Rochester Raiders

Rochester Blaze / Berlin Blaze / Berlin Galaxy History - Part 1
	SEASON ONE The Beginning

Current management did not take over the team until well past midseason with the team struggling at a 22-22 win-loss record. Once Coach Williams took control of the reigns and began organizing the team for the first time that season, things started to look bright for the Galaxy.

Berlin won six of their first eight games under their new leader, including winning the first two. During this time a few player transactions took place mostly including only marginal players. One trade included the acquisition of Al Johnson from Roswell. Big Al was earmarked as being a future rebounding king. Alas, he never was able to build up his stamina to be able to play more than sparingly throughout his career. That, and his propensity for committing fouls had him out of the league within a just a few seasons.

The big trade for Berlin saw the team `purchase' Henry “Flair” Jordan from the London Disco after London was found to be in violation of the salary cap rules. The ruling placed on them was that they were given 48 hours to correct the problem. The Galaxy was more than happy to accommodate the Disco by sending a first round pick in return for Jordan, who was the first player awarded an endorsement contract and had his own line of athletic wear. This guy was going to be the future of the franchise!

After all of these transactions, Berlin stumbled thru the final games of the season, losing 5 of their last 10. The good news was that the team, which was not even recognized as a playoff contender when purchased, was able to overtake Maine for the 5th playoff seed.

In the first round of the playoffs, Berlin was to face the New York Firestorm. There has a little bit of badgering back and forth between the coaches of the two teams, and Coach Williams publicly guaranteed that his team would win the series. The Galaxy fell behind two games to one before coming back strong and winning the series with a sound beating in game five.

In the second round, the team was totally outmatched by the heavily favored London Disco. London would go on to the finals. Losing to the eventual conference champion would be come a theme for the franchise.

Berlin had one all-star in the WBA's first season; Shooting Guard, Bobby Shields, who averaged 14.2 points per game while shooting just under 40% from 3pt-range. Jerry Sims would prove to be the team leader, though, as he averaged a team high 17.0 points per game and 10.5 rebounds per game.

BERLIN PLAYERS ON THE WBA LEADER BOARD FOR SEASON 1

Points Per Game	Free Throw Percentage	3 Point Percentage
20) Jerry Sims, 17.0 40) Bobby Shields, 14.2	16) Jud Moses, 84.9% 23) John Brett, 80.0%	24) John Simmons, 39.6%

Off Rebs Per Game	Rebounds Per Game	Assists Per Game
14) Jerry Sims, 2.9	10) Jerry Sims, 10.5	16) Jud Moses, 5.9 22) Henry Jordan, 5.7

Blocked Shots Per Game
14) Jerry Sims, 1.7