Vets Pre-Season

Wednesday, 27 August 2014 09:51

First home exhibition game for the Woodstock Navy Vets hits the ice at Southwood Arena Tuesday.

WOODSTOCK -- The Woodstock Navy Vets are ready for a new season following some changes on and off the ice.

Head Coach Adam Wallace says they're still working on the changes they made before last season. "This year is still going to be part of a rebuilding year so we've got, I'd say probably eight or nine guys returning with the remainder being new, which is good because you need your returning guys that played for you and have the culture to teach the younger guys what it is they need to do to keep playing."

Jake Schneider has re-signed as Captain, Michael Nutt, Matt Jauernig, Justin Elms, Taylor Declercq, Dan Haig and 2013/14 affiliate player Chris Nauts are all back for this season. Chad Sumsion has also been added to the bench as an Assistant Coach which President Devon Young says is a great move for the organization. According to Young, Sumsion adds invaluable knowledge of the game following his four year NCAA career with the Bowling Green University as well as his very successful junior hockey career.

Young also highlights that the Navy Vets have taken over the Midget Program from Woodstock Minor Hockey. "We plan on using players from there quite a bit, more of a development camp for us. We can have players that are 16-17 years-old down there, playing big minutes, playing a lot more than they would be with us as well as coming up and playing with us. So that's going to help significantly. Also with the returning players from last year, now that have junior experience from acquisitions over the summer and just a solid coaching staff we see no reason that we won't be a contender in this league."

Wallace says the team spent the off season training on and off the ice. "We started doing off ice training with the guys throughout the summer, got us a lot of exposure through guys coming and working out with us and skating during the summer with us. It really got some of their buddies interested in coming out so that's really helped out on getting these guys out and Trevor and the upper-management have been doing a good job at getting a hold of players, so everything is finally starting to come together."

The Navy Vets will host their first exhibition game of the pre-season tonight (Tuesday) after Saturday's game in Dorchester was cancelled due to poor ice conditions. Woodstock hosts the Tavistock Braves at Southwood Arena. Game time is 6:30 pm.