Ottawa Fury FC reported for training Monday, six weeks before the start of the NASL season. There was an abundance of confidence and smiles at Lansdowne as players and coaching staff met on the first day of Ottawa Fury training camp. Fury players will report for medicals on Tuesday, and head to Complexe Branchaud-Briere in Gatineau for training later in the week.

Fury coach Marc Dos Santos spent about an hour in a meeting with the squad Monday morning, discussing the expectations and coaching methods the players will be facing this year. He then had the squad hit the gyms for the first team workout of the season. This time last year Fury hadn’t even signed the likes of Mason Trafford or Vini Dantas yet, and didn’t get their first full team training session until just over a week before their first NASL game. Today the only players absent from the training were Philippe Davies and Omar Jarun.

Tom Heinemann returns to Lansdowne this year looking extremely fit and confident. “We are excited to get in, see the new faces, meet everyone and get the ball rolling” the towering centre-forward said. Tommy stayed fit this off season teaching futsal with fellow Fury players Carl Haworth, Nicki Paterson and Mason Trafford.

Heinemann looks to see an improvement this year, on both a personal level and from the club, setting a personal goal of scoring fifteen times for Fury FC this year. “I think coming off last season it was disappointing from a team perspective, not to do better in the league, and personally, not to show better in a lot of games” the American said. “When you’re faced with a little bit of adversity you should put your head down and get back to the grind, and that’s what I’ve tried to do for this off season, prepare my body the best I can for the upcoming year”.

Fury FC has added a lot of experience at the back this season, especially in central-defense. Rafael Alves seems to tower over other Fury players, while Colin Falvey brings a ton of experience to the club. “I think Marc has got together a good bunch of lads” the Irishman said. “We’re quite confident that it’s going to be a successful year”.

Falvey has experience in both North America and abroad, and has played with both Paterson and Heinemann before in Charleston. “It’s good to see familiar faces coming into a new club, it makes settling in a little easier. We were successful down in Charleston and hopefully we can bring some of that success here, although it will be a team effort”



Ryan Richter has joined the club on a full time basis this season, following a successful loan period last year. Richter discussed his desire to win a championship in Ottawa and said “He [Marc] brought in a lot of good pieces.” These pieces include former Toronto FC teammate Andrew Weideman, who said “From meeting the guys today, it seems we have a pretty good team going forward”

This season’s training camp seems to be off to a much better start than last year, where some players were missing and others had not adapted to the new set up yet. “If we look at one year ago when we were starting, we had half the team here and a lot of guys trying out” Marc Dos Santos said, “We hope that we are going to build something special this season.” Dos Santos discussed the importance of having players competing for their positions week in week out, saying “We can play with two forwards, or stick to a 4-3-3. We have flexibility.” It appears as though the roster is just about set for the NASL season, however Dos Santos did mention he could make another signing if a special case were to arise.

Fury will continue their training this week, and will face reserve teams from both Montreal and Toronto in pre-season training before heading to the USA to face Syracuse University and Wake Forest University. They being their 2015 campaign against Carolina on April 4th.