History
From 1970 until 1984, the Stouffville Clippers were members of the Central Junior C Hockey League and played at the old Stouffville Arena built in 1949. [1] From 1984 until 1995, the team was on a long hiatus. The Clippers were brought back in 1995 playing at the current Stouffville Arena (built 1985), [2] changed their name to the Spirit a season later, and have been members of the OPJHL ever since.
Junior hockey has a long and storied history in Stouffville. In the first half of the 20th Century it had two ice rinks for hockey, Maple Leaf Rink (1901) and Clayton Baker Arena at what is now Memorial Park (1926). [3]
The 1947 Stouffville Red Wings, which played at Clayton Baker Arena, won an OHA championship and played until 1949 in the OHA Senior B when it was renamed the Clippers. [4] Baker Arena was dismantled for the old Stouffville Arena at Memorial Park and reused in Cambray, Ontario. [5] Junior hockey was popular in Stouffville through the 1960s, right into the early 1980s.
The Spirit was founded in 1995. George Stavro, who was granted the franchise by the Ontario Hockey Association, was the team's first coach and general manager. Junior hockey hadn't been played in Stouffville since 1984, when the OHA's junior C Stouffville Clippers folded.
But Stavro didn't last a full season in the Provincial Junior A Hockey League.
In mid-season, he sold the franchise to Stouffville businessman Ed Hakonson, who had tried to obtain a junior A franchise for Stouffville earlier in the '90s. Former Stouffville minor official Wally Crowder was named general manager, and Steve Sedore of Georgina head coach.
The Spirit struggled on and off the ice over the first three seasons. Sedore was replaced as coach by Stouffville minor hockey grad Dan Larmer. Larmer played junior hockey in southern Ontario and college hockey at Mercyhurst in Pennsylvania, before a brief pro career.
A move of home games at the Whitchurch-Stouffville Recreation Complex, from Saturday nights to Thursdays, improved attendance. But the Spirit didn't make the playoffs in its first three seasons.
A new regime took over Spirit hockey operations in 1998. New Spirit general manager Dieter Schmidt had been manager and head coach Brian Perrin was associate coach with the successful Newmarket Hurricanes' organization, before accepting promotions in Stouffville.
Players have advanced to college and major junior hockey since Year 1 of the Spirit.
Hakonson sold shares in the hockey club to Stouffville-area resident Zeev Werek and Larry Goldberg in 1999, then sold the rest of the team to Werek and Goldberg a year later. David Laren joined the Spirit in 2002 as an equal partner. Goldberg left the group in 2005.
Schmidt retired as GM after the 2000-2001 season. His replacement is Stouffville native Ken Burrows, who in 10 years with the Spirit has been vice-president of hockey, assistant coach and scout.
A volunteer board of directors oversees the operation of the Spirit.
The Spirit is proud to be affiliated with the Whitchurch-Stouffville Minor Hockey Association and the Uxbridge Bruins Junior C Hockey Club.
