Avengers Open Camp

The Avengers opened their third training camp Tuesday at West Los Angeles College with a new coach, more new faces and renewed hopes for a winning Arena Football League season.

Coach Ed Hodgkiss greeted 15 players who played at least one game for last year’s 5-9 team, as well as 15 new players.

Hodgkiss, who was hired in October, said the competition for the 24 roster spots was “wide open,” but he didn’t think it would take long to mold the team.

“Because of the nature of the Arena game, there’s not a ton of [different] things you can do,” he said. “What I’m gonna focus on is us playing hard and playing smart. Those are two things that we can control.”

The Avengers will scrimmage Saturday at West Los Angeles College against the Georgia Force (formerly the Nashville Kats). They will play an exhibition game in Bakersfield against Georgia on April 4, and another at Chicago against the Rush on April 12 before opening the regular season April 19 at home against the New York Dragons.