Georgia Rampage
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|
| Founded | 2011 |
|---|---|
| League |
UIFL (2012–2013) X-League (2014–2015) |
| Team history | Rome River Dogs (planning stages) Rome Rampage (2012) Georgia Rampage (2013–present) |
| Based in | Dalton, Georgia |
| Arena | Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center |
| Colors | Red and Black |
| Owner(s) | Amer W. Awad & Kacee Smith |
| Head coach | Mark Branutt |
| General manager | Kacee Smith |
| Championships | (0) |
| Conference titles | (0) |
| Playoff berths | (0) |
The Georgia Rampage are a professional indoor football team based in Dalton, Georgia. They are members of X-League Indoor Football (X-League). The Rampage joined the X-League in 2014, after a few members of the Ultimate Indoor Football League (UIFL) had planned on making a new league. The Rampage originally began play in 2012 as an expansion team of the UIFL, going by the name of the Rome Rampage. The Rampage plays their home games at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center in Dalton.
The team was initially named the Rome River Dogs, but licensing issues forced the name change (which licensing issues are unknown, however, as the team would have been the first indoor/arena team named the River Dogs, while most notably the Arena Football League had the Grand Rapids Rampage.)
The Rampage was originally based in Rome, Georgia and became Rome's second indoor football team; their first since the Rome Renegades which played in the National Indoor Football League for 2005 and later the American Indoor Football League for 2006 (In both leagues, they went to the championship game, losing both times). The Rampage is Dalton's first indoor football team.
The Rampage is owned by Amer W. Awad and Kacee Smith (who also owns the North Georgia Bulldogs semi-pro team).
On June 7, 2011, Joe Micco was named the first head coach in Rampage history. The Rampage were originally owned by Cecil Van Dyke with Kacee Smith as the general manager. However, a few weeks before the start of the season, Van Dyke was arrested for theft by taking putting the Rampage's season in doubt. After the arrest, Smith did all he could to save the season but was unable to find the funding to do so on a full scale, instead making the team a travel team in order to keep the Rampage name alive. While doing his personal taxes, Smith ran into Amer W. Awad who at the time was the office manager for Liberty Tax Service in Calhoun, Georgia. Awad inquired about potentially becoming a business partner stating he had always wanted to own a football team. After months of dialogue and attending the April 15, 2012 game versus the Eastern Kentucky Drillers, Awad and Smith came to an agreement and became business partners moving the team to Dalton. The partnership will officially begin with the 2013 season.
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