The Valencia Flyers were an

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

(AAU)-sanctioned junior

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team based in Valencia, Santa Clarita, California. The team played in the Western Division of the

Western States Hockey League The Western States Hockey League (WSHL) was a junior ice hockey league established in 1993. It was sanctioned by the United Hockey Union, the junior hockey branch of the Amateur Athletic Union. Previously, it was sanctioned by USA Hockey from ...

at the Ice Station Valencia.

History

The franchise was founded in 2001 as the Valencia Flyers in the

(WSHL) with three other expansion franchises. The team played as the Flyers from 2001 to 2003 until suspending operations for the 2003–04 season before returning for the 2004–05 season as the Valencia Vipers. In 2007, the team reverted to its original name. From 2001 to 2007, the Flyers were a

USA Hockey USA Hockey is a national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United S ...

-sanctioned Tier III Junior B team. In 2007, the WSHL was promoted to Tier III Junior A. Before the 2011–12 season, the WSHL and all its team members, including the Flyers, became AAU-sanctioned and dropped its USA Hockey sanctioning, the first Junior A hockey league to make that transition. At the end of the 2019–20 regular season, the Flyers' home rink was closed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the Ice Station Valencia, which was also owned by the Flyers' owner Roger Perez. The closure was made permanent due to the financial losses incurred by the shutdown, forcing the franchise to cease operations indefinitely.

Season-by-season records

Alumni

The Flyers have had a number of alumni move on to

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division III, and higher levels of

junior ice hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from ...

, and

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

ice hockey.

References

External links

Official Website
* {{California sports Defunct ice hockey teams in California 2001 establishments in California 2020 disestablishments in California Ice hockey clubs established in 2001 Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2020