Rochester Jr. Americans

The Rochester Jr. Americans are a Tier III Junior A American ice hockey team from Rochester, New York. Their top team currently plays in the USPHL in the Premier Division while also fielding a team in the Elite Division.

History


The history of the team name goes back to the 1980's when they played in the Northeastern Junior Hockey League. They even played for one season (1997-98) in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe Junior Hockey League. In 1996, the Syracuse Junior Crunch were founded to play Canadian Junior A in the Metro Junior A Hockey League, which was absorbed by the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League in 1998. The team moved to Auburn that year, and was renamed the Auburn Junior Crunch. In 2005 the franchise was sold and renamed the Syracuse Stars, joining the Eastern Junior Hockey League. On December 9, 2009, Maksymum Hockey LLC, based in Rochester, New York, announced plans to operate the Stars and move them to Rochester beginning with the 2010-11 season. They currently play at the Bill Gray's Regional Iceplex.

In 2013, the EJHL dissolved after several members left to form the United States Premier Hockey League. By the beginning of the 2013–14 season, the Stars joined the USPHL in the Elite and Empire Divisions (with the former EJHL team in Elite and the former EmJHL team in the Empire). Both teams were renamed to the Rochester Jr. Americans.

In 2014, the Jr. Americans promoted their Elite Division Tier III team to the USPHL's Premier Division for the 2014–15 season and began playing against many of the former EJHL members. For the 2015–16 season they switched their team from the Empire Division (recently renamed USP3 Division) to the Elite Division.

After the 2015-16 season the team was replaced by a team called the Rochester Monarchs and they are listed as having teams in the USPHL's Elite, 18U, and 16U divisions. No word on what happened to the organization have been posted on the Americans website, facebook, or Twitter pages.

Team members and regular season
The Rochester Jr. Americans hold tryouts in April of each year. The season starts the day after Labor Day and playoffs finish during the third week of March each year. The schedule includes 45 EJHL regular season schedule games plus three rounds of playoffs.

In addition to those players which have gone on to play for various college teams, a number of former Stars players have gone on to play at the NHL level, including the following:

Ryan Callahan of the Tampa Bay Lightning

Tim Connolly

Colby Cohen

Jeremy Morin of the Chicago Blackhawks

Matt Murley,

Rob Schremp

Tim Sestito

Tom Sestito