Wednesday March 19, 2008

ATLANTA—The Silverbacks kicked off preparation for the 2008 season Tuesday with a light field session at Silverbacks Park.
    Twenty-six players—eight of which are on trial—were on hand to open training, which consisted of some light running and a full-field scrimmage.
    "It was good to get everyone out and get things started," said head coach Jason Smith. "We just wanted to get everyone out and moving around the first day. Tomorrow it will start getting a little tougher as we build towards the season."
    In camp were new signings Mike Ambersley, Josh Bolton, who both join the club from Rochester, and Georgia products Blake Camp, who spent the last two seasons with Red Bull New York, and Zach Kirby, who spent part of 2007 with the Los Angeles Galaxy before joining USL2 Wilmington. Ansu Toure and Jason McLaughlin round out the list of new signings in attendance at the opening of camp. Toure spent 2007 with Minnesota and McLaughlin rejoins the club after spending 2007 with Vancouver.
    Not present were Scott Buete, Anthony Wolf, Warren Ukah, and new signing Nathan Knox.
    Buete is playing indoor for Baltimore and will join the club at the conclusion of the season, as will Ukah, who is playing indoor with Milwaukee. Both teams are expected to make the playoffs.
    "Missing those players to indoor teams is not that much of a concern," said head coach Jason Smith. "They have both been with the team, so it shouldn't take too long for them to get on the same page as everyone else. And because they are playing, fitness won't be a concern."
    Wolf remains in his native Trinidad training with the T&T National Team. Knox, who was waiting for his contract to be finalized, will join the team next week.

Training Update
The Silverbacks trained twice on Wednesday, with a hour-long condition session in the morning and ball work and a full-sided scrimmage in an afternoon deluge.

Injury Update
Mike Ambersley went down with slight knee injury during Wednesday's scrimmage. The injury will be monitored over the next few days.