Elmira Enforcers
| Elmira Enforcers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| City | Elmira, New York |
| League | Federal Hockey League |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Home arena | First Arena |
| Owner(s) | Robbie and Nellie Nichols |
| General manager | Marc Witt |
| Head coach | Brent Clarke |
| Website | elmiraenforcers |
| Franchise history | |
| 2018–present | Elmira Enforcers |
The Elmira Enforcers are a minor professional ice hockey team located in Elmira, New York, and play in the Federal Hockey League. Their home games are played at First Arena.
History
On July 17, 2018, Robbie Nichols announced he had acquired an expansion team in Elmira, New York, one year after the Elmira Jackals had ceased operations.[1] On August 2, Nichols revealed the team name as the Enforcers and introduced the team's inaugural head coach as Brent Clarke, who had previously been the head coach of the Danville Dashers and Watertown Wolves.[2]
The Enforcers played their first game October 26, 2018, and played their first six games on the road with a 2–4 record. On November 16, the team played their first home game and set a league record with 4,310 announced attendance, beating the previous record set by the Williamsport Outlaws in 2012 of 3,447.[3] The team continued to set single-season FHL attendance records,[4] but also saw its share of controversies. On December 17, 2018, several Enforcers were arrested after getting into a bar fight, sending a man to the hospital, although the charges would later be dropped.[5][6] On March 10, 2019, owner Nichols accosted a referee after the first period of a game against the Carolina Thunderbirds. The game was immediately cancelled by the officials, and subsequently led the FHL's officiating supervisor to pull all the referees from the FHL citing the need to protect his personnel.[7][8]
References
- ^ "Professional hockey returns to Elmira's First Arena". Star Gazette. July 17, 2018.
- ^ "Elmira hockey team chooses Enforcers as nickname, Brent Clarke as head coach". Star-Gazette. August 2, 2018.
- ^ "Legare: Pro hockey gets a fresh start in Elmira". Star-Gazette. November 17, 2018.
- ^ "ENFORCERS BREAK FHL SINGLE SEASON ATTENDANCE RECORD". FHL. March 5, 2019.
- ^ "UPDATE: District Attorney reviewing potential charges against Elmira Enforcers players". MyTwinTiers.com. December 18, 2018.
- ^ "DA will not pursue charges against Enforcers hockey players after December incident". Star-Gazette. January 12, 2019.
- ^ "Officials pull referees from all FHL games following alleged altercation between Enforcers owner, refs". WENY-TV. March 11, 2019.
- ^ "REPORT: Officiating supervisor pulls refs from all remaining FHL games". Bus League Hockey. March 10, 2019.
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