DULUTH, Ga. – The Atlanta Gladiators announced on Friday that forward Derek Nesbitt, and defensemen Kevin Montgomery and Ben Danford will serve as the team’s assistant captains to start the 2018-19 season. The team will not have a main captain this year.
“I went with this system because I don’t like the idea of putting all the pressure on one player,” said Head Coach Jeff Pyle. “We are a team, one player shouldn’t have to answer for the whole group. That’s my job and I’ll be the one taking sole responsibility for any blame that is needed.”
Coach Pyle will also rotate the captains who wear the ‘A’ on their jersey throughout the season. Nesbitt, Montgomery and Danford will don the ‘A’ on their jerseys for the first time tomorrow night in Orlando, FL, as the Gladiators start the 2018-19 season on the road against the Solar Bears.
“We have a lot a leaders on this team, and I feel it’s important to reward guys for playing and acting the right way by having multiple players wear a letter at different points in the year,” added Pyle. “This decision was made with the help from Derek Nesbitt, and it in no way is a demotion for him. He fully embraced the idea and is an important fixture in our leadership group no matter what letter he wears on his sweater.”
The 16th season of Atlanta Gladiators hockey begins at the Infinite Energy Arena on Friday, October 19th against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits at 7:35 PM. For ticket information, visit the official team website at www.atlantagladiators.com or call the main office line at 770-497-5100.
The Gladiators are members of the ECHL, the nation’s premier "AA" hockey league. All home games are played at the 10,867-seat Infinite Energy Arena, located just off I-85 on Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth – where parking is always free. The Gladiators have established an unrivaled commitment to excellence, maintaining a distinctive reputation for affordable and family-friendly sports entertainment and consistently ranked as one of the top “Things To Do” in the Atlanta area and across the North Georgia region.For all the latest team news, contests, and more visit AtlantaGladiators.com, or “like” the Gladiators on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AtlantaGladiators), follow the team on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ATLGladiators), Instagram (www.instagram.com/atlgladiators) or Snapchat (www.snapchat.com) at "gladshockey".
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