Force’s secondary is becoming a primary strength

The hallmark of the Wichita’s indoor football team – first the Wild, now the Force – has traditionally been its defensive line, where players such as James McCartney and Matt Moss have tormented opposing quarterbacks for multiple seasons.

Moss is second in Champions Indoor Football with four sacks and is joined in the top 10 by linebacker Jason Catchings, but the Force is becoming just as star-heavy and dangerous in the secondary.

Wichita recently added NFL veteran and North High product Elbert Mack to a group of defensive backs that included mainstay Kendrick Harper and former Kansas State and Wichita Heights cornerback Dorrian Roberts.

The Force already had the players to pressure quarterbacks, now Wichita can ensure they won’t find safety nets among well-covered receivers.

“We always want ball-hawkers back there,” Force coach Paco Martinez said. “I think the defensive line is doing their job great this year, and that helps ease the burden on the secondary. We’re finally coming together, we’re finally putting all the pieces together.”

Mack played seven seasons in the NFL, including eight games last season before being released by the Houston Texans in late October.

The 28-year-old, who had three interceptions for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2009, played his first game for the Force last week and had an interception in a win over Sioux City.

“He’s friends of a couple of guys on the team, Clarence Anderson and (Brian) Murph,” Martinez said of Mack. “I’d known about him and kept track of him. We saw he got cut last year, and he ends up back in town. It was just one of those things, players knew him and we finally got in contact and he’s like … ‘Yes, I want to come out and play.’

“Obviously we’re going to take an NFL-caliber guy. It’s one thing to say a guy has been on an NFL team, but he’s a six-year veteran and played in the league last year. He’s been a quality guy for us. He came in and he really kind of jelled with the secondary for us.”

Martinez said Mack has used his experience to benefit Wichita’s other secondary players.

“He stepped right into a leadership deal,” Martinez said. “He didn’t kind of come in and do his own thing, he was in there yelling at guys and he picked up all of our stuff really quickly.”

Harper has been the vocal and emotional leader of the secondary – and for other positions – in past seasons and now he has more support with Mack, who has 99 career NFL tackles.

Wichita ranks seventh in the nine-team CIF in pass defense, so the cohesion of a unit that hasn’t played together much remains a work in progress.

“All that’s happened when we give up big plays is one guy messes up and they just happen to find it,” Martinez said. “We’ve been working on eliminating one guy’s making mistakes. Everybody’s made mistakes all throughout the year, but they’re starting to clean it up.”

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Force’s secondary is becoming a primary strength."