SPHL primed for a big year

CHARLOTTE , NC  – Sitting across the table, SPHL President Jim Combs looked very relaxed. He should be. With season eight fast approaching, it could be the best one yet for the single-A circuit.
Nine members strong after the entrance of the Mississippi RiverKings who hail from Southaven just south of Memphis, Combs and Vice President Doug Price are now working on further expansion that could see the league with 12 or 14 teams within the next few seasons. It is a testimony to the strength of the foundation built beneath the league whose footprint covers the southeast region.
“We have a great business footprint to follow,” Combs said. “We offer affordable family entertainment and now have nine sustainable teams.”
The 56-game schedule for most of the teams will begin this upcoming season on Friday, October 21. However, on Thursday, October 20, the first big face-off will happen when the Augusta RiverHawks host the Mississippi Surge at the James Brown Arena in Augusta, Georgia. It will be a rematch of last season’s President’s Cup championship series that was swept by the Surge, meaning that the RiverHawks will have revenge on their minds.
Additional interest in the contest will be generated by the fact that the Surge are now owned by Pensacola owner and Chairman of the SPHL Board of Governors Tim Kerr. Kerr made news recently when he released head coach and general manager Steffon Walby from his post, making the game in Augusta the first regular season game for the yet-to-be-named replacement.
Formed in 2004 out of the ashes of the SEHL and the WHA2, the SPHL has steadily grown over the last three years. It added teams in Biloxi ( Miss.), Pensacola ( Fla.) and Lafayette ( La.) in 2009 followed by Augusta last year and now the RiverKings in 2011. Canadian players make up 60 percent of the rosters with Americans and a few European players making the grade.
The SPHL organization is made up of a Board of Governors with one person from each team getting a vote on important league-wide matters. The system has worked well for this non-profit organization and seems to be taking the league to an even stronger position with each passing year.
As a league, the SPHL is very proud of the achievements of its member franchises, especially within the local communities that the teams call home. That is certainly the case in Biloxi where the President’s Cup and the Coffey Trophy, emblematic of the regular season championship, are touring the region. The hardware is stopping for days at a time at locations where the fans can see them, touch them and have their pictures taken with them. Last week, the trophies were displayed at branches of the People’s Bank. This coming week, two Trustmark Banks will play host with more sites to be announced in the coming weeks.
Teams have begun to sign players and will be hosting free agent try-outs as the season nears. Right now, all of the teams are out in their communities as staff and players are making promotional appearances fanning the flames of support. Ticket prices for all nine teams are very reasonable – some starting in the $5 to $10 range – with all sorts of full and partial season ticket and payment plans available right now.
As Combs points out, the SPHL is terrific family entertainment, especially with the three-on-three overtime format. Most leagues use a four-on-four format but Combs said the SPHL’s way creates a lot of excitement for the fans.
“People just get caught up in the overtime situation. It is a lot of fun,” he said.
The SPHL is definitely moving in the right direction and if Combs and Price are right, the best is yet to come.
Contact the author at eddie.mitchell@prohockeynews.com