History
The West Kelowna Warriors are a relocated franchise, moving to West Kelowna in 2006 from Langley, British Columbia.
Langley was originally granted a British Columbia Junior Hockey League (BCJHL) franchise in 1973 called the Langley Lords. The team played as the Lords through the 1975-76 season. In those three years they had very decent regular seasons, making it to the playoffs each year, including a loss in the league finals in their first season. In 1976 the Lords changed their name to the Langley Thunder. Their regular season performance diminished each year, and they missed the playoffs for the first time in the franchise's history in the 1978-79 season. Shortly after the completion of the 1978-79 season, the franchise ceased operations. An unrelated BCJHL franchise, the Chilliwack Colts, relocated to become the Langley Eagles from 1981-82 through the 1986-87 seasons, before moving back to Chilliwack, British Columbia.
In 1990 the BCJHL was renamed the BCHL, and in 1994 Langley returned to the BCHL with a new franchise, adopting the name Thunder from the defunct franchise of the 1970s. The new franchise competed as the Thunder for five seasons, reaching the BCHL championship finals in 1996, which they lost to the eventual Junior A national Royal Bank Cup champion Vernon Vipers, 4–1.
The Thunder changed their name to the Langley Hornets before the start of the 1998-99 season. Playing in Langley from 1998 through the 2005-06 season, the Hornets were led by several coaches. Coach Rick Lanz is notable for taking the last place 2001-02 team and guiding them to a fourth place finish in the 2002-03 season, though the team would be eliminated in the first round of the BCHL playoffs. Lanz was not re-signed for the next season, and the team returned to last place in the BCHL.
Before the start of the 2006-07 season the franchise moved from Langley to the unincorporated area on the "westside" of Kelowna, British Columbia, and renamed themselves the Westside Warriors.
The Westside Warriors found immediate success, reaching the BCHL playoffs in the 2006-07 season, followed in 2007-08 with a third place BCHL finish in the regular season and making it to the BCHL semi-finals in the playoffs.
In late 2007 the unincorporated area the Westside Warriors called home became the incorporated Westside District Municipality, and in 2008 changed its name to West Kelowna. The franchise kept the place name Westside, rather than West Kelowna, through the 2011-12 season.
In the summer of 2012, the Westside Warriors announced they would be changing their name to the West Kelowna Warriors, recognizing the proper name of the municipality they play in.
Read more about this topic: Westside Warriors
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