It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Hockey Season!

As I write this we are exactly two weeks away from the puck dropping on the first season of Greenville Road Warriors hockey. While it's an exciting time for us who follow and cover the team, it's an extremely busy time for the players and coaching staff. Training camp officially opened yesterday with 23 Road Warriors taking to the ice. It was the first time that Head Coach Dean Stork and Assistant Coach Jason Spence were able to work with their team on the ice and prepare it for the season. As if they weren't crunched for time enough with the home opener two weeks away, they have two preseason games this weekend in Estero, Florida against the Everblades. For the players, they have to shake off all of the traveling they had to do to arrive in Greenville, adjust to new surroundings and teammates, and learn Coach Stork's new systems. They are faced with that while trying to play well enough to earn a spot on the team. For as much as I used to dream about being a pro athlete, I'm certainly glad I don't have to go through that process.

Enough of all that, though, let's take a look at what went down yesterday at the first day of camp. Due to the number of players in town there was only one group of players that skated one morning session. Originally there were to be two groups and two sessions. Here's how the forwards were grouped on lines:

Green - Matt Schepke, Connor Shields, Justin Bowers

Red - Andrew Carroll, Brendan Connolly, Mark Voakes

Gray - Tyler Ruegsegger, Sean Berkstresser, Igor Gongalsky

Yellow - David Strathman, Peter MacDougall, Neil Graham

Strathman's natural position is defense but he will be filling in as a forward until more bodies arrive in Greenville to fill out the roster. The defensemen wore white and that group was comprised of:

Brad Cole, Wes Cunningham, Patrick Cusack, Thomas Dignard, T.J. Reynolds, Dan Ringwald, and Steve Ward.

Dov Grumet-Morris, Nic Riopel, and David Erickson handled the goaltending duties. Grumet-Morris wore the all black pads, Riopel sported the Flyer-themed black, orange, and whites, while Erickson had the blue and silver gear on. Erickson is a local from Greer, SC who is in camp on a tryout agreement.

I had a chance to talk with Coach Stork last evening about the first practice and he was overall pleased with the way it went. There wasn't a ton of player evaluation done yesterday, though. That practice's, as well as today's, primary goal was to begin teaching everyone Dean's systems. The real evaluation will go down Friday and Saturday during the games against Florida. I'll be particularly interested to find out how the defensemen perform. There are already eight defensemen in training camp and with the arrival of Sam Klassen, Trevor Glass, and Blake Parlett (all defensemen) from Hartford the decision on who to keep has become more complicated.

For those who were wondering, I did not make the trip with the team to Florida so if you want to catch a broadcast of the game it will have to be the Everblades' broadcast. You can access that by clicking the B2 Networks link on the 'Blades' home page. You can also go to www.echl.com to track the game's scoring/statistics.

I know with yesterday's practice taking place at 10:00 a.m. many of you weren't able to make it down and see the team in person. No need to fret! With the team's trusty Flip Cam (what a great little invention by the way) I was able to capture some footage to share with Road Warriors Nation. Check it out:

There are a few more videos that you can view by checking out our YouTube channel. I'm working on putting up video from Coach Stork's and T.J. Reynolds' media scrums but those are huge files and are taking a while to upload. Check back tomorrow for that update.

Only five more days until the Road Warriors take to the BI-LO Center ice against South Carolina in preseason action. Tickets are just $6 for that game so get them while you can and join us for a great night. I'll be back on Sunday with thoughts and recaps from the games at Florida this weekend.

***UPDATE***

Here's T.J. Reynolds' media scrum from Oct. 6. I was a little ways away from the front and the mic on the flip cam didn't capture great sound. You'll probably have to turn the volume on the computer up a bit.