The Broadstreet Bullies are a ball hockey team playing in both the Ball Hockey Edmonton summer league and the Castledowns Ball Hockey winter league in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
The Bullies home jersey features the white with orange and black trim of the Philadelphia Flyers colours (the original Broadstreet Bullies). The away jerseys are orange with black and white trim. In both cases, our logo remains a stylized version of the hero from the classic NES game, River City Ransom.
A Brief Bullies History:
A group of the regulars from the weekly Castledowns YMCA floor hockey game decides to put a team together to enter the Ball Hockey Edmonton league. Notable faces from this crew were Ryan Peniuk, John 'Jay' Gilbert, Nate Draginda, Darryl Paget, James Unger, Nicholas Paufler, Aron Nenninger, Clint Wilson, Darcy Skish, and Ray Beattie. Team ranks swelled with the addition of some players from the Xtreme Zone dropin ball hockey, with Heath Nixon, Randy Moisan, Roger Vincent, Gaetan 'Gee' Daniel, Darcy 'Monty' Holden, Brad Leebody, Murray Reigert, Mike Frederick, and Brent Ames all coming aboard.
The newly named Bullies entered into their first season of real ball hockey as they finished just out of the playoffs with a 7-16-1 record. This first season planted the seeds of some of the best rivalries that the Bullies have had with other teams.
Due to their past experience with drop-in at the Xtreme Zone, the Bullies were one of the first teams to sign up for the newly formed Castledowns Ball Hockey Winter League. This season also marked the infamous "split" in which the team split in half, ostensibly to increase ice time on the smaller surface. Heath Nixon, Roger Vincent, Randy Moisan, Murray Reigert, Brent Ames and Gaetan Daniel went off to form a new team, DLS. The diminished Bullies roster (though improved by the addition of Richard Kirchener) had a rough season, finishing 3-11-2 in the regular season, and bouncing out in the first round of the playoffs.
Despite the original intention of reforming for the Summer season, DLS chose to remain together and entered BHE as the Swashbucklers. This left the already undermanned Bullies team especially short, and even with the return of Murray Reigert and Brent Ames. It took the addition of a number of rookies to bring the Bullies back to full strength. Cordell Ferguson, a Bully for just this one season, made a huge impact, leading the team in scoring, but the end result was a worse finish than their first year, ending 4-19-1, again ouit of the playoffs.
Perhaps by no coincidence the Winter 2005 season features both the reformation of the original Bullies team, with Randy Moisan, Gaetan 'Gee' Daniel, and Roger Vincent returning to the lineup, as well as improving results in the standings. Despite only finishing 5-8-3, things were starting to come together for the Bullies as they were much more competitive in their division.
Due to the gap between the end of the winter season and the start of the summer, the Bullies entered into Castledowns Spring Tuneup to keep in running shape. Bolstered by the addition of some longtime Bullies associates: Maurice Roy, Cordell Ferguson, and Thomas Plett, and featuring the return of defenceman Brad Leebody, the Bullies finally had a winning season. They finished 5-4-1 and really improved their game over the short season.
Despite a desire to avoid a rookie heavy roster, the Bullies found a number of fresh faces on the team. Fortunately, this year's crop fit in perfectly and all made big impacts. AJ Prockiw, Derrick Mertz, Amar Deol, and Aron Bourque were all key components of a Bullies team that went 18-6-0, including a 12-2-0 run to finish the season in 3rd place (of the 17 teams). Unfortunately the playoffs were much the same as they have always been, with the Bullies going out in the first round.
Fielding a team very similar to their summer rostter, Winter 2006 was a season of ups and downs for the Bullies. They started off strong, going 3-1-0 in the preseason, but were very inconistent in the regular season, culminating in a 5 game losing streak. Their fortunes turned, though, with a five game winning streak putting them back in the race. Their 12-10-0 record was good for 5th place, but despite picking up one win in the playoffs, they were yet again unable to move on to the second round.
Moving up a division this summer, the Bullies are expecting a much tougher challenge, but are very confident in their roster. The big addition is the return of Cordell Ferguson, who will certainly be an impact player.
Broadstreet Bullies Ball Hockey
Edmonton, Alberta Canada