Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adel Ahmed

Kamloops Blazers

Kamloops Blazers underway with training camp

Sep 1, 2023 | 4:58 PM

KAMLOOPS — The first day of training camp has arrived for the Kamloops Blazers, exactly 90 days since they last played at home during the Memorial Cup.

Several veteran Blazers like Logan Stankoven and Matthew Seminoff are moving on to play pro. Head Coach Shaun Clouston knows the roster will look younger this season.

“Just with the volume and quality of players that are drafted, signed, eligible to play pro,” Clouston told CFJC Today, “our sort of take on that is we’re not counting on those guys being back.”

One player coming back from last year’s squad is Dylan Sydor. The fourth-year forward says he’s looking to take a leadership role by setting the pace for youngers.

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“You wanna be the guy everyone counts on,” said Sydor. “I had a great off-season, really excited to get started and I’ll be ready.”

Sydor’s leadership so far is noticed by Dennis Emesibe, a 15 year-old forward who made it to camp from Allen, Texas, a community just 40 kilometers north of Dallas.

“He’s been great. He’s always cheering us up,” said Emesibe. “Yesterday when we were doing the fitness test he was hyping me up while I was doing the burnout pushups. Kind of still sore from that. But he’s a very good leader.”

As 76 players go through the early stages of training camp, Clouston says conversations with the rest of the coaching staff are taking place everyday, to decide who will or will not crack the 24-man roster for the start of the regular season.

“We do that at the end of each day with all the scouts and coaching staff. So there’s a lot of discussion and a lot of evaluation obviously.”

The Blazers will begin pre-season action at home on September 8 against the Kelowna Rockets.