By John Packett
Renegades Writer

Are the upper-echelon teams in the Southern Professional Hockey League securing new and better players for their rosters while the Richmond Renegades fall back in the pack?

That’s the way it seems lately, as the Renegades have dropped four straight to fall from first to fifth place in the past three weeks. Richmond owner Allan B. Harvie doesn’t see it that way.

“At this time of year, where are you going to find guys?“ Harvie said. “Some of these teams are paying all these fees, $1,500 a man, to expedite their visas. I’m not going to pay $1,500 a man to bring in players. Some of them are putting guys on injured reserve who aren’t hurt so they can test other guys out. I’m not going to do that either.“

Fayetteville was able to obtain the rights to forward Robert Sich through the dispersal draft when Florida folded in early January. In 16 games for the FireAntz, Sich has scored 18 goals and added 16 assists.

Huntsville has obtained forward Justin Keller in a trade with Pee Dee and he’s expected to join the Havoc sometime this month. Keller was leading Florida with 22 goals when the Seals folded.

“We’d like to have had Sich, but he wasn’t available when we picked,“ Harvie said. The Renegades chose goaltender Matt Balser but he never showed up here.

Richmond has picked up forward/defenseman Chris Shaw (Central League) and defenseman Nathan Oke (released by Knoxville) over the past couple of weeks.

“Why is everybody pushing the panic button?“ Harvie said. “When we play togther, when we play for 60 minutes, there’s nobody better than we are. We’ve proven that. We’ve got the same team that won six in a row. I’ve got all the faith in the world in these guys. We told them that after practice [on Tuesday]. None of these guys has given up.

“We’ve got a club that’s capable of going to the [playoff] finals and maybe winning it all.“

The Renegades opened a three=game road trip Thursday night in Florence, S.C., against Pee Dee, then continue to Fayetteville on Friday and first-place Columbus on Saturday before returning to the Richmond Coliseum on March 9 against Pee Dee.