Whittier College’s Memorial Stadium will be the official training facility for Arena Football League (AFL) expansion team the Los Angeles KISS. The team held its first practice on Saturday with 35 players competing for the 25 spots on the team’s regular-season roster.
“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to partner with the LA KISS and to play a role in bringing professional football back to the greater Los Angeles area,” said Whittier College Director of Athletics Robert Coleman.
Former Poet football players Kimble Tillman ’13 and Dameron Fooks ’13 are expected to try out for the KISS in the coming weeks. In 2013, Tillman played with the Utah Blaze AFL team. Both players participated in the NFL combine last spring and were chosen for the 2012 All-American Bowl that is comprised of the country's top senior collegiate players.
Moreover, the Whittier campus will be featured in a new AMC reality show documenting the LA KISS’s inaugural season. The show will include team owners and namesakes, KISS frontmen Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and is scheduled to air in August at the conclusion of the season.
In addition to rock stars Simmons and Stanley, the Anaheim-based expansion team is co-owned by long-time KISS band manager Doc McGhee and veteran AFL executive Brett Bouchy.
The KISS was built through an expansion draft, trades, and finding players from other AFL teams or who used to play in the NFL who would then sign contracts with the league and be assigned to the KISS.
The best-known KISS player is quarterback Colt Brennan who set 31 major college records at the University of Hawaii and finished third in voting for the Heisman Trophy in 2007. Brennan spent two seasons with the Washington Redskins and in the training camps of the Oakland Raiders and Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.
The KISS will open its season March 15 at San Antonio, play at Orlando March 21, and then face the Portland Thunder in its home opener April 5 at the Honda Center. Whittier College will have a branded area of stands in the upper bowl of the Honda Center with gratis tickets for students, alumni, and friends of the College. A sweepstakes for these seats will commence shortly in time for the first home game in April. More information will be posted on this page when available.
Click here for more info on the LA KISS.
Founded by Quakers in 1887, Whittier College is an independent, four-year college offering a traditional liberal arts program integrated with both professional and pre-professional courses of study. With an emphasis on diversity, community, and curricular innovation, the College’s primary mission is to endow students with the education, skills, and values appropriate for global leadership and service. Whittier College is a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI).
Whittier Law School, which is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools, is located on a separate campus in Orange County.
