Three plays. That's how long it took Rob Keefe's girlfriend and mother to notice the difference in level of play after Keefe, who had played for the Spokane Shock in the arenafootball2 league for two seasons, moved up to the Arena Football League.

Three plays.

That's how long it took Rob Keefe's girlfriend and mother to notice the difference in level of play after Keefe, who had played for the Spokane Shock in the arenafootball2 league for two seasons, moved up to the Arena Football League.

Tonight, after four years of dominating the af2 league, Spokane moves up to a higher level of indoor football. The Shock play host to the Milwaukee Iron tonight at 8 at the Spokane Arena in the Arena Football League opener for both teams.

"No disrespect, because I was a product of arena2, but this is truly, bigger, faster, quicker, stronger," said Keefe, now head coach of the Shock after coaching the special teams and secondary in Spokane last year.

"Maybe last year we had one guy over 340 pounds, this year we have seven," he said. "And with that, you have to have a faster

speed rush, and with that, the quarterback has to get rid of the ball quicker, and the receivers have to get into their routes quicker, and the DBs have to cover faster. It's a steamroll of just better athletes, and so you set your team up that way. It'll be the same game on paper, but the movement and the level of the ability will be greater."

Spokane went 66-10 in four years in af2, with two ArenaCup titles, one runner-up finish and one first-round playoff exit. Last year's team went 19-1 and was considered perhaps the best af2 team of all time.

Keefe wouldn't say how that Shock team would have fared in this league, "but we had only invited five players from last year's team here," he said. "There are a lot of other guys that are elsewhere because they weren't invited. Four (of the five) will be playing."

Keefe mentioned his own transition from af2 to the AFL.

"I go from (19) picks in the AF2 in two years to zero for the Philadelphia Soul (in the AFL)," he said. "That's a big, big difference in the speed of the game and how you need to adjust."

Keefe, 29, played with four current Shock members when he played in Spokane in 2006 and '07 - offensive lineman Ed Ta'amu, quarterback Kyle Rowley, wide receiver Raul Vijil and defensive back Alex Teems. He said coaching players he used to play alongside hasn't been much of an adjustment, but was quick to answer when asked if there was a scenario where he would return to the field as a player/coach.

"No, no, no," Keefe said with a laugh. "That day's done."

Rowley played with the Shock in 2006, leading them to the ArenaCup title in their first season. He was released by the Kansas City Brigade of the AFL in 2007, and played with the Grand Rapids Rampage of the AFL. He played the past two seasons with the Arkansas Twisters of af2.

Vijil, the former Eastern Washington University star, has been with Shock since its inception, catching 98 touchdown passes in four seasons.

The 6-foot-3, 350-pound Ta'amu played with the Shock in '06, and with Kansas City of the AFL in '07 and '08.

Teems, from Washington State, played with the Shock in 2007 and the Cleveland Gladiators of the AFL in '08.

Notes: All players in the Arena Football League receive $400 per game. In arenafootball2, players received $200 per game, plus an extra $50 after each victory ... To open up 300 more seats closer to the field, the team benches have been moved from the east sideline. The Shock are now in the northwest corner, the visitors in the southwest corner. ... The NFL Network will show a game of the week, either on Friday or Saturday night. Spokane is scheduled to be on TV July 16 at Iowa, and July 23 at home vs. Chicago. ...

The Chicago Rush was voted No. 1 in a preseason poll of the Arena Football League Writers Association. Spokane was ranked sixth, Milwaukee seventh. ... Spokane is in the West Division of the National Conference, along with Arizona and Utah. Chicago, Cleveland, Iowa and Milwaukee are in the Midwest Division of the National Conference. There are four teams each in the South and Southwest Divisions of the American Conference. Eight teams qualify for the playoffs, four from each conference. Each division champ automatically qualifies, along with two wild card teams in each conference. The ArenaBowl will be played at the home of the higher seeded team. ...

Seven of the 15 teams - Spokane, Milwaukee, Iowa, Bossier-Shreveport, Alabama, Oklahoma City and Tulsa - played in af2 last year. The Alabama Vipers, previously known as the Tennessee Vipers, beat Spokane for the 2008 ArenaCup title. Jacksonville last fielded an indoor football team in 2002 in af2. The others were part of the original Arena Football League, which ceased operations after the 2008 season. The current league was originally called Arena Football 1 when it was conceived in 2009, but changed to the AFL in February when AF1 bought the rights to the Arena Football League name and brand. ...

The Iron are led by quarterback Chris Griesen and wide receivers Damian Harrell and Tiger Jones. Griesen has played arena football since 2004. Harrell, a 10-year AFL vet from Florida State, is considered perhaps the best receiver in the league's history. He has scored an AFL-high 320 touchdowns. With the Louisville Fire in 2007, Jones caught seven passes for 121 yards and three touchdowns as the Fire whipped the Spokane Shock 62-35 in the first round of the af2 playoffs.