Football | 7/20/2010 9:36:14 AM

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – More than a decade after leading West Liberty to a WVIAC football championship during the 2000 season, Tim Hicks is once more filling the air with footballs.

The 30-year-old Hicks, a former indoor football star in af2 and the Arena Football League (AFL), was called out of retirement last month by the AFL's Huntsville (Ala.) Vipers for what he thought would be a relatively-easy stint as a backup quarterback.

As fate would have it, the starter went down with an injury not long after Hicks' arrival and the former Hilltopper standout found himself starting in a nationally-televised game against the Orlando Predators earlier this month.

Hicks, who threw 82 touchdown passes for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers during the 2004 season, hadn't played since throwing 36 TD passes for the Los Angeles Avengers during the 2008 AFL season but wasted little time knocking off the rust.

In two games with the Vipers, he's thrown for 555 yards and 8 TDs and is expected to get the start again on Saturday when Huntsville takes on the Tulsa Talons.

Here's a link to an interesting story by Mark McCarter of the Huntsville Times which details Hicks' return to the world of indoor football: Tim Hicks: From Stay-at-Home Dad to Starter

Hicks passed for more than 7,200 yards and 60 TDs from 1998-2002 at West Liberty. Those numbers stood as school records until last fall when they were broken by current Hilltopper QB Zach Amedro.