By Peter Schwartz -- A former employee of the San Jose SaberCats once told me something about that organization.

“It’s great to work for the New York Yankees of the AFL”, said this person not too long ago.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it might be the understatement of the century.

The San Jose SaberCats have been the current day dynasty in the Arena Football League. With ArenaBowl titles in 2002, 2004, and 2007, the SaberCats will be looking to make it four championships in seven years on July 27^th when the defending World Champions take on the Philadelphia Soul in Virgin Mobile ArenaBowl XXII in New Orleans (3pm ET ABC, ABC HD, Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 127).

If you were thinking about buying a GPS for the SaberCats for their trip, forget about it. The road to the ArenaBowl is something that San Jose is used to and it seems like they can get there blindfolded. But how do they do it? How have they been able to be so consistent for such a long period of time?

“We have a system at the SaberCats,” said Head Coach/General Manager Darren Arbet. “Our ownership does a tremendous job, giving us a tremendous opportunity to do what we do. (Director of Player Personnel/Offensive Line Coach) Dave Witthun works his tail off in the off-season trying to find players. I have (Defensive Coordinator/Special Teams Coordinator) Jeff Jarnigan, (Secondary/Asst. Special Teams Coach) Lou Patrone and (Offensive Coordinator) Terry Malley. They’re in there everyday looking at film after film, trying to find new guys to make this team better. “

Any successful organization in sports has to be good from top to bottom. It starts with ownership and works its way down to the front office and then to the coaching staff, the players and the entire support staff. From day one in 1995, the SaberCats have been about one thing and that’s winning championships.

They certainly suffered some growing pains along the way, but they have become one of the model franchises in the AFL.

“I think they have been committed to a quality product,” said AFL Commissioner David Baker. “They’ve done a real good job of keeping the same staple players who, year in and year out, have been very good. (They) are just a very efficient, good team committed to excellence.”

The making of the current squad took shape following the 2005 season which ended with a quarterfinal playoff loss to Colorado. In 2006, the team decided that they needed to make some significant changes and they implemented a plan to re-shape their roster.

“We had a lot of new guys who hadn’t played Arena Football before when we went into that season and we felt that early on we were going to take our lumps but that we should be pretty good,” said Arbet.

Pretty good?

I think things turned out better than pretty good albeit not right away. The SaberCats captured the division title in 2006 but lost to the eventual ArenaBowl Champion Chicago Rush in the American Conference Championship Game.

In 2007, things didn’t start out too well. The SaberCats were just 3-3 after six games. What followed was thirteen straight wins including the victory over Columbus in ArenaBowl XXI.

This season, San Jose started out 3-4 but true to form got things turned around. They are currently riding an eight game winning streak into ArenaBowl XXII and the issues from early in the season seem to be a distant memory.

“You know, struggling out of the gate, I thought we played some good teams early on in Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago and teams like that,” said Arbet. “We were on the other end of the side there. We didn’t win the games, but I thought our team was pretty good. We started gelling towards the middle of the season and guys started believing. We are playing well right now. We have had some guys step up and play well for us.”

One of those early season losses came at the hands of the Philadelphia Soul who rallied from a 33-7 first half deficit to beat the SaberCats 58-57 on April 12^th at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. It was almost like two games in one. The SaberCats dominated the first half and the Soul did likewise in the second half. There are two schools of thought after losing a game like that. You can either keep it in the back of your mind just in case there’s a rematch or you can delete it from your brain and turn the page.

At least one player on San Jose says the events of that night should not be forgotten.

“No, you can’t throw it out,” said quarterback Mark Grieb. “I think you look at the film and you’ll see what things worked and what things didn’t and you try to take something from it.”

There lies the beauty of what the SaberCats are about. They blow a huge lead at home and suffer as bad of a loss as you could imagine, but they found a way to learn from it and made themselves a better team.

A lot has happened since that game. While the Soul would probably tell you that they’re a different team from their first meeting with San Jose, it’s clear that the SaberCats are on a completely different level than what they showed earlier in the season. How they have turned things around should not come as a shock to anyone who knows what they’re about.

“The guys are starting to make plays that they rely on to win games,” said Soul Head Coach Bret Munsey. “Their quarterback is starting to play at a high level and the protection has gotten better. Their secondary is starting to create turnovers and that’s what they have relied on for a number of years.”

Despite their slow starts over the last couple of seasons, it’s far from breaking news that the SaberCats are in position for another title. Not only did they reach the ArenaBowl for the fourth time in the last seven years, but they also made it to the conference championship or league semifinal contest for the eighth time in nine years. They have certainly learned how to get to the playoffs and they have mastered the art of going deep into the post-season.

“I think you have to consider them getting to the conference championship game and certainly the ArenaBowl every year just because of the type of team that they have,“ said Soul quarterback Matt D’Orazio who faced San Jose a couple of times in the American Conference Championship game while with the Chicago Rush.

“They’ve been together for so long. Year in and year out they are certainly the best.”

While San Jose has been a perennial winner since their run of championships began in 2002, the one accomplishment that has escaped them was repeating.  In fact, there haven’t been back to back ArenaBowl champions since the Tampa Bay Storm captured titles in 1995 and 1996.

It’s a subject that has come up with the SaberCats, but it’s not something that they spend too much time worrying about.

“We talk about it a lot as a coaching staff,” said Arbet.  “But you have to treat this as this is the big game, we have an opportunity to play in it and at the end whatever happens, happens.”

Although the Soul comes into this game with the best record in the league at 15-3 (13-3 in the regular season), the SaberCats have the track record of post-season success and they have the rings to back it up. But what really makes San Jose so tough to knock off in the playoffs is that they have a core group of guys who have been with the team for a number of years.

“I think they have a lot of players that have won the big game,” said Munsey. “They’ve got a lot of experience. The secondary has played well together for three or four years now. There’s a reason they’re in this game and we have got to find a way to get a victory, play well, and stay focused. They’re the team that has been at the number one spot for a number of years and that’s what we are trying to do here in Philadelphia.”

They’ve never won back to back championships although that could change on July 27^th.  But the San Jose SaberCats have accomplished what every professional sports team only dreams of doing. They have developed a first class organization with a system that works and puts a competitive product on the field every season.