Did you know youth ice hockey has been around in Owensboro for 50 years? It has grown to include both a competitive and recreational league for ages 6U to high school, and teams at all levels have found great success in recent years.
While people may have become familiar with the Owensboro Rampage — a competitive high school level team — due to their three-peat as state champions, there’s still plenty more to know about the Owensboro Youth Hockey Association teams.
Each league is broken up into age categories by birth years: High School, Junior Varsity, 14U, 12U, 10U, 8U, and 6U.
The recreational league, which OYHA also calls their house league, is offered in the late fall through winter, and again in the summer. Their participation numbers dropped during COVID, but they have since rebounded and currently have approximately 100 kids varying from 6U to 12U.
The competitive travel league includes the Rampage and PuckHogs. While the Rampage is only for high school players, the PuckHogs have teams for 14U, 12U, 10U, and 8U.
Mike Aldrich has coached a house league team for the past four seasons and a travel team for the past three. He currently coaches this year’s 10U Puckhogs.
“Over the last three travel seasons the players that have made up those teams through a 2-day tryout process have been some of the most outgoing and smart players that a coach could ask for,” he said. “A lot of our team’s success is due to the skill and progression that these players learn through the OYHA house league. These kids have gone out and represented not only themselves or the Puckhogs, but they have represented our great city of Owensboro with winning four championships — with one being the Tri-state Buckeye league.”
Owensboro hockey has been around since 1971, and league officials are always looking to build on the program and give the youth an opportunity to develop and play.
Rampage head coach Jason Link said the OYHA programs offers young beginners a chance to learn how to skate and play along with higher levels of play as they become more advanced in the game.
“OYHA has great deals for first-year players including hockey equipment rental for those new to the sport,” he said. “We feel that hockey is the hidden gem in Owensboro, and that a lot of residents are unaware of the opportunity to play hockey here locally in the greatest rink in the state of Kentucky.”
While the travel program has had history-making success with their championships at all levels, Link said OYHA offers something more than just accolades.
“The greatest gift that hockey provides is that it will make you a better all-around athlete and the game of hockey will make you better at every other sport,” he said. “Hockey is a 6-month-long sport over the winter that keeps our youth engaged both physically and mentally, creating an atmosphere for learning new skills and keeping physically active. It is important for players, parents, and guardians to know it is ok to not know how to skate, and there is no experience necessary to begin this journey into the greatest game on earth.”
