Players donning red and white jerseys shook hands at center ice after a final All-Star scrimmage last Sunday, marking the end of the New Jersey Titans’ 2018 Main Camp at the Middletown Sports Complex.
The camp provided over 100 players an opportunity to play in front of the Titans coaching and scouting staff in hopes of making the team’s training camp in August. It also allowed fans to see returning players as well as draft picks and tenders.
“Main Camp is the culmination of a full year of hard work by the entire scouting staff,” said Titans head coach Craig Doremus. “Never mind just draft picks, tenders and veterans, but some of the most exciting players are free agents. Main Camp is a great way to see a great collection of talent come together and compete for a spot on the roster.”
Doremus is entering his third season with the Titans, and each passing season sees a growing scouting staff in the organization. This year will be Gary Biggs’ first full season as the Director of Scouting, as he overlooks a staff that includes Matt Dibble, Dan Cassano, Andrew Ferencevych and Alec Austin as well as 87’s coaches Adam Houli and Matt Kiernan. Working together, they assembled a main camp roster that, according to Doremus, made it incredibly difficult to make cuts.
“I just think this year we had so much depth in the camp. There was really no players who were in over their head. As camp progressed, it got more and more difficult to separate the player pool. With the high amount of high-end athletes we have selected what we think is an impressive group of men,” Doremus said.
Amidst all of the players looking to crack the NAHL roster, returning players such as Brandon Perrone, Ryan Naumovski, Eric Manoukian and Spencer Stanley set the pace in the later days of main camp. Doremus was pleased with their performance and will expect big things from the Titans veterans heading into the 2018-19 season.
“To watch some of our veteran players really set the culture and expectations was also very encouraging,” he said. “Those guys know what our goals are as an organization and it was impressive to see them begin to implement it with some of the new players from day one. We are extremely excited to get started at training camp in August.