Philadelphia Soul Open 2016 Season Friday In Cleveland

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Soul will visit Cleveland to kick off their 2016 Arena Football League season, taking on the Gladiators on Friday night.

Philadelphia is into its game week routine for the first time this year after about two weeks of training camp workouts. Head coach Clint Dolezel says they are looking forward to finally facing an opponent.

"We're glad to see somebody else instead of hitting ourselves," Dolezel tells KYW Newsradio.

Listen to the entire interview with Soul head coach Clint Dolezel:

The Soul have been one of the AFL's elite teams for years. Last season, Philadelphia went 15-3 and advanced to the American Conference Championship Game where they lost a heartbreaker to Jacksonville. Much of the team responsible for that success is back this season.

"We kept 15 of our players from last year," Dolezel says. "Obviously, we kept the nucleus of it. We've got a lot of solid players back and then we sprinkled in some very good talent from the teams that shut down. We're pretty stacked at positions. We're very, very deep, which is always a comfort. So we're excited to see what a lot of these guys got."

The Soul are in very good shape at the all important quarterback position where veteran Dan Raudabaugh triggers the offense. In 2015, he threw for 4,992 yards and 119 touchdowns.

"He's gotten better every year," Dolezel says of Raudabaugh. "He's taken a lot of steps for that in the off-season, last year and this year as well. So he's primed for another great season."

Dolezel says the opening match-up with Cleveland will be a challenge.

"Playing Cleveland, always tough," Dolezel says. "Opening up with them is never easy, they are always a scrappy team. Doesn't seem like it matters who has a better team, it's always going to be a dog fight."

Philadelphia and Cleveland will get underway at 7:00pm on Friday night.