A milestone season for the Belleville Senators is fast approaching and a solid crowd at Galaxy Cinemas in Belleville was all ears to hear about what is in store come the fall.
A panel of head coach Andrew Campbell, vice-president of business operations John Mathers and hockey operations manager Sean McCauley came together for the second annual ‘613 Country Town Hall’ on Wednesday evening.
Hosted by Cool 100’s Paul Ferguson, the event drew a theatre of season ticket holders and media, hyped for the Sens 10th anniversary campaign in the Bay of Quinte region to hear the goals and ambitions of the club in 2026-27.
McCauley said he and general manager Matt Turek have been working to build a competitive team and said much like every team and entity in professional sports, particularly in the AHL, it’s a balancing act between winning and development amid the usual heavy roster turnover.
“This year we had a large amount of turnover, but we also have a number of kids coming up, so our mentality coming in is, we made the point that we were going to try and add skill, we’re going to add character and add grit,” he explained.
“We want we want this team to have success. We want it to win, not only for our players’ development but for the fans here.”
Campbell, who was promoted from the interim head coaching position to full-time bench boss after taking over from David Bell in December of last season, said he wants to ice a team that everyone is proud of.
“We’re not guaranteeing we’re going to win every game, but whether you come to a game and you’re going to have coffee with your buddy the next morning, or you’re talking to other family members, we want you to say, ‘Maybe the result wasn’t there last night, but boy, that team worked hard or they won the game, and they were just relentless, they just kept pushing.”
The panelists all touched on the need to increase community engagement with people of all ages.
“Off the ice, we want good people. We want to be involved in the community,” said Campbell.
“They’re going to do their school visits. They’re going to do different things around the community, involve the different hockey associations in the region, and get out to more places to make sure they’re visible. I think that goes a long way.”
The organization also aims to continue their partnerships with The Children’s Foundation with the Clowns for Kids initiative, the Rotary Club of Belleville, Gleaners Food Bank and more.
“You ask us to be at a golf tournament, we’ll be there. You want us to come and do a high-five tunnel with our mascot, we’re going to say yes,” added Mathers.
“We want to be the organization that says yes to help really drive this region forward. It’s a blue collar, punch above our weight (city), and we can do that on the ice and in the business side as well.”
One big highlight of the event was the exclusive introduction of a special 10th anniversary red jersey with diagonal ‘Senators’ script on the front and a ‘Bay of Quinte inscription on the inside collar of the jersey.
Mathers told the gathering it will be born 10 times this season to match the amount of seasons the team has been in the Friendly City.
There also is a docu-series in the works chronicling the team’s history to this point.
The formal portion of the event was followed by a question-and-answer session with pre-written questions and some from the floor to the three panelists.
Questions ranged from team signings to additional merchandise being provided to fans, to potential road bus trips and many more.
The Sens begin their 10th AHL season with their home opener at CAA Arena Friday, Oct. 2 versus the Hamilton Hammers (formerly the Bridgeport Islanders) at 7 p.m.
Visit the Sens website for more details as the season draws closer.
