Season 5
General Manager: sonrises

Siffridus Draken traded in a blockbuster deal involving Zach Ertz (+STR,Dodge,MBlow)
Kawann Short selected n.11 (Block,Guard,Mighty Blow) DEAD S.5
Akeem Spence selected n.32 (Block,Pro) TRADED S.7
Kenny Vaccaro traded in for n.75 & n.69 -D6- (+STR,Block,Mighty Blow) DEAD S.5
Jensen Foster along n.88 -D6- for n.47 (Mighty Blow,Jump Up) TRADED & DEAD S.7
Caleb Sturgis selected n.100 (Fend,Kick) DEAD S.5
Robert Johnson traded in for n.80 -D6- + Unitas (Block,Guard,Leader,Acc,-AG) DEAD S.6
Sofia Varvankova traded in for n.118 -D6- (Fend,Side Step) DEAD S.6
Konstantinos 'Laskas' Laskaridis traded in for n.116 -D6- (Dodge)
Ryan Cook selected FA DEAD S.6
Jeremy Zuttah selected FA RETIRES S.5

Season 4
General Manager: sonrises

Ed Stinson traded in for n.13 (+STR,Block) DEAD S.7
Zach Ertz selected n.18 (+AG,Dodge) Traded out start s5 & back mid s5 DEAD S.7
James Darling traded in for n.74 (Mighty Blow,Guard) DEAD S.4
Jeff Rodenberger traded in for n.108 & n.136 (+MA,Block,Sprint)
Everett Dawkins selected n.118 (Fend,Side Step) DEAD S.6
Chet Adams traded in for a swap of future 4ths (Block) TRADED S.6
Johnathon Nelson traded in for Randy Bullocks (+MA,Block,Guard,-AG) RETIRES S.5
Busta Anderson traded in for n.112 -D5- (Mighty Blow) DEAD S.6
Garrett Gilkey traded in for n.122 -D5- (Guard) DEAD S.4
Breno Giacomini selected FA on waivers

Season 5
Regular Season:
A very good (4-2-1) in the 2nd half of the season lead us to a final .563 (7-4-5) record -best record in this franchise young history-. Mid-season signings bring much needed quality to the roster. Grizzlies final push falls a bit short to make the playoffs.
However, team pays a high toll throughout this final push for Playoffs. Guard squad is shrunk to minimum levels after losses of Kawann Short, Johnathon Nelson and Robert Griffin. Draft & Trade will need to make up for this among other things...no brainer.
***
Robbert Graaf predicts who makes playoff in SHC. Week 13-14. Here what he says about Grizzlies. "But what about the Jeanne D'Arc of the league. The beloved Grizzlies, always fighting the odds. They are in the hunt, and before the season I hailed them as a dark horse for the playoff. And a darkhorse they are! They have upgraded the team in midseason window, but I fear it will not be enough. They will miss the playoff with a close margin. Vikings, Sluggers and Gunners are the final 3 games for Grizzlies. They will make 1,5 or 2 wins and it will not be enough."
***
Let's check ARC Mid-season review:"17. Praag Grizzlies: The Grizz (+6) front office made quite a few moves at the mid-season window. Acquiring arguably one of the best all around players in the league in Zach Ertz (3 Comps, 4 TDs, 7 CAS) should make a good team even better. Currently just 4 points back from the Wild Card. Can this team make the playoff push?"
***
Trade window closes before the start of season 5.3 and Grizzlies shock the market by trading back home Grizzlies fan favourite Zach Ertz.
Coaching staff is really happy after the signing of season one veteran Robert Johnson too. He is expected to lead the Guard corps and replace Griffin who's been forced into retirement due to multiple perm injuries.
Intriguing prospect, Konstantinos 'Laskas' Laskaridis from Los Cabos, has the potential to develope into a special player...if he makes it and survive LOS duties while learning the right skills.
Finnally, from CCC comes the first female to join the Grizzlies ranks...Sofia Varvankova. LOS specialist with expert positioning to negate one turn attempts.
On the way out, Grizzlies trade Unitas to Cardinals in the Johnson deal and Mick "The Slugga" Kabluski to Knights in the highest transfer fee received by the greens in their short history.
Overall, exciting signings this midseason where Grizzlies managment has assembled together the best team ever in this franchise history. Let's see how it unfolds...
***
Grizzlies get to midseason with a .444 (3-2-4) record. A bit dissapointing to be honest. Uninspired coaching against White Wolves and Knights, plain bad coaching agaisnt Vikings and nuffled against Manticores and Marauders equals to a not good first half of the season. Although underperforming, team feels like is closing the gap against the big powerhouses. The greens are still a step down though but ... closing in. Let's see if this trend confirms in the second half of the season.
***
After week 4 game, we get hold of DIE FAUSCHLAG NACHRICTEN and we get a nice game review in the Monday Morning Blitz! article signed by Bigf. Bigf writes: "We saw a pack of rampaging Grizzlies come South down to Carroburg. These angry bears from Praag, sacked the CCC ball carier in the first half and ground out a perfect drive to set up then up for receiving in the second half. Despite their best efforts (a RIP and MNG) the CCC couldn’t stop the score in the second half, though a last turn TD was a consolation. Grizzlies now 2/1/1 and looking a playoff contender".
***
We get to the first break with a (1-1-0) record. Team has been playing quite well. New signings Spence and Vaccaro have clicked with the team very fast. Bad news? One dead and two niggles in 2 games...unlucky. Week 2 ARC Rankings are released and team rises 3 spots to #23... "The Grizz come out of the first batch with no losses. Respectable results but on a 4th place schedule. Let's see what the Bears can do once they play stiffer competition".
***
Let's check out Press comments on Grizzlies after week 2. To start off, we get a very positive mention in the interview with coach SpecialOne published by DIE FAUSCHLAG NACHRICTEN. Coach SpecialOne goes "I would point to the Grizzlies as a dark horse in SHC. they have an excellent coach. Very good trader, and plays some solid ball.". Additionally, Carroburg Tageszeitung publishes its annual Assesing SHC North after week 2. Günther Schiele writes “For third place in the division, we are somewhat sad to say that we believe Grizzlies will beat our Crimson heroes once again. They have improved their squad considerably, and combine veterans like Amaro and Kabluski with new eager players like Siffridus Draken from the Eagles and Kawann Short from the draft. Half the team has mighty blow, and almost everyone has Block, so they will surely make an impact on the opponents. The coach has improved his skills as well, and plays a well developed positional game.”
Draft & Preseason:
Pre-season reviews are out and we get #26 in ARC Rankings...After the fortune we spent in offseason! :P. Coach sonrises head my be on stake if these Rankings get it right. Arcayn writes:
"I can only imagine coach sonrises reaction when he reads these rankings. I can imagine that he thinks his Grizzlies deserve to be much higher on this list. I, however, feel that following the "Quik-Flix" method of Roster Management will be as successful as it was in Remas last season. 8 MB might look nice on the roster, but it will not win you many games. The Cubs have gained some bite, but have no one to help Amaro with the ball handling duties".
DLE Active coaches winning % Rankings are plublished later this very same day. Coach sonrises stands #17 out of 27 coaches qualifying.
***
Grizzlies spending this offseason has been the highest in this franchise young history. Season 4 top performer Zach Ertz is traded along multiple picks in a Blockbuster deal that brings Eagles Super Blitzer, Siffridus Draken, to Praag. Besides this, long time target, Kenny Vaccaro, is finnally leaving Templehof to join Grizzlies and former Rangers Jensen Foster will cover the departure of local talent Dan Wetherspoon.
During DraftDay, team manages to keep two 1st rounders and take on board Top Lino Kawann Short and a rare pro prospect in Ogre Akeem Spence. Late 3rd rounder Caleb Sturgis rounds up the team and take LOS duties.
Overall, management has gathered the best team ever wearing the green shirt.... but teams around the league look like they have improved a lot too.... so, we will see!
Season 4
Regular Season:
Mediocre 2nd half of the season with a .357 (2-1-4) record to end regular season at .469 (5-5-6). We were quite unlucky in some particular games this second half. We think we deserved better results vs Vikings and Classics...and we received a big dicing against CCC. Sadly, franchise player Lee Roy Salmon dies in that cursed game vs CCC.
Overall, team meet basic expectations and main core of players keep growing. Let's see how we can improve the team during Draft & Trade...
***
Mid season break and team gets there with a .566 record (3-4-2). Grizzlies are performing a bit over expectations. Great win against dopped Rangers and only loses from games against powerhouses Greenskins and Wolfskins. On the down side, Stinson injury after a gfi, very unlucky.
Managment take mid season trade window opportunity to trade for cheap but pretty useful players. Grizz bring in GUARDS Johnathon Nelson, Garrett Gilkey and MIGHTY hitter Busta Anderson. Moreover, Grizz traded away Hamilton and Abraham as they were not fitting new scheme and in doing so Grizz were able to grab some very useful draft 6 capital in exchange.
Grizzlies are not ready yet to really compete against the powerhouse teams in DLE. Grizzlies belong to the mid pack right now...
***
First 2 season games before the divisional break and 2 wins! Good! However, season doesn't look promising. We had the best team on the field in these 2 games and we managed to pull 2 wins but team is still trying to get used to new playbook and team mates. We made some bad mistakes in both games but nuffle forgave us this time. From now on, most teams will be stronger than ours...some even ridiculously stronger! Let's try to survive...
On a less dramatic note, Grizzlies had a good review in the Carroburg Tageszeitung. Reporter Günther, who in the past was quite critic with the Grizzlies, shows a more sympathetic approach to the Grizzlies project. He writes in this Assessing the SHC North article "Grizzlies had close to a 0.500 rating last season, and they have made the best draft improvement of all the teams in the division, slightly better than the Vikings, so they have a good team, only slightly lower rated than the Crimson Cascade. They have better star players, though, in pro bowl players Jace Amaro and Lee Roy Salmon, and they have convinced so far, with victories against the Sharks and the Bruisers. They are consistently underrated as well, so maybe, is this the season where they will actually show the finger to all self-professed experts and take out their full potential?”
***
Grizzlies Schedule has been released and...wow! this is gonna be a tough season! We have to play 3 games against 2 MegaKiller teams (Wolfskins and Patriots). Another 5 games against teams with multiple +STR/+AG on their rosters. And the remaining 8 games against teams as good as the Grizz. Let's hope our core players manage to survive...
Pre-Season Press Round up: Grizzlies get #26 in JR Power Rankings. #27 in ARC Power rankings. Arcayn writes "Grizzlies are thin. They lack depth. They lack enough statistical enhancements to be true ballers or true killers. I am not sure the team has a real direction at this point. And that is particularly bad in the division they live in". Coach sonrises is rated 26th coach in 12 panel poll. Grizzlies are rated 26th team in the same poll.
Conclusion: Praag is too far up north and too small a market to have good reviews from the mainstream media...hehehe

Draft & Preseason:
Grizz Management have been quite active trading for players before Draft and seems to be quite happy with the outcome: James Darling, Ed Stinson and Jeff Rodenberger will join the team. Three picks were left for Draft day...and team went for Blitzer Zach Ertz at #18 and LOS specialist Everett Dawkins at #111. Finnally Grizzlies traded for more LOS specialists and brought in Chet Adams.
Overall, a good draft for Grizzlies who manage to keep 11 picks for Draft 5 together with 6 new faces for season 4. Guard ranks have been improved, first +STR4 player in Grizz history makes the team, a future replacement for Amaro has been found and fast catchers added to the team too. It is clearly an improvement but DLE teams are growing as fast or even faster than Grizz squad and it doesn't look like the team is ready for play-off yet. Divisional rivals are very strong and Grizz scheduele has been rated 17th toughest in the league. Title contenders rosters are far more developed than ours...fielding lots of +stats and real game changers players.
There is some room for hope though...if we manage to come victorious from first games and key players survive...team may grow and develope to an interesting level quite quick as many players are close to skill up...we will see.

Season 3
Regular Season:
A (4-0-3) to end the season. No much more to add to previous entries. Team is not ready to compete yet but it is making progress in the right direction.
***
It is mid-season break and the team is not doing well (1-4-4). The main problem is the lack of +STR players. All contenders play 2-4 of those and we have none. This is something we MUST adress next draft. In addition, we are still missing enough Guard players although we could develope one of our blitzers. Add up lack of +STR and shortness of Guard...outcome: we have no chance to really compete vs most teams in DLE. One critic to coach sonrises performance this season is his lack of knowledge on one-turn tactics. Coach sonrises has overlooked the art of one-turning for his whole career...but in DLE, this knowledge is a MUST have. Coach sonrises seems to be improving in his one-turn tactics. Finnally, we are ranked #28 in the DLE Power Rankings Season3. JR writes "These guys will bounce back, but it’s just not their year. They have the right skills, but they’re not in the right places"...well, No comment ;)
***
Carroburg Tageszeitung's reporter, Günther, is quite critic whith Grizz performance in this A look at Season 3 for SHC North article...quite arrogant & cocky i must say, kind of looking down on us...well, season is long and who laughs the last...
2 games and 2 losses to start. Team can't take any hits and we play both games outnumbered from the very start...(-27 and -26 turns played in those games plus two perm injuries). Funny thing is that the ones staying on the pitch are the low armour players! Unbelievable!
Draft & Preseason:
We could finnally adress the lack of killers with the signing of two PO players and extra MB. However, we couldn't find the right PO+Tackle prospect we were hoping for.
Team is still missing key basic skills and this upcoming season 3 looks like is going to be brutal! We expect plenty of blood and casualties, at least, during the first half of the season. Teams are really bloated for the season opener.
In an attempt to anticipate the consequences of this development in DLE, Grizzlies managment decided to trade most of Draft 3 rights for Draft 4 rights. Grizzlies have 11 picks for Draft 4 night...if our assumption on DLE season 3 bloody trend confirms...these 11 picks could give us an edge for season 4...we will see.

Season 2
Regular Season:
Wild season for the Grizzlies. Very difficult start with a (1-2-3) record. However, the team was playing much better than what final scores suggested. Team was causing turnovers but couldn't convert them into TDs due to all kinds of unfortunate plays. Moreover, if facing one turners...well...they just unstoppable... if stalling for the win...a hero sidestepper appears and takes 12 blocks unscratched to save his team...and so on and on and on.
Overall, Grizzlies finish season with a feeling that with a bit of luck they could have improved final (5-4-5) record and make it to Play-off...
Draft & Preseason:
Team is not built to coach sonrises' liking. First assessment and it is clear that the team is lacking "Hitters". Not a single player in the roster could be considered a true hitter. Additionally, there is a lack of GUARD and TACKLE skills too. Draft was regarded as crucial to fix the mess but...surprise! 1st round rights had been traded!! We only had 2 middle/late 2nd round picks available to adress the situation. Grizz managment did thier best to bring some Guard and Tackle skills to the mix...but we could not get enough of those skills and the killer was still missing. Season didn't look promising at all.