BLOG: Talking Clan Towers 11 – with Gareth Chalmers

Hi Purple Army,

I hope everyone is well and has enjoyed the summer. For you I am sure it has been a long five months, we as a club could always do with another month added onto that.

August has arrived already, we take to home ice in only four weeks with three very exciting pre-season games against Löwen Frankfurt and the Manitoba Bisons. We will be announcing ticketing arrangements this week, with season ticket holders as ever getting first refusal on their seats. I am personally looking forward to welcoming Frankfurt, their management, supporters and sponsors to Braehead. I have a very good relationship with Rich Chernomaz (Frankfurt Sporting Director) and Paul Gardner (Frankfurt Head Coach – but needs no introduction here), so we’re excited to have them in Glasgow for what should be two very exciting games for the intu Cup.

Firstly, I would like to have done more of these mini updates during the summer, however we have being implementing a lot of time consuming change around the organisation. We took time appointing a new head coach in John Tripp, he ticks a lot of boxes for us, someone I have known for a number of years and I am sure you will join me in welcoming him to the club.

Also I’d like to welcome Brendan Brooks back to the club in the player assistant-coach role. When we appointed John, I felt it was important that we had someone with experience of the EIHL to compliment John. Brendan had previously expressed interest to me about moving into a coaching role, so he was a standout candidate for us. Brendan gets Braehead, he gets the Purple Army, welcome back Brooksy!

I appreciate everyone has been anxious and looking for updates on recruitment. Recruitment as ever is a game of chess, it’s about making the right moves at the right times. As an organisation we have historically found that tracking the market throughout the summer and signing quality players later works much better for us. We don’t have the budget of a Cardiff, Nottingham or Sheffield so we have to be clever with how we bring the roster together. As examples Matt Keith, Stefan Meyer, Kyle Jones, Scott Pitt and Jamie Fritsch were all signed in August.

We are working hard to put the best possible team on the ice, if that means waiting for the players that we want to become available into the UK market, we will have no hesitation doing that. Ultimately the season is assessed at the end and not the start. However, the ‘pieces of the jigsaw’ are now falling into place and we will have some exciting news coming your way soon.

Personally I am excited about our future and the plans we have over the next couple of years. We are certainly going through a transitional period as a club, a new head coach, a new assistant coach, a new team, but certainly a very exciting seven months ahead of us!

Thanks for your continued support…

Gareth Chalmers

Hockey & Operations Director