Final Fling at Football

The Simi Valley Swarm is one of four minor-league football teams based in the Valley-Ventura County region.

The Swarm and the Antelope Valley Crusaders compete in the Pacific Football League. The Crusaders play the Swarm in a regular-season opener at 6 p.m. on Aug. 16 at Palmdale High. They also will play home games at Antelope Valley and Quartz Hill high schools.

The Valley-based California Thunder and the Ventura County Cardinals are members of the nonprofit SouthWest Football League.

The Thunder moved from Lake Elsinore and will play its home games at Ontario High this season because it was unable to find a site in the Valley.

Steve Sierra, the Thunder’s general manager and tight end, said the team will play home games in the Valley next season.

The season opener is Aug. 24 against the San Bernardino Vipers in Ontario.

The Cardinals, returning after a year off, will play the Carson City, Nev., Jacks in a preseason game Aug. 16 at Fillmore High. The Cardinals are tentatively scheduled to play the rest of their home games at Nordhoff High.

All of the region’s teams are members of the American Football Assn., a federation of about 220 minor-league franchises. The AFA conducts playoffs after the regular season, culminated by the Minor League Super Bowl in December in Orlando, Fla.

In a matchup of PFL and SFL teams Saturday, the Swarm routed the Westside-based West Coast Sun Devils, 48-0, in a scrimmage at Pierce College.