going to be here.”