As most of you know by now, Orlando Predators Head Coach, Fran Papasedero was killed on Thursday June 19, 2003 at 10:30pm on Sand Lake Road in Orlando in a one-car accident.

We lost a man that has touched many lives in his 34 years on the earth. It is sad that Fran was in the middle of a very successful run as Preds head coach when he left us. He led the Preds through a very rough season in which they lost key players such as Jay Gruden and Travis McGriff to injuries at some point during the season. The Preds had a 12-4 season, due in no small part to Fran's coaching ability.

Fran loved coaching the Preds, I read an article a couple weeks ago by Mike Bianchi from the Orlando Sentinel. Papasedero was quoted to saying "Don't tell anyone, but I wouldn't care if they didn't pay me to do this job". I think it is safe to say the world would be a better place if we had more people like Fran Papasedero in it.

Fran left his young 2 year old daughter, Vivian behind with his death. During all the commotion it came out that Fran had no life insurance to take care of his family if anything was to happen to him.

Last week I attended the Arenabowl, On Friday afternoon before the game I was informed by my good friend and Storm Surge fan club president Will "storminator" Hudson that we would be taking a collection for Vivian to send to the trust fund. As you all know the Preds and Storm are bitter rivals, but it is times like this when the great fans of the AFL pull together. We collected over 400 dollars for young Vivian and have over 200 signatures on a card we made for the Preds "In Your Face" fan club. I will be presenting the fan club with this card at their next meeting as soon as I find out when and where it is.

Last Saturday I was headed over to Tampa again for more arenabowl festivities, all the sudden it got very hard to drive without tears overtaking me. Out of nowhere this perfect phrase hit me and I said it out loud, "Welcome to Jungle Heaven". As most everyone knows the Preds play in the "Jungle" and their theme song is "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns n' Roses. So the card we made for Fran reads "Welcome to Jungle Heaven" at the bottom.

My Favorite part about Fran Papasedero was watching him work the sidelines for the Preds. If a defender made a big play, he would run down the sidelines and let his guy know he appreciates what he did. He included the fans on every play, often waiving us up to get loud. It was Fran's energy and passion for his job that made us all love him so much as our coach.

Coach Papasedero has been named the new head coach of the expansion AFL team in heaven. He will live on in the heart of every true Orlando Predators fan and any fan of the AFL for that matter. He will be sorely missed by the Preds family and all we can do now is pray that young Vivian gets to see how many people loved her father and what a great man he was. To keep his memory alive, I have decided to dedicate a whole page of my website to Fran's memory with pictures I have and short articles I will write.

"Welcome to Jungle Heaven" "Frannie".

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