The East Coast Finally Gets A Senior Hockey League
Give Shoresy a Boston Accent
Hockey is an incredible sport. The pace, aggression, and abilities displayed at every level are truly astounding. There are tens of thousands of adults participating in adult leagues across the country and even more in Canada. The level of skill for these players is wide, with adults learning the game alongside players with college, junior, and pro experience.
There is a gap in the area between beer league at your local rink, and going to play in the Federal League, the lowest tier of pro hockey in the US. Elsewhere in Canada and the US, they have senior hockey leagues, and frankly, the East Coast should’ve had a senior hockey league a long time ago. Now we’ve finally got a Senior AAA league in the American Premier Hockey League.
What is Senior Hockey?
Senior hockey is a loosely organized league of teams that rides the line between amateur and semi-professional. Players can be compensated for their time but not in a meaningful way. They almost certainly have real jobs and lives outside of hockey. It’s a nights and weekends league for sure, where if players have aspirations it is simply to keep playing hockey that feels like it means something for as long as possible.
Men’s league (aka beer league) is the road that all hockey careers eventually end at. Where Senior hockey steps in is that it gives players who are still wanting to play at a highly competitive, full-contact style. Most, if not all, men’s league hockey is of the non-checking variety with the level of allowable physicality based entirely on what the officials will allow and what the players seem to dictate.
Why Should People Care?
There is an aspect of “living the dream” here a little bit, and that should always be respected. So many people don’t live up to the dream they had as a kid of playing pro hockey or becoming a football-playing king in space, that when someone is able to grab even a fraction of that dream it should be respected and applauded.
Why else? Watching sports is expensive. The average fan cost (according to the Fan Cost Index) from the 2021-2022 season was $462.58. It will only go up as time progresses. The beauty of minor or semi-pro hockey is that it is affordable and accessible. In the same way that a trip to a single A or AA ballpark can be a fun family outing centered around sports, so can Senior hockey. A Friday or Saturday night at the rink can be a fantastic way to expose kids to the beauty and ferocity of hockey up close and create a lifelong fan.
APHL
The American Premier Hockey League is new, building out of the success of the UHL or the United Hockey League. The APHL has 11 teams based out of 6 states. They have games ongoing on this very weekend.
As per the league on the rapid mid-season change “In light of the immense successes that our individual teams have been having, the owners of these teams have decided to rebrand and restructure as the American Premier Hockey League, or APHL, to increase our overall league strength for years to come. The APHL is ready to take our players and generations of new and existing fans to the next level of Senior AAA hockey.”
I’ll be following this new league! Will you?