Let the Title Defense Begin
October 11, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Greenville Grrrowl News Release
GREENVILLE, S.C. â The East Coast Hockey League is celebrating its 15th Anniversary with 27 active teams and a slate of 11 games to open the 2002-2003 season tonight. The Greenville Grrrowl start their Kelly Cup Title defense tonight at Cricket Arena against the Charlotte Checkers (7:35 PM, News Radio 1330 & 950 WORD-AM).
The players voted number 16, TYLER DEIS, captain to start the season. While the alternate captains are number 2 ERIC LIND and number 10 MATT DEMARSKI.
The Grrrowl have five players on their opening night roster â LIND, JONATHAN ROY, LUKE SELLARS, MARTIN MASA, AND JAYME PLATT â that were members of the 2002 Kelly Cup Championship team.
There are six other players on the roster â MARK GOUETT, MIKE HURLEY, DEMARSKI, MIKKO SIVONEN, DEIS and RICK EMMETT with East Coast Hockey League experience.
There are eight rookies on the opening day roster.
There are 13 Canadians, 4 Americans, and 2 Europeans (MASA, Czech Republic; SIVONEN, Finland).
VP of Hockey Operations/Head Coach JOHN MARKS is tied with Dayton's Greg Ireland as the longest tenured head coach with the same team (5th season) in the ECHL. Greenville beat Dayton in last year's championship series.
MASA is the oldest player on the roster (29 years, 2 months, 3 days), and MICHAEL GARNETT is the youngest (19 years, 10 months, 14 days).
Tomorrow night's regular season home-opener against the South Carolina Stingrays (7:05 PM) will feature a pre-game championship banner raising ceremony, a ring ceremony for those players returning from last season, and a special re-presentation of the Kelly Cup by ECHL President/CEO Brian McKenna. Grrrowl tickets are on sale at the BI-LO Center Box Office and all TicketMaster outlets.
ECHL Stories from October 11, 2002
- Terence, We Hardly Knew Ye - OSC Original by Jason S Rufner
- Kingfish Drown Bandits - Baton Rouge Kingfish
- Grrrowl Drop Season Opener at Charlotte - Greenville Grrrowl
- Aces Drop Opener - Alaska Aces
- Titans Win Fourth Straight Home Opener - Trenton Devils
- Lynx Drop Home Opener - Augusta Lynx
- ECHL Transactions - October 11 - ECHL
- East Coast Hockey League Opening-Day Rosters - ECHL
- Defending Champs Open Their Title Defense - Fresno Falcons
- Nextel Cup is on the line between Sea Wolves and Bandits - Mississippi Sea Wolves
- IceGators' season-opener set for Saturday - Louisiana IceGators
- ECHL's Cyclones Impressive On European Tour - Cincinnati Cyclones
- Charlotte's McKay Suspended Five Games - ECHL
- Pee Dee's Naud Suspended One Game - ECHL
- Bombers Promotion-Packed Weekend Begins Tonight - Dayton Bombers
- Reading Royals to Televise Seven Home Games - Reading Royals
- Grizz-Aeros Preview - Utah Grizzlies
- Bob Woods Uniform to be Retired at Home Opener - Mississippi Sea Wolves
- All Along the Coast - ECHL
- Let the Title Defense Begin - Greenville Grrrowl
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