San Diego Amateur Hockey Club
Club History

The San Diego Amateur Hockey club was founded in California back in 1969, however the early history of the club is unknown.

In 1990 there were two ice rinks and one travel hockey program in San Diego. The San Diego Ice Arena supported a house league program and the bantam and midget "Hawks" travel program. The La Jolla Ice Chalet had a house league program and the Hawks mite, squirt and peewee travel program. The Hawks played in the same league our current teams play in - SCAHA (Southern California Hockey Association - www.scaha.com).

In 1993 a new ice rink was built in Escondido (IceFloe, later sold to Iceoplex) and in addition to a house league program, the Escondido Storm travel hockey program began. The Hawks ceased to exist at that time and although San Diego had three rinks, the only travel hockey program was based out of Escondido skating as the Storm.

In 1995, the San Diego Stars Hockey Club, a travel hockey program based at the San Diego Ice Arena began. In addition, a new TIER level hockey program - The Jr. Gulls - started in Escondido. The Jr. Gulls wore the logo of the old IHL Gulls.

In 1996, the La Jolla Jaguars travel hockey club started skating out of the La Jolla Ice Chalet. At this time, San Diego had 3 ice rinks and 4 youth travel hockey clubs in operation, in addition to house leagues at all three rinks.

In 1998, it was clear that the number of youth hockey clubs in San Diego was too large and an effort was made to combine all clubs into one large club in order to create the best top level teams. All clubs, with the exception of the La Jolla Jaguars, agreed to cease operations and join together as the San Diego Amateur Hockey Club.

The first year (1998-99 season) was tough on everyone as we had to get used to running such a large club. We listened and made improvements for the second year (1999-2000 season). Although we continued to improve the business side of the club, we did not have much success at the top levels (we had some great 'B' level teams and, but our TIER and 'A' teams suffered).

In the 2000-2001 season we renewed our focus on our TIER teams and the result was a 3rd place at the National Championships for our Bantam AA team. Our Peewee AA Team was a semi-finalist in the CAHA state championships and our Midget AAA team qualified for the Pacific District championships.

In 2001-2002 our Squirt BB team won the California State B Championship. We expanded our TIER program to include multiple AA teams at the Bantam and Midget level and we continued our support of a Midget AAA team which was within the top 25 AAA teams in the nation at times during the season.

In 2002-2003 ten of our twelve teams qualified for their league playoffs. Bantam AA and Midget 17 AA won the Southwest League Championships. Midget 17 AAA and Bantam AA won the California State Championships. Midget 17 AA finished second in California and Midget 16 AA finished third. Beyond California, our teams continue to have national success as our Midget 17 AAA team finished the season ranked #13 in the Nation. Bantam AA took first place at the Pacific District Regional Championships and advanced for the second time in three years to the USA Hockey National Championship as representatives for the Pacific District.

We plan to continue to improve the hockey as well as the business side of the club in the upcoming season.