Syracuse Stars
City	Syracuse, New York
League	Eastern Junior Hockey League
Founded	1996 (1996)
Home arena	Onondaga Nation Arena[1]
Colors	Yellow, Blue, and White
Franchise history
1996-1998	Syracuse Jr. Crunch
1998-1999	Auburn Jr. Crunch
1999-2005	Syracuse Jr. Crunch
2005-Present	Syracuse Stars

The Syracuse Stars are a Tier III Junior A American junior ice hockey team from Syracuse, New York. They play in the Eastern Junior Hockey League, and also have an associated team of the same name in the Empire Junior B Hockey League.

On December 9, 2009, Maksymum Hockey LLC, based in Rochester, New York, announced plans to operate the Stars and move them to Rochester beginning with the 2010-11 season. They will play at the ESL Sports Centre.^[2]

Contents 1 Mission 2 History 3 Team Members and Regular Season 4 Coach 5 Alumni 6 Season-by-Season results 7 Notes and references 8 External links

[edit] Mission

The stated mission of the Syracuse Stars organization is to provide the education, structure, and means necessary to advance players to the next level, while also developing the person, not just the hockey player. The Syracuse Stars believe that " ... character, commitment, work ethic and determination ... " are characteristics of a successful player, and the Syracuse Stars organization seeks to assist players in advancing to the NHL, Major Juniors, or College hockey.^[3]

[edit] History

In 1996, the Syracuse Junior Crunch were founded to play Canadian Junior A in the Metro Junior A Hockey League, which was absorbed by the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League in 1998. The team moved to Auburn that year, and was re-named the Auburn Junior Crunch.^[4] In 2005 the franchise was sold and renamed the Syracuse Stars, joining the Eastern Junior Hockey League.^[5]

[edit] Team Members and Regular Season

The Syracuse Stars hold tryouts in April of each year.^[6]. The season starts the day after Labor Day and playoffs finish during the third week of March each year. The schedule includes 45 EJHL regular season schedule games plus three rounds of playoffs.

[edit] Coach

The Head Coach of the Syracuse Stars is Don Kirnan. President of the Syracuse Stars Junior Hockey Club since 1986, Kirnan has 9 years of coaching at the Junior A and more than 15 years of coaching at the Junior B level. Coach Kirnan has been involved with the USA Olympic Development camps, and served as a coach at the Olympic Festival in 1993.

Coach Kirnan's philosophy includes the belief that constant exposure to high caliber of play along with an emphasis on education creates the ideal situation for aspiring student athletes to enhance their skills on the ice and in the classroom.

[edit] Alumni

In addition to those players which have gone on to play for various college teams^[7], a number of former Stars players have gone on to play at the NHL level, including the following:

Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings^[8][9]
Tim Connolly of the Buffalo Sabres ^[10][11]
T.J. Fox of the San Jose Sharks^[12][13] Rob Schremp Of the New York Islanders

[edit] Season-by-Season results

Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	GF	GA	P	Results	Playoffs
1996-97	50	10	37	3	-	220	358	23	15th Metro A
1997-98	49	29	16	4	-	273	219	62	4th Metro A
1998-99	51	27	22	2	0	232	195	56	17th OPJHL
1999-00	49	9	36	2	2	170	303	22	36th OPJHL
2000-01	49	20	24	4	1	195	234	45	26th OPJHL
2001-02	49	20	24	5	0	187	226	45	21st OPJHL
2002-03	49	4	43	1	1	114	308	10	34th OPJHL
2003-04	49	20	26	0	3	192	223	43	22nd OPJHL
2004-05	49	8	35	3	3	158	267	22	31st OPJHL
2005-06	45	11	27	1	6	127	208	29	13th EJHL
2006-07	45	19	18	3	5	155	175	46	8th EJHL
2007-08	45	30	9	5	1	155	120	66	3rd EJHL	Lost Quarter-final

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Syracuse Stars Official Website
• Eastern Junior Hockey League Website