The Florida Eels Junior Teams will be playing their Pre Season Games vs. several colleges. This its the 5th annual event between these 2 colleges.
The first games will be against USF Bulls It is set for September 1st at Florida Hospital Rink. Times: 1: pm and the 2nd game is immediately after the first approximately 2:45 pm that afternoon.
As part of a 13-year tradition the Florida Eels Junior program annually plays local ACHA College hockey teams. GM Scarpaci notes, “It is an excellent forum for players to see some of the local college hockey teams, meet their coaches and also gain great experience playing against older guys who are often 20-24 years old. Most of these teams are made up of pretty good hockey players who completed playing their junior hockey careers up in the Northeast and Midwest and elected to migrate to Florida to take advantage of the Florida College experience and yet continue playing the sport they love. Last year we faced many players from the USPHL EHL and NAHL. The competition was very good”
Florida Eels Premier coach Frank Scarpaci echoes, “These games allows the coaches to get its players into game conditioning. It is one thing for the guys to go through training and drills and even intersquad scrimmages, but it is an entirely different scenario when the players compete in games. The college players are often more experienced with 3+ years of juniors in their belt and are often 3+ years older. Additionally, the coaches get to test lines, positions, and over all strategies before they play regular season games”. GM Scarpaci says, we expect this year to have 4 games vs. the colleges and that will be plenty of time to be able to help craft the early season line ups.
Elite Coach Alex Sanchez comments “these games are an excellent forum for players to work through many of the new systems set in place during the training camps. We have quite a few new guys joining us this season. We can make adjustments early before the season hits. The scrimmage games will be set before the regular season thus enabling the coaches to better prepare for consequential games. They have in the past proven invaluable”
