While we sit and wait to hear any more on Huntington's future prospects in organized hockey*, why not look at future hockey prospects from Huntington? Well, sort of. Back in the final years of the Tri-State Ice Arena, the Junior Blizzard competed in the Buckeye Travel Hockey League, competing in Midget (under 18) and Peewee (under 12) brackets. Their results? Not too bad I reckon...
2002-03: Midget 17U A-Bluegrass Division: 2nd, 9-6-1 (11-7-1 overall)
2003-04: Midget 17U A-Bluegrass Division: 3rd, 12-4-4 (12-6-4)
Peewee B: 7th, 4-16-1 (7-22-1)
2004-05: Midget 18: 8th, 3-20-1 (7-25-1)
Peewee B: 3rd, 6-9-1 (7-10-1)
After the rink in South Charleston was built, they set up their own program as well, which joined the league. There was a little overlap when the Jr. Blizzard and the South Charleston Chiefs played against each other...
2003-04:Midget 17U A-Bluegrass Division: 2nd, 14-5-1 (16-6-1)
2004-05:Midget 18: A 7th, 4-19-1 (5-22-2)
During this stretch Charleston won the series 4-1-2. Then Tri-State went dark, and South Charleston soldiered on...
2003-04: Bantam B-Bluegrass Division: 4th, 6-8-2 (9-9-3)
2005-06: Midget 18 A: 4th, 7-12-1 (8-14-1)
In 2006 the Bantam squad took the moniker "South Charleston Liberty", while the Midgets became merely the Charleston Chiefs. Maybe I read into omens a bit too much, but I don't think the name change had quite the desired effect:
LIBERTY:
2006-07: Bantam A-Mountaineer Division: 7th, 0-24-0 (0-26-0)
2007-08: Bantam A1: 7th, 0-24-0 (0-30-0)
Yes, that reads right--winless in two years of competition. The Chiefs weren't faring much better...
2006-07: Midget 18 A: 5th, 4-15-1 (5-17-1)
2007-08: Midget 18 A: 6th, 2-20-2 (2-26-2)
As far as I can tell the travel program did not continue past 2008, and I don't know what there was beforehand, so anyone out there (players, coaches, etc.) feel free to help me out!
*--something I've learned from following the Team US F1 story is that silence is not necessarily a bad thing.
1 comment:
I played the last 2 years of the Huntington Blizzard Midget team. The Charelston-Huntington games were a heated rivalry. The last year we had a total of 8 skaters (excluding goalie) on the team. A lot of players had chosen to go to Charelston (which had more than a full roster). One part of the last season went down to 7 because one of our players suffered a broken spleen. My last two years of youth hockey were played in Athens, Ohio. Playing at Charleston was the last thing on my mind (just look at that record.)
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