The Idaho Horsemen are a professional indoor football team based out of

Nampa, Idaho Nampa () is the most populous city in Canyon County, Idaho, United States. The population was 100,200 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is Idaho's List of cities in Idaho, third-most populous city. Nampa is about west of Boise, Id ...

, with home games at the

Ford Idaho Center The Ford Idaho Center is a complex of sports and entertainment venues in Nampa, Idaho, approximately west of Boise. About The Ford Idaho Center Arena is best known for rodeo. It annually hosts the Snake River Stampede, considered one of the na ...

. They are owned by Chris Reynolds from Platinum Events & Security LLC. In 2019, the team owners founded the

American West Football Conference The American West Football Conference (AWFC) was a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2018 by Platinum Events & Security, LLC, the owners of the Idaho Horsemen. The league's inaugural season was in 2019. Players were ...

. They joined the

National Arena League The National Arena League (NAL) is a professional indoor football league that began play in 2017. As of the end of the 2024 season, the league consisted of five teams. A team's typical payroll budget is $600,000 per season, but as of the 2022 ...

before the 2024 season.

History

The Horsemen were first announced by owner Chris Reynolds in late 2017, with the expressed interest in joining either the

Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional indoor American football league in the United States. The league comprises 14 teams, divided equally between the Eastern Conference (EC) and Western Conference ...

Champions Indoor Football Champions Indoor Football (CIF) was a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) and Lone Star Football League (LSFL), plus one team fr ...

. However, due to instability with both leagues, Reynolds took a "wait-and-see approach" before making a decision with the intent to start play in 2019. On October 15, 2018, the Horsemen announced that they had started their own league, the

, and added three other teams to the league, the Reno Express, the Tri-Cities Fire, and Wenatchee Valley Skyhawks. On March 23, 2019, the Idaho Horsemen played their first game at the Ford Idaho Center in front of 2054 spectators against the Wenatchee Valley Skyhawks. The Horsemen scored on their first drive in five plays on a run by quarterback Hayden Wright. The Horsemen went on to win 33–22. The Horsemen went undefeated in their first season at 12–0 and earned the right to host the AWFC championship game. They defeated the Reno Express 40–20 to win the league championship. Prior to the planned start of the 2020 AWFC season, the Tri-Cities Fire folded leading to the Horsemen announcing they would play an independent schedule. The league then tried to move forward with three teams — Idaho, Wenatchee, and the expansion Yakima Canines — following the withdrawal of the Reno Express from the league with non-league teams filling for the newly vacant dates. The AWFC then postponed the 2020 season due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and then cancelled the season entirely due to the unavailability of arenas during the pandemic. After winning the 2023 AWFC championship, the Horsemen were announced as joining the

(NAL) for the 2024 season.

Season-by-season records

Current roster

Staff

Head coaches

References

External links

Official website

American West Football Conference website
{{AWFC American football teams in Idaho American football teams established in 2018 2018 establishments in Idaho Nampa, Idaho