Local Hockey Returns to ‘The Rink’ in Downtown Battle Creek this Fall

It's been over two years without local hockey in the Cereal City, but this fall a new team will begin playing in town.

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A team called the Battle Creek Kernels will represent  the city in the United States Premier Hockey League with games beginning in September. They will play home games at The Rink located at 75 Houston St. in downtown Battle Creek.

"We are excited to be bringing hockey back to Battle Creek,"  "We think this is a good place for hockey and we look forward to the opportunity to build hockey in this community." - Team Owner Triston Jensen speaking to the Battle Creek Enquirer

The United States Premier Hockey League is described as a developmental organization. Players range in age from 16 to 20 years old and are vying for recruitment at the college level or for junior leagues. The Kernels will be in the Premier Division which also includes teams from other states including Ohio, Minnesota and others around the United States.

Games will take place beginning in September and the season will continue until March of 2023. A schedule has not been released at this time as well as what the logo or team uniforms will look like.

The last team to play locally was the Battle Creek Rumble Bees. Despite pretty good local support and a fun presentation for families in attendance, the team was historically bad, winning only one game as a franchise. They posted a 1-45-2 record and were even nationally proclaimed the "worst team in professional hockey" by some media outlets.

To be fair, a lot was working against the team behind the scenes with travel issues for their road games and also being a late addition to the Federal Prospects Hockey League before the 2019-2020 season. Then in the spring of 2020, the team suspended operations not long after their games were canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.