Orlando Pirates (IFL)
American indoor football team
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Orlando Pirates are a professional indoor football team based in Orlando, Florida, area that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The team plays its home games at Kia Center. They began play in the 2018 season as the Massachusetts Pirates and as a member of the National Arena League (NAL).
| Orlando Pirates | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Current season | |||
| |||
| General information | |||
| Founded | 2017 | ||
| Headquartered | Orlando, Florida | ||
| Colors | Teal, navy, gold, white | ||
| Mascot | Arthur | ||
| Website | orlandopirates | ||
| Personnel | |||
| Owners | Hassan Yatim Jawad Yatim Giovanny Olarte Nayrouz Olarte | ||
| General manager | Jawad Yatim | ||
| Head coach | Rod Windsor | ||
| President | Jawad Yatim | ||
| Team history | |||
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| Home fields | |||
Kia Center (2025–present)
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| League / conference affiliations | |||
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| Championships | |||
| League championships: 1 | |||
Conference championships: 1
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| Playoff appearances (6) | |||
The Pirates were the first indoor or arena football team to call Lowell home. Before moving to Lowell, the Pirates were based in Worcester, Massachusetts, and played their home games at the DCU Center. The Pirates were the third indoor/arena team to call Worcester home, following the Massachusetts Marauders of the Arena Football League (1994) and the New England Surge of the Continental Indoor Football League (2007–2008). And they are the first team to play in Orlando since the Orlando Predators, who played in the original Arena Football League (1991–2016), the NAL and the failed reboot of the AFL (2024).
History
National Arena League (2017–2019)
After numerous speculation beforehand, the Massachusetts Pirates were officially announced as members of the NAL on November 15, 2017.[1] The team began play in the 2018 season. The Pirates won their inaugural game, played at the DCU Center on April 7, defeating the Maine Mammoths 51–24. They were led most of the season by quarterback Sean Brackett until the second-to-last regular season game where he was injured for the remainder of the season in a 46–35 loss to the Jacksonville Sharks, who then took over the top seed in the NAL. Darron Thomas started the following week in 67–7 win over the win-less Lehigh Valley Steelhawks; following a Sharks loss to the Mammoths the Pirates secured the top seed and a home game in the 2018 playoffs. The team finished their inaugural season with a regular season record of 11–5 but lost the semifinal playoff game to the Columbus Lions 50–36. After the season, inaugural head coach Ameer Ismail was hired as the head coach of the San Diego Strike Force expansion team in the Indoor Football League,[2] but then joined the NAL's Carolina Cobras instead.[3]
For the 2019 season, offensive coordinator Anthony Payton was named the head coach.[4] The team finished in third place with an 8–6 record and qualified for the playoffs. They lost the semifinal game to the Carolina Cobras 30–26.
Following the 2019 season, the NAL announced it was creating a new league via a merger with Champions Indoor Football. The Pirates announced it did not agree with the merger and withdrew from the league.[5] Head coach Payton then left to become head coach of the Carolina Cobras and was replaced by Patrick Pass. Two weeks after the announced merger, it was dissolved and the Pirates rejoined the NAL.[6] The 2020 season was then cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic making arenas unavailable. The team was removed from the NAL when it was not offered an extension on its initial three-year membership agreement[7] while the team was openly looking to join other leagues.[8]
Indoor Football League (2021–present)
On August 19, 2020, the Pirates announced that they were joining the Indoor Football League for the 2021 season as its first East Coast-based team and had signed a three-year lease extension with the DCU Center.[9] The Pirates finished in second place following the regular season and defeated the regular season champion, the Arizona Rattlers, in the United Bowl to win their first league championship.
In 2022, head coach Pass transitioned to become the director of football personnel development for the Pirates and defensive coordinator Rayshaun Kizer was promoted to head coach.[10] The Pirates finished the season with a record of 11–5 in the regular season and fell to the Quad City Steamwheelers in the first round of the IFL playoffs in OT 39–38. Four players were selected to the All-IFL team at the end of the season. Defensive back Aarion Maxey-Penton and wide receiver Thomas Owens received First All-IFL team honors while defensive lineman Da'Sean Downey and offensive lineman Roubbens Joseph received Second All-IFL team honors.[11]
On November 6, 2023, the Pirates announced that they had signed a multi-year lease with the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell beginning with the 2024 season.[12] On October 18, 2025, the team announced that they were "leaving Massachusetts" after seven seasons.[13]
Move to Orlando (2026–present)
On November 17, 2025, they announced they are moving from Lowell, Massachusetts (Tsongas Center) to Orlando, Florida. They will play in the Kia Center.[14]
Personnel
Roster
|
Quarterbacks
Running Backs Wide Receivers
Offensive Linemen
|
Defensive Linemen
Linebackers
Defensive Backs
|
Special Teams
|
Staff
|
Front office
Head coaches
Offensive coaches
Defensive coaches
|
Source:[15]
Statistics
Season-by-season results
| League champions | Conference champions | Playoff berth | League leader |
| Season | League | Conference | Regular season | Postseason results | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | Wins | Losses | Ties | ||||
| 2018 | NAL | 1st | 11 | 5 | 0 | Lost semifinal (Columbus) 36–50 | |
| 2019 | NAL | 3rd | 8 | 6 | 0 | Lost semifinal (Carolina) 26–30 | |
| 2020 | NAL | Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||||
| 2021 | IFL | 2nd | 11 | 3 | 0 | Won first round (Bismarck) 44–19 Won semifinal (Frisco) 43–22 Won United Bowl (Arizona) 37–34 | |
| 2022 | IFL | Eastern | 2nd | 11 | 5 | 0 | Lost quarterfinals (Quad City) 38–39 |
| 2023 | IFL | Eastern | 3rd | 9 | 6 | 0 | Lost quarterfinals (Sioux Falls) 39–42 |
| 2024 | IFL | Eastern | 3rd | 8 | 8 | 0 | Won first round (Frisco) 53–50 Won semifinal (Green Bay) 51–28 Lost IFL National Championship (Arizona) 16–53 |
| 2025 | IFL | Eastern | 5th | 7 | 9 | 0 | |
| Totals | 65 | 42 | 0 | All-time regular season record | |||
| 5 | 5 | — | All-time postseason record | ||||
| 70 | 47 | 0 | All-time regular season and postseason record | ||||
Head coaches
| Name | Term | Regular season | Playoffs | Awards | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | T | Win% | W | L | |||
| Ameer Ismail | 2018; 2025 (Did not coach) | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 0 | 1 | |
| Anthony Payton | 2019 | 8 | 6 | 0 | .571 | 0 | 1 | |
| Patrick Pass | 2020–2021 | 11 | 3 | 0 | .786 | 3 | 0 | 2021 United Bowl Champion |
| Rayshaun Kizer | 2022 | 11 | 5 | 0 | .647 | 0 | 1 | |
| Mark Stoute | 2023 | 9 | 6 | 0 | .600 | 0 | 1 | |
| Rod Miller | 2024 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 2 | 1 | 2024 IFL National Championship Finalist |
| Fred Griggs | 2025 | 2 | 3 | 0 | .400 | 0 | 0 | |
| Tom Menas | 2025 | 5 | 6 | 0 | .454 | 0 | 0 | |
