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The Fairbanks Grizzlies aren’t salivating about the last-place, 0-6 record of the San Angelo (Texas) Stampede- Express. The Grizzlies don’t have ‘W’s’ dancing in their heads for today’s 7:05 p.m. Intense Football League game at the Carlson Center.

“Our focus is we’re trying to get into the playoffs,” Grizzlies defensive back Devin Dawkins said after Friday night’s practice at the Carlson Center. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, if they’re 0-8 or 0-7, or if they’re 8-0, or whatever. We’re looking for the playoffs, and we’ve got to play one game at a time.”

To Fairbanks head coach John Fourcade, a winless opponent can be a dangerous opponent for the expansion Grizzlies, who are in eighth place at 1-6, just one spot above the Stampede-Express heading into the opener of a four-game, five-week homestand.

“That’s the scary part: when teams don’t win a ball game, they’ve got nothing to lose,” he said. “They’re going to go all to the walls ... they can come out here and do anything, and we’ve got to be surprised for anything they throw at us — trick plays, new players or whatever.”

This season has thrown curve balls at the Stampede-Express.

Jon Lowdermilk was handed the head coaching reigns last week after Demont Burdine was suspended for disciplinary reasons. Lowdermilk was head coach last year with the Frisco (Texas) Thunder and he started this season as a consultant and defensive assistant coach for San Angelo.

Lowdermilk said his transition to head coach has been smooth and the team has brought in several new players, including some who were with him in Frisco. He knows, too, that a transition period can be challenging.

“I think anytime you have a transition, you’re going to have certain issues, and we’ve tried to handle each issue as it’s popped up on a one-to-one basis,” Lowdermilk said. “You’ve got so many personalities and guys from different places.

“I just think as each individual issue pops up, the player now understands where the coach comes from and vice versa, and you start developing relationships and then things start happening that are good for you.”

The team has only five players left from its season-opening roster. One newcomer, quarterback Davon Vinson, has only been with the team since Monday’s 64-33 loss to the Alaska Wild in Anchorage.

Defensive back Edwin James, one of the five who started the season, said the team has tried to maintain normalcy despite the changes.

“We’re like a tight knit family for the most part,” he said, “but it’s hard because it seems like you have new players coming in every week, and you’re constantly trying to bring them into the system to keep the chain’s links going.”

Friday afternoon’s practice was only the third this season indoors for the Stampede-Express.

Their home facility, the San Angelo Coliseum, has played host to other events this season, including a rodeo, and is currently the home for refugees from the polygamy scandal of the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Yearning for Zion Ranch in El Dorado, Texas.

The Stampede-Express players are practicing on a high school field near the arena but they are sympathetic to the refugees.

“No matter how difficult our situation is, theirs is a lot worse,” James said. “They’ve been taken from their daily life, or what they know to be their daily life, and they’re seeing the world in a whole another light. It’s actually kind of crazy for them.”

The Stampede-Express want to see something other than a zero in the win column.

“We’ve come close a lot of times, but it’s the little things we’ve got to get over, the little obstacles,” James said.

Vinson sees one little thing that may turn positive for the team.

“For the first time (this season), we will have played two games with the same roster,” he said. “So, I think good things will come out of this.”

Wild fire coach

Alaska Wild owner David Weatherholt fired head coach Hans Deemer on Friday and several players on the team are calling for a strike, according to an article on the Anchorage Daily News Web site.