History
The Alliston Hornets were founded in 1971 as a member of the South-Central Junior D Hockey League. In 1973, that league was promoted and renamed the Central Ontario Junior C Hockey League and then the Mid-Ontario Junior C Hockey League in 1976.
Despite training multiple National Hockey League alumni, the Hornets were in tough in the Mid-Ontario Junior C Hockey League with teams like the Bradford Bulls and the Orangeville Crushers. The Hornets won the Mid-Ontario Junior C Hockey League crown 6 times, but but never got past the Clarence Schmalz Cup semi-final in the All-Ontario championships.
In 1994, the Mid-Ontario Junior C Hockey League merged with the Georgian Bay Junior C Hockey League to create the Georgian Mid-Ontario Junior C Hockey League. From 1994 until 2007, the Hornets have failed to win a league title. Other than a blip in the radar in 2001-02 that resulted in a 2nd place league finish but no playoff glory, since 1994 the Hornets were not up to par with their competition. In 2004, something changed. Since 2004, the have Hornets have been putting up excellent winning seasons with a first place finish and two third place finishes.
The 2005-06 season saw the Hornets finish off in third place. In the league quarter-final they drew the sixth seeded Stayner Siskins. In what many though would be a cakewalk, the Siskins had another shocking conclusion in mind. The Hornets went up on the Siskins 3-games-to-none with little problem. Game 4 saw the Siskins avoid the sweep with a win. The Siskins had gained enough momentum to take game 5 as well. Eventually, in the end, the Siskins won four straight games to make the ultimate comeback and take the series 4-games-to-3 over the Alliston Hornets.
The 2006-07 season saw the Hornets leading the standing for the first half of the season and then fall away to both the Fergus Devils and Penetang Kings. Finishing with the third seed, the Hornets battled the Schomberg Cougars and made quick work of them with a 4-games-to-none sweep of the series. In the semi-final, the Hornets drew the Goliath Clarence Schmalz Cup (CSC) defending Champion Penetang Kings. The second seeded Kings won the series 4-games-to-2 in a drawn out seesaw battle. The Kings went on to win their second straight league and provincial title.
2007-08 proved to be the year when the Hornets finally broke out of the Georgian Bay League and made it to the All Ontario Junior C Finals. In the final series the Hornets battled perennial contenders, the Essex 73's of the Great Lakes Junior C Hockey League, who were making their fourth straight appearance in the CSC finals and had won two All Ontario titles since 2002. The series proved to be a classic and in the 7th deciding game the Hornets won in overtime and became All Ontario Champions.
In 2008-09 the Hornets would return to the CSC Finals against the Essex 73's but could not repeat as All Ontario Champions as the 73's won the series in four straight games. In 2009-2010 the Hornets would make another appearance in the CSC Finals against Great Lakes Junior C Champion the Belle River Canadiens, the Hornets would defeat Belle River 4 games to 1 in the series to claim a 2nd CSC Championship. 2010-2011 would mark a 4th straight appearance for the Hornets in the CSC Finals they would face the Grimsby Peach Kings, Grimsby would win the series 4-1.
Read more about this topic: Alliston Hornets
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is preserved.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)