Vipers spurred by local talent

Oct 30 2007 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

VICTORY over Hull Stingrays at Newcastle Arena will put the Vipers joint top of the Elite League tonight – and although they will share it with Paul Thompson’s Coventry Blaze, the Great Britain coach should be delighted with their progress.

That is because Rob Wilson’s side’s improved showing this season has been based around home-grown youngsters Dean Holland, Richie Thornton, Ben Campbell, Jez Lundin and Nathan Taylor.

And with the Vipers’ second string three points off the top of the English National League (North) with two games in hand on leaders Whitley Warriors, Wilson knows there are more to come – both for him and the national side.

Despite being born in Ontario, Canada, the 39-year-old coach considers himself a Briton and is Thompson’s number two. So the son of Glaswegian parents is delighted by the success of his youngsters, although he admits the days of fielding a team of locals is still some way off.

“Richie and Jez on D (defence) have been outstanding this season,” said Wilson, who first moved to Britain to play for Swindon Wildcats in the 1989-90 season. “And I have been happy with Dean and Ben as the ninth forward. They’re competing really hard for that spot and I just hope it gets to the stage where they force me to pick them both.”

The form of defencemen Thornton and Lundin could be particularly important tonight, as it gives Wilson the option of resting Ukrainian Pavel Gomenyuk, who has been struggling recently with a groin injury.

A brief stint in Manchester apart, Wilson has lived on Tyneside since 2000 and recognises the fact that growing your own is even more important in this part of the world.

“The North-East is one of those places where they like to see home-grown people in their team,” he said. “There’s certain places where you can get away with it – at times Arsenal’s football team have 11 foreigners on the pitch – but here people like to see some locals, like Steven Taylor in the Newcastle United team.

“People like to grip on to local players and fortunately we’ve got a great crop of youngsters coming through. I’m really excited about the development of Ben Campbell and Jez Lundin.

“I’m always going to try and bring in a bit of local talent because it’s important for the community, the club, the development of ice hockey in Britain, and it’s important for the fans.”

At present, Elite League teams are allowed 10 import players but the Vipers coach and co-director hopes it will not be long before his club’s roster is doing without a full quota of overseas stars on a regular basis.

“I would love to be in a position where we don’t use all our import slots,” he commented. “I’d have no problem doing that. That’s one of the reasons I signed a Scotsman, Colin Shields.

“As far as I’m concerned, if we have enough lads that are better than some of the foreign players, they’ll be playing.

“A team of Geordies would probably be about 10 years down the road but the junior development programme we put together is fantastic – as good or better than any in the country. I think ice hockey here is going to be extremely strong for a long time. I’m really confident we’re going to bring a lot of juniors along.

“I’d love to say we’d have five local players on the ice at one time and at times last year we did. One time I had a line of Shaun Johnson, Ben Campbell, David Longstaff, Jonathan Weaver and myself on the ice, and I consider myself British.”

The Vipers, who have a 100% record in three games against the Stingrays this season, will be without the injured Jeff Hutchins for tonight’s 7.15pm face-off.