Mississippi Spartans arena team opens season on Friday

The Mississippi Spartans arena football team, which is scheduled to play its home games in the Neshoba County Coliseum, will open its season Friday in Texas.

The Spartans had been scheduled to open last Friday in Kansas but that was canceled due to problems with the facility, team president and general manager Charles Roberts said.

“We are kicking off this Friday,” Roberts said. “The team has been practicing in Jackson and we are looking forward to starting the season.”

Roberts said the team was looking for a place to practice in Philadelphia, and for office space.

The Spartans will play their first home game Saturday,  April 23, against the Wichita Force. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m.

Arena football will be a new version to a beloved sport here in Neshoba County. The field in arena football is much smaller than NFL and college football, according to Internet sources. The field is 85-feet wide but only 50-feet long, half the length of other football fields. This field structure produces many more points and scoring opportunities. The out-of-bounds area is distinguished by hockey-style walls around the field.

The Spartans will play in the Arena Football Association. The league is in its second season and the Spartans are one of two new teams in the league.

The season kicks off this weekend and the League’s championship game, The Carrier Cup, slated to be contested in July aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, which is stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas.