‘The Aardwolfs Team’ was created in 1998 by Glen Cameron and Tony Ooston, out of the ‘Varsity Teams’ playing in the High School league and the Sharks team playing the B grade Contact Ice Hockey competition.
The Aardwolfs became a part of the Senior Non-Checking (SNC) Ice Hockey League. The purpose of this league, is to offer a Non-Checking Ice Hockey competition for adult players and those who prefer a less psychically aggressive game than the Full Contact one.
It encourages a friendly atmosphere where players go to play Ice Hockey and have some fun.

We Started here in 1998.

a Great Year for the Aardwolfs Ice Hockey Club.

Growing Quickly.

Growing quickly, the 2000 season saw the SNC league create a ‘B-Grade’ for beginners, creating a stepping stone for the A-Grade.
In 2001, The 'Aardwolfs A Team' merged with the B-grade Lonestars thus forming the 'Aardwolfs Ice Hockey Club’ we have today.

Over the last few years, the level of hockey has improved and the SNC Ice Hockey League has grown in size to the point that no ice time was available in winter for the SNC to expand.
So in 2003, the SNC Ice Hockey League decided to switch to a summer season enabling them to expand even further into Three Grades picking up an extra 6 teams to make it a 14 Team League, these are the:
Premier Grade, for our most skilled players to compete with each other without the full-contact factor.
A-Grade, creating a stepping stone both up and down between the other grades, giving people the chance to improve their level of skill.
B-Grade, offering a starter grade for new and beginner players to participate and learn basic Ice skating and Hockey skills.

In early 2004 the Aardwolfs Ice Hockey Club, Executive decided to form a Masters Team specifically for playing in Masters Tournaments and against visiting Masters teams, this follows the Clubs philosophy of actively pursuing and supporting all facets of Ice Hockey for its members.
2004 was also the first year that the Aardwolfs undertook a Southern Migration, this was huge success and will be a regular future feature of the Aardwolfs Calendar. The hospitality and new friends made down South made for a great trip.

The SNC grew again in the 2004-2005 to include a 6 team Premier league but there was also a reduction of one A Grade team. Once again in early 2005 the Aardwolfs executive decided that expansion was called for, this time it was a second Team in the A Grade competition, the decision was to call the existing A Team, Aardwolfs Thunder and the new A Team, Aardwolfs Lightning.
This gives the Aardwolfs the depth they need to cater for the growing number of B grade players who are outgrowing the B Grade and looking to move up to the A Grade. This was also the time that the Blue Alternative playing strip was introduced. This was needed when the two Aardwolfs A grade teams played each other.
The Aardwolfs ended the 2004-2005 Season with wins to the Aardwolfs B Team and the Aardwolf Thunder A Team in the end of season knockout competition.

In mid 2005 the Aardwolfs Club committee started to put a team together to play in the South Island Masters Games, it soon became apparent that there was enough interest to form two Masters teams, The Arthritic Aardwolfs and the Ancient Aardwolfs came into being, performing well, making new friends and having a great social time at the SIMG.
This makes a total of 6 Teams currently in the Aardwolfs, the Club continues to grow. In 2005 there was also a second Southern Migration, a four day trip, including Dunedin in the itinerary. Once again Southern hospitality was outstanding and everyone had a brilliant time.

The 2005-2006 season was a good season for our SNC Teams as the Premier Grade finished 3rd in the end of season competition, our A-Grade teams 1st and 3rd, with our B-Grade team coming in 2nd. All in all, a successful year !

2006 was a busy year for the Aardwolfs with a Southern Migration, Screwballs Bus Trip, a visit from the Queenstown Jurassics, and an Aardwolfs Prize Giving at Iconic's.
Our Teams preformed well with A and B Grade winning Teams their Grades.

In the 2006-2007 Season we grew again starting a second Premier Aardwolfs Team. The two Premier Teams  became Aardwolfs Fire and Aardwolfs Ice, both teams preformed well during the season, unfortunately with several Aardwolfs leaving to form the new Snipers Team, some players retiring and some travelling overseas, we were unable to sustain that growth though to the 2007-2008 Season.
However with this move we were able to concentrate some of our better players into the one Premier Team and this showed in results with the Aardwolfs Premier Team winning both the Season Games and the Finals at the end of the 07-08 Season, once again Aardwolfs Thunder won the SNC A grade Season.

In 2007 we had visits from the Dunedin Beasts and Auckland University, and once again travelled down South on our Annual Southern Migration this time playing The Jurassics, The Beasts and a fun game for the first time at the new Tekapo Facility.

In 2007 once more the Ancient and Arthritic Aadrwolfs donned their equipment and participated in the South Island Master Games which were held in Christchurch.

2007 was also a special year for the Aardwolfs as they formed an allegiance with the Kaszi 22 Ice Hockey Academy, in supporting Aardwolf Janos Kaszala  and his efforts to improve Ice Hockey in New Zealand and specifically the Canterbury region. We were able to assist by helping with sponsorship and management services for his initial course. We hope this will be a long and fruitful partnership as we see great things for the graduates of these Ice Hockey Skills courses. Some of Canterbury's future Representative players are amongst these players and its great to see them benefiting from the wealth of skills and experience Janos has to offer.

Looking into the bright future for the 2008-2009 Season there is a 10 week sponsored "On Ice" course of practices with the Kaszi 22 Academy available to all Aardwolfs Members and their Families.

The SNC League that our Aardwolfs Teams play in, has matured into a well run League with 17 teams spread over 3 grades, we can see more growth in the future as Non Checking Ice Hockey becomes ever more popular.

As we are able to offer more benefits to our members we are finding that our membership is still growing, we have several adult members who are now joining for the benefits their kids receive with access to our training and social events. Our attitude towards looking after our members who play at all levels of competition and travelling to play other teams is resulting in enquiries about membership from out of Christchurch. We encourage families to play and practice together as we think the Aardwolfs Ice Hockey Club provides a well managed safe and enjoyable, environment for this to happen.

This, our active website is also a strong ambassador for our Club and we receive interest from all over the world with players and teams wanting to come to New Zealand to play. Our Natural Ice Reports reached a new high over the winter of 2008 receiving well over a 1000 hits a week. We also started receiving reports on ice conditions from several new sources which makes this service even more useful to keen Ice Skaters throughout New Zealand and will help promote the Aardwolfs brand.

These are exciting times, as the Aardwolfs Ice Hockey Club grows even more popular, currently with over 90 playing members and 25 associate members, it makes the Clubs frequent social events lots of fun.

None of this growth could have been possible without the active support of our Members and the Sponsorship from the variety of Bars, Taverns, Casinos, Restaurants and Businesses involved within the club.

Performance over the years.

See how well the Aardwolfs Ice Hockey Club has performed over the Club's History.