Boldly Jacksonville, Presented by Swisher: Introducing Jacksonville’s Newest Hockey Team, the Bold City Battalion

The Battalion is a competitive Junior A tier 3 junior program that competes in United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL). The team serves to bridge the hap between youth hockey and college/professional hockey. The Battalion pracrtices and plays their games at the Community First Igloo in Jacksonville.  Leading the program is Head Coach Rett Vossler. 

Under Vossler’s leadership, the team has found immediate success in its Inaugural season last year, winning the Premier Florida Division Championship.   And while winning is always a key objective for the program, the immediate success came as welcome surprise for Vossler.   

“It wasn’t the plan,” said Vossler while chuckling. “The plan was to come in and be competitive and push for a playoff spot, but from day one we realized we had a special group and things really took off.  That was by and large due to the character we had in the room.  It was a collection of guys from all over the world with different backgrounds and experiences that were all here for the same reason.  They all took a chance to come to an expansion team and many of those guys in their 20-year-old year, they really made a sacrifice, took a gamble coming here, but they bought in 100-percent and the results spoke for themselves.” 

The early success for the young program has certainly directed the Battalion in the right direction in year two, but the program did have its share of challenges before that first expansion season started.  

“Definitely many challenges, and you think you have a grasp on what those could ne, but every day presents a new one”, said Vossler.   “Finding Billet families was a large issue because you’re recruiting players but have nowhere to house them which creates an issue.   However, luckily, we’ve laid a foundation now and we can plug and play.”

Billet families are essentially host families that welcome the players into their homes for the season. This is where the players will call home during their stay in Jacksonville. Vossler says this is the number one area of need for the team each season. 

“It’s probably our biggest need here, especially being in the south where most families don’t have furnished basements and homes don’t have as much free space.  We are always looking for families that will open their home to provide a good family experience away from home for these players.” 

Billet families do receive some compensation for opening their doors to the players, but Vossler adds that they receive so much more in return. 

“Billets do receive a monthly stipend which will cover a large portion of food costs and things like that, but to me the biggest reward you get is to make a relationships with a player and help them be more comfortable away from home while they chase their dreams.” 

The program’s roster is currently comprised of 28 players who call Florida home.  And while there are players that hail from other parts of the country as well, the team also has two players from Sweden, a couple of Canadian players and they expect to add a few more players from other European countries later in the season.   

The program competes at two levels, Premier and Elite.  Vossler notes that age and experience is what determines which of the two levels the players will compete at. 

“Premier would be your higher level of play.  We typically treat our premier as the older group, so more of the 18, 19 and 20-year-olds, whereas the elites will be more on the development side because the younger guys are just now dipping their toes into junior hockey as 15, 16, 17-year-olds. The idea is for them to work their way up to the premier level.”

In addition, to boasting a Florida Division Championship last season, the program has already excelled in moving a handful of their players to next level in their careers.    

“We were fortunate enough with our group last year to send five guys to college.  We sent another three to play pro in Europe and we also have two players that have advanced to higher level of juniors.”  

The Battalion also had six players named to the USPHL All-Star Team for the Florida Division.  Brett Strick, Kelton Bradshaw, Jacob Duhaime, Hugo Rova, Emil Grinsvall and goaltender Aiden Winslow were all recognized as league All-Stars last season. 

After finding immediate success in year one, Vossler was asked what’s the next goal for the program, and his answer was short, bold and to the point. 

“The number one goal is to win a National Championship.”  

For game schedule information, or if you are interested in becoming a Billet / host family  for the Bold City Battalion, visit their website at www.boldcitybattalion.com

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