Oceanside Generals will be holding its annual 3-day summer camp starting this Friday at Oceanside Place.
Club president Gerry Bickerton said they are expecting between 40 to 45 players to come out and vie for a spot in the Generals’ roster.
“It’s a decent sized camp,” said Bickerton. “We will also have most of our former players, especially those who are in town, Port Alberni, Nanaimo and Comox.”
Bickerton said they need more players to man the blue line as well as a few players up front. And while they will be evaluating their skills on ice, they will also be gauging their characters off the ice.
“What we are looking for are players that fit exactly our mould in what we’ve kind of defined as an Oceanside General,” said Bickerton. “Players that, first and foremost, work hard and are a good teammate. We’re pretty much a community-focused organization and we want to make sure when we’re selecting and signing players that they’ll participate in community events and really thrive in that area as well.”
Bickerton said there are players they specifically invited to the camp. There’s two goalkeepers coming from Prince George, some parts of the Interior and also from the United States.
The camp will open on Friday with off-ice fitness testing, goalie session, a classroom session, and practice sessions for each of the four groups. On Saturday, scrimmages will be held all day and a goalie session later in the evening. There will be more game sessions on Sunday.
Three days is a short period of time to truly gauge the potential of every player in the camp. Bickerton said most of the players that attend the camp will also vie for spots in Junior A teams so they don’t make final decisions.
“We will have a lot of players that will stick around with us,” said BIckerton.
“Yes it is our main camp but right after that we go right into practices. And we also have exhibition games at the end of August to evaluate the kids that are very close to making it onto the team before we make the final picks. So we will have quite a good look at them before we finalize our roster.”
Main Camp Schedule
Friday, August 11 (Oceanside Place)
9 a.m. - 9:20 a.m.: Sign-in
9:30 a.m. - 11 a.m.: Team #1 – Fitness Testing
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.: Team #3 – Fitness Testing
2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.: Multi-Purpose Room
5:15 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.: Goalie Session
6:45 p.m. - 8 p.m.: Team #1 – Practice Session
8:15 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.: Team #3 – Practice Session
Saturda August 12
9 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.: Team #1 vs Team #2
11 a.m. - 12:45 a.m.: Team #3 vs Team #4
3:15 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Team #1 vs Team #3
5:15 p.m. - 7 p.m.: Team #2 vs Team #4
8 p.m. - 9:15 p.m.: Goalie Session
Sunday, August 13
9 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.: Team #1 vs Team #4
11 a.m. - 12:45 a.m.: Team #2 vs Team #3
1 p.m. - 3 p.m.: Player Meetings