Giants Name Greg Batters Director of Player Personnel

With Lacrosse taking over the Ladner Leisure Centre for the Presidents Cup Championship hosted by the Ladner Pioneers the Vancouver Giants were forced to relocate their training camp to their home rink – the Langley Events Centre.

The Leisure Centre is their home training facility as well as their office in Ladner they along with other user groups such as the South Delta MHA have backed their schedule up to accomodate the Piioneers.

In lieu of that we received the following press release from the Vancouver Giants.

Enjoy the read:

The Vancouver Giants are excited to announce a new addition to their hockey staff, as Greg Batters (Victoria, B.C.) has been named the club’s Director of Player Personnel.

Batters brings a wealth of experience to the G-Men, having worked in junior hockey for nearly 30 years, most recently as the head Alberta scout for the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs, whom he had scouted for since 2019. He was previously a scout for the Kamloops Blazers from 1995-2019.

The 57-year-old was a firefighter for the city of Victoria for 28 years, retiring as a Battalion Chief in 2021.

Giants GM Barclay Parneta mentioned “We would like to welcome Greg Batters to the Vancouver Giants organization.”

He added “With his extensive experience in hockey, from playing to coaching to scouting, we are thrilled to have him lead our scouting department and player development. After a long and thorough search, we are confident his values and experience align with the Giant identity and will help positively shape the future of our prospects and team.”

From 1984-88, Batters played in the WHL, mostly for his hometown Victoria Cougars and then briefly for the Moose Jaw Warriors, before playing three seasons in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) for the Knoxville Cherokees (1988-91). 

He later coached AAA hockey for the Victoria Racquet Club for a decade (1992-2002), before serving as coach coordinator for three additional seasons, and was an assistant coach for the Victoria Salmon Kings in their inaugural season in the ECHL in 2004-05.

Batters mentioned “I’ve known Barclay a long time and the Giants are a great organization: ownership cares about the team, wants to win, and has been involved in the game a long time.”

He continued “And they have a great staff. A lot of these guys I’ve seen around the rinks for years and they’re always friendly and always professional. It’s a good group of people that I’m excited to meet and work alongside.”

Batters has a winning pedigree in lacrosse as well, winning the Minto Cup as a player in 1988 and winning the 1997 Mann Cup as an assistant coach with the Victoria Shamrocks in addition working as a scout for the NLL Colorado Mammoth for three years.

“I learned a lot from my time in Kamloops from a lot of really great scouts,” Batters added. “I want to thank all the scouts I’ve ever worked with and also thank Spokane for giving me the opportunity to work with such a great organization.”