The Atlantic Coast Hockey League was a professional

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

league based in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The second league to bear the name

Atlantic Coast Hockey League The Atlantic Coast Hockey League (ACHL) was a minor league hockey organization that operated between 1981 and 1987. The league was founded by Bill Coffey. The Bob Payne Trophy was awarded to the team who won the league playoff championship. Acco ...

, it operated for only one season, 2002–2003, before its franchises split into two new leagues.

History

The 2002 incarnation of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League was the second organization to bear this name, after the original

, the early 1980s predecessor of the

East Coast Hockey League The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

. The ACHL would last only one season, and was notable for the early-season move of the St. Petersburg Parrots to

Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...

. After a bitter split among the franchises, the league split into two new leagues, the

South East Hockey League South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

and

World Hockey Association 2 The World Hockey Association 2 was a minor professional ice hockey league created at the instigation of the organizers of the proposed recreated World Hockey Association to serve as its development league. The WHA2 teams — some of which had ...

. Surviving franchises would later rejoin each other for the 2004–05 season in the

Southern Professional Hockey League The Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) is a professional ice hockey independent minor league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indiana in the mid ...

. The

Orlando Seals Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rel ...

won the ACHL's only regular season and playoff championships.

Teams

* Cape Fear Fire Antz (moved to SEHL for 2003–04) *

Jacksonville Barracudas The Jacksonville Barracudas were a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Jacksonville, Florida. They were established in 2002, and played in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League (2002–2003), Atlantic Coast Hockey League (2002–2003), th ...

(moved to WHA2 for 2003–04) *

Knoxville Ice Bears The Knoxville Ice Bears are a professional ice hockey team. The team competes in the Southern Professional Hockey League. They play their home games at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Ice Bears have made the playoffs ...

(moved to SEHL for 2003–04) *

Macon Trax The Macon Trax were a minor-league professional ice hockey team based in Macon, Georgia. They played in the low minor leagues Atlantic Coast Hockey League (2002–03), World Hockey Association 2 (2003–04) and Southern Professional Hockey Lea ...

(moved to WHA2 for 2003–04) *

(moved to WHA2 for 2003–04) * St. Pete/Winston-Salem Parrots (relocated from St. Petersburg to Winston-Salem on November 30, 2002; folded after the season) *

Tallahassee Tide The Tallahassee Tide were a proposed ice hockey team in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. The team's proposed home rink was the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center. Formation On March 29, 2002, Bill Coffey said that the chances of hockey return ...

(team intended to play the 2002–03 season but never secured a lease) Two expansion teams were planned for the 2003–04 season, before the league folded: *

Huntsville Channel Cats The Huntsville Channel Cats was a professional ice hockey team based in Huntsville, Alabama. The franchise was a member of several different leagues, the Southern Hockey League (1995–1996), the Central Hockey League (1996–2001) and the Sou ...

(played in the SEHL) *

Miami Manatees The Miami Manatees were a minor league ice hockey team in the World Hockey Association 2. The Manatees originally played their home games at Miami Arena; however, owner David Waronker had an out clause in the teams lease that stated that if the t ...

(played in the WHA2)

League split

After the 2002–03 season, David Waronker, who owned four of the ACHL's teams in whole or in part, announced he would be founding a new league the following year. This was the

, which was envisioned as a developmental league to a revived

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

. Waronker's teams, the

, the

, and the ACHL expansion team, the

, joined this new league; they were joined by the

Lakeland Loggerheads Lakeland is primarily a toponym. It may refer to: Places Australia *Lakeland, Queensland Canada *Lakeland (electoral district), a federal electoral district in Alberta *Lakeland County, a former municipal district in Alberta * District of La ...

and the

Alabama Slammers The Alabama Slammers were a professional ice hockey team. They were a member of the World Hockey Association 2, and played their home games at Pelham Civic Center in Pelham, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham. The Slammers were ...

. The Cape Fear Fire Antz and the

joined the SEHL with the

(who were also briefly an ACHL expansion team), the

Tupelo T-Rex The Tupelo T-Rex was a professional ice hockey team in the Western Professional Hockey League and played their home games at BancorpSouth Center from 1998 to 2001. The owners of the T-Rex also fielded a junior team in the America West Hockey Leag ...

(who never played due to contractual issues with a previous professional league), and eventually the Winston-Salem T-Birds (who began the season known as the Winston-Salem Hockey Club) as the 4th team.

Final standings

Regular season

Playoffs

Final

All times are local ( EST)

External links

2002-03 Atlantic Coast Hockey League
at HockeyDB.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Atlantic Coast Hockey League (2002-03) Defunct ice hockey leagues in the United States Atl Sports leagues established in 2002 2002 establishments in the United States 2003 disestablishments in the United States