The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees were a Tier II Junior A

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 h ...

team playing in the North American Hockey League. The team was based in the

Rio Grande Valley The Lower Rio Grande Valley ( es, Valle del Río Grande), commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. Th ...

in Hidalgo, Texas, just south of

McAllen McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States, and the 22nd-most populous city in Texas. It is located at the southern tip of the state in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexico–United States border. The city limits extend ...

, and played their home games at State Farm Arena.

History

The original team was a member of the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

, a professional minor league, from 2003 to 2012. On June 20, 2012, multiple sources confirmed that the Killer Bees would not play in the 2012–13 season and ceased operations due to increased travel costs after the folding of the other Texas CHL teams in Austin, Corpus Christi and Laredo. After a season without a team, the

Wenatchee Wild The Wenatchee Wild is a Junior A ice hockey team in the British Columbia Hockey League. The team plays its home games at the 4,300-seat Town Toyota Center in Wenatchee, Washington. Initially, the team was part of the North American Hockey League ...

of the North American Hockey League (NAHL), a Tier II Junior A hockey league, relocated to Hidalgo, Texas and became the second incarnation of the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees. Joe Coombs would be hired as the first head coach of the NAHL Killer Bees. On June 1, 2015, NAHL insiders began reporting the Killer Bees franchise was about to relocate to the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

suburb of

Aston, Pennsylvania Aston Township is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 16,592 at the 2010 census. History Aston was first settled in 1682 as a municipality and was incorporated as a township in 1688 (one of the first to ...

and the Killer Bees would subsequently announce that the team was ceasing to operate for the 2015–16 season unless the team president, Gilbert Saenz, could find a local alternative to save the team. However, on June 9, the NAHL announced that the franchise was relocating to become the

Aston Rebels The Philadelphia Rebels are a Tier II junior ice hockey team playing in the North American Hockey League (NAHL). The team is based in Hollydell Ice Arena in Washington Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey. History The franchise was originall ...

. In 2018, another junior level Killer Bees team was announced as part of the USA Central Hockey League starting in October 2018, but the entire league folded after six weeks of operation.

Season-by-season records

Notes

External links

Rio Grande Valley Killer BeesNAHL website
{{NAHL Ice hockey teams in Texas North American Hockey League teams Sports in the Rio Grande Valley Hidalgo County, Texas Ice hockey clubs established in 2013 Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2015 2013 establishments in Texas 2015 disestablishments in Texas