It’s no big secret Oceanside’s Save-On-Foods Generals have been battling the injury bug this season, and it’s times like this that the importance of having a good trainer (or trainers) becomes paramount.
“Oh yeah — for sure,” Oceanside Generals’ head coach and GM Brent Demerais confirmed this week, pointing out Gens’ head trainer Bill Biegler, a trained paramedic from Errington, “has been a busy guy. We couldn’t do without him.”
“He brings a sense of security,” said Beverley Yelland, a director on the Oceanside Generals Jr Hockey Club Society and billet coordinator. “He has a good medical knowledge of sports related injuries and he’s very willing to give his time to the team as a volunteer, he goes on the bus with the guys — he’s very much a part of the team.”
Also helping out is backup trainer Peter Simkin from Parksville.
Asked for some insight into the role of the trainers, Demerais said their biggest role “is to be there when a guy hurts his shoulder or his knee or what have you.”
Bill he says will assess a player’s injury then gets back to the coaching staff and lets them know if the player is good to go, if he needs to go to the dressing room and ice it a while,” if a guy gets a concussion he tells us he’s out for the game.
The trainers, said Demerais, “are a huge part of the team and Bill’s a guy that gets overlooked a lot of the time. When you look down the bench its always comforting knowing they’re around, and he’s also always on the bench helping out, fill’in up water bottles, helping guys with their equipment, he’s always a go to guy for pretty much anything.”
Biegler, explained Demerais “came on board late — we didn’t have anybody through training camp or at the start of the season, so he was a huge addition to our team.”
Forward Matt Biagioni has already missed two games and is expected to be gone for a couple weeks due to a mild concussion, and a couple other players have the flu and are questionable for the weekend. Taylor Gray, one of the Gens’ leading scorers, may sit out Friday as his foot injury is still bothering him.
The good news is local D-man turned forward James Sneddon is back in the lineup this weekend.
GAME ON: The Generals are in Saanich Friday to take on the Braves and return home to ‘the Place for a big game against the Nanaimo Buccaneers. Puck drops at 7:30 p.m.
