Brantford 99ers to be renamed King Rebellion, play at Township-Wide Recreation Centre
Township of King, Ont. — An Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) Junior A team will call King Township home for the 2024-2025 season.
The Brantford 99ers team is relocating to King and being renamed the ‘King Rebellion,’ a name chosen to align with the existing King Township Minor Hockey Association’s rep program team name. The team’s name also pays homage to the Lloydtown Rebellion of 1837, which was part of the Upper Canada Rebellion.
The King Rebellion will play their home games at the new Township-Wide Recreation Centre (TWRC), slated to open in the fall of 2024. The team’s inaugural home opener will occur in September, with the exact date to be determined.
The King Rebellion joins the OJHL under the supervision of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). There are currently 24 teams in the league.
The Rebellion will be coached by Mark Joslin, who was named the 2023/2024 OJHL Coach of the Year and is a finalist for this year’s CJHL Coach of the Year award.
Joslin took over as head coach of the Brantford 99ers in the summer of 2023. Under his leadership, the 99ers’ record went from 5-46-1-2 in 2022-23 to 26-26-0-4 this season. His four previous seasons with the Toronto Patriots included being named OJHL Executive of the Year in 2018 and he has also coached with the OJHL’s North York Rangers, Aurora Tigers, Pickering Panthers and Stouffville Spirit.
The TWRC, where the King Rebellion will play, is the first such publicly funded structure in Canada to achieve the Canada Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Building Design Certification. The facility will include an aquatics centre, two NHL-sized ice rinks, an artificial turf fieldhouse and a multi-use community space.
King Township’s Mayor Steve Pellegrini added the following:
“We are thrilled to welcome the King Rebellion to our community. This relocation not only adds to our vibrant sports culture but also creates new opportunities for our local athletes. We look forward to cheering on the Rebellion at the Township-Wide Recreation Centre, a carbon neutral, state-of-the-art facility that reflects our commitment to sustainability and community engagement.”
King Rebellion Owner Willa Wang with her thoughts on the move:
“I am extremely excited beyond words in relocating the Brantford 99ers hockey team to King Township for the 2024-2025 season. The team will become the King Rebellion. I would like to thank in particular Marty Savoy and Chris Vanstone from the OJHL and Chris Fasciano and Jonathan Bell from King Township for their unwavering support and guidance in making this a reality. The township of King have been fantastic and we are looking forward to working closely with their minor hockey teams and becoming involved in community events throughout the year.”
To celebrate the new team, a jersey unveiling ceremony featuring the new logo will be held at the Council meeting on the evening of Monday, May 27 to which the public will be invited to attend.
Camp dates for the Rebellion will be released in the next coming days.
