Basingstoke Bison

Basingstoke Bison
City Basingstoke, Hampshire, England
League English Premier Ice Hockey League
Founded 1988
Home arena Planet Ice Silverdome
Colours White, Red, Black & Silver
Owner(s) Planet Ice
Head coach Doug Sheppard
Captain Aaron Connolly
Franchise history
1988–95 Basingstoke Beavers
1995– Basingstoke Bison

The Basingstoke Bison are an English Ice Hockey club from Basingstoke. They currently compete in the English Premier Ice Hockey League and have previously been members of the Ice Hockey Superleague and its successor the Elite Ice Hockey League

History

Formed in 1988 as the Basingstoke Beavers, the club became the "Bison" in 1995. Their team logo (see right) is very similar to that used by the Buffalo Sabres from 1996–2006. Joining the Superleague in 1996, the Bison dropped out in 1998 and joined the British National League. In 2003 they joined the newly formed Elite Ice Hockey League.

Despite being one of the lower budget teams in the EIHL, the Bison maintained their fan base and greatly enhanced local sponsorships and doubled their season ticket sales.

This success is mainly testament to the hard work of Mark Bernard, who occupied the General Manager and Head Coach role with the club during the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons. Bernard also stepped into the Netminder's role part way through the latter season after Jayme Platt had left the team.

In May 2006, Bernard left the club to take up the Assistant General Managers post at American Hockey League side the Norfolk Admirals. Prior to his departure, Bernard secured the services of a number of the players that made up the 05/06 roster.

In June 2006, Planet Ice announced that the new player/coach of the club would be former club captain Doug Sheppard, with former Bison and London Racers defenceman Duncan Dalmao returning as player/assistant coach. Sheppard set about building his roster around the core that he had inherited from Bernard.

Bison embarked upon a successful year under Sheppard, securing their highest ever Elite League finish, and taking many points off the top sides in the League.

In April 2007, David Taylor, owner of Bracknell Bees, purchased the Bison. He appointed Ryan Aldridge as the Head Coach of the team, signalling the end of Doug Shepherd's reign. Shepherd went on to join rivals Sheffield Steelers.

Following financial problems, which had resulted in the departure of a number of players (including starting netminder Stevie Lyle), Taylor relinquished ownership of the Bison and the team's new owner was announced as Tomas Enerston by Planet Ice on 8 November 2007.

Less than a year later, following further financial difficulty, Planet Ice put together a rescue package to keep Bison on the ice until the end of the 2008/09 season.

On 25 March 2009, the Bison released a statement confirming that they will be joining the EPL for the 2009/10 season.[1][2] Entry to the EPIHL was confirmed on 15 April 2009,[3] and Steve Moria took over as Head Coach the following day.[4]

After Moria's departure at the end of the 2011–2012 season, it was announced that Doug Sheppard would return as the Bison head coach for the 2012–2013 season.

In March 2013, Doug Sheppard signed another deal with the Basingstoke Bison to continue as head coach for the 2013–2014 season.[5]

The Basingstoke Bison won the 15/16 English Premier League title, under Doug Sheppard as coach. This ended their silverware drought of 23 years.[6] [7]

Roster

Roster for the 2016/17 EPIHL season.[8]

Goaltenders
# Nat Player Catches Height Weight Date of birth 15/16 Club
53 Slovakia Tomáš Hiadlovský L 181 cm 79 kg 15 December 1988 England Basingstoke Bison
93 Wales Daniel Weller-Evans L 182 cm 71 kg 25 October 1993 England Basingstoke Bison
Defencemen
# Nat Player Shoots Height Weight Date of birth 15/16 Club
15 England Joe Baird R 175 cm 84 kg 19 May 1980 England Basingstoke Bison
24 England Declan Balmer L 192 cm 88 kg 9 June 1996 England Basingstoke Bison
6 Czech Republic Jakub Bartoň R 177 cm 79 kg 13 July 1981 Czech Republic SK Horácká Slavia Třebíč
9 England Daniel Lackey R 178 cm 98 kg 13 March 1990 England Basingstoke Buffalo
94 England Stuart Mogg R 182 cm 79 kg 1 August 1994 England Basingstoke Bison
7 England Kurt Reynolds R 177 cm 78 kg 31 October 1986 England Basingstoke Buffalo
Forwards
# Nat Player Shoots Height Weight Date of birth 15/16 Club
19 England/Russia Ivan Antonov L 181 cm 79 kg 12 May 1997 England Basingstoke Bison
63 England Aaron Connolly L 180 cm 83 kg 1 June 1993 England Basingstoke Bison
47 England Daniel Davies R 180 cm 68 kg 26 July 1989 England Telford Tigers
35 Slovakia René Jarolín L 187 cm 88 kg 16 September 1981 England Basingstoke Bison
44 Czech Republic Tomáš Karpov L 178 cm 83 kg 9 March 1989 England Basingstoke Bison
92 England Alan Lack R 167 cm 84 kg 20 July 1992 England Basingstoke Bison
89 England Ciaran Long R 190 cm 81 kg 9 February 1991 England Basingstoke Bison
11 Czech Republic Petr Polodna L 177 cm 82 kg 30 March 1982 Czech Republic SK Horácká Slavia Třebíč
17 England/South Africa Grant Rounding L 170 cm 69 kg 26 October 1990 England Basingstoke Bison
13 England Shaun Thompson R 175 cm 69 kg 13 July 1987 England Basingstoke Bison
21 England Matt Towalski R 177 cm 83 kg 6 March 1984 England Basingstoke Bison

Honoured members

Basingstoke have only retired the number of two players, the first being Kevin Conway's number 10 in 2005 following his initial retirement from ice hockey. In the 2005–06 season, Tony Redmond was honoured with a testimonial season. In September 2009, it was announced that Don Yewchin, the original ice hockey coordinator for the Beavers in 1988 would have his number 12 jersey retired before Basingstoke's league game with local rivals Bracknell Bees on Saturday 10 October 2009. In a fantastic twist of fate, Basingstoke won the game 12–0[9][10]

Team honours

1989/89
1991/92
1992/93
1993/94
1994/95
1998/99
1999/00
2000/01
2003/04
2012/13
2013/14
2015/16

Past head coaches

Notable players

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 29 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  2. ↑ "Bison to leave Elite League". Basingstoke Gazette. 2009-03-26. Archived from the original on 4 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  3. ↑ http://www.bstokebison.co.uk/news.php?ymid=0904&item=1&option=n%5B%5D
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
  5. ↑ Graham Merry (2013-03-20). "Doug Sheppard signs new deal to lead Basingstoke Bison in 2013-14 (From Basingstoke Gazette)". Basingstokegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-02-26.
  6. ↑ Graham Merry. "AS IT HAPPENED - Basingstoke Bison are crowned league champions (From Basingstoke Gazette)". Basingstokegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-02-26.
  7. ↑ Harriet Jackson (2016-03-14). "Basingstoke Bison are crowned English Premier League champions (From Basingstoke Gazette)". Basingstokegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-02-26.
  8. ↑ "Basingstoke Bison Roster". Basingstoke Bison. Retrieved 2016-09-18.
  9. ↑ "About Us : The Club". Basingstoke Ice Hockey Club. Archived from the original on 14 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  10. ↑ "Bison v Bees Highlights 10/10/09". YouTube. 2009-10-10. Retrieved 2017-02-26.
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