After a friend’s cryptic email, a simple trademark application, and a little internet snooping, the news is out: a Junior B development hockey league is expanding to the Birmingham, Alabama, market this summer.
Resurrecting an old WHA / ECHL name, the Birmingham Jr Bulls will be the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League’s (MJHL) next expansion franchise. According to head coach John Bierchen, “It is for players 16-20 years of age looking to develop so that they may move on to NCAA college hockey and get an athletic scholarship.”
With the growth of hockey amongst SEC schools, I'm really not surprised to see this. We've had dev leagues here before, and they've always done pretty well (Alabama Gunners, Pelham Prowlers, etc.)
They'll probably play at the Pelham Civic Complex. It holds 3,500 for hockey. Nice little building for Jr Hockey and in the middle of some affluent neighborhoods in the area.
we desperately need more jr. teams in the region, that is the biggest hurdle for players from this area. i was travelling all over the damn country attending jr. A tryouts for a couple of years. really hard to be "discovered" being from here regardless of how good you are and most tryout camps are cash grabs.
good news, hopefully the USHL and NAHL follow suit soon
Would be nice to see USHL and NAHL representation in the area. No USHL teams around, and the only NAHL teams in the south are located in Kansas, Texas, and New Mexico. Blech.
