A New Era of Orange!

Team Ohio Hockey is thrilled to welcome you to a new era of orange with the launch of Team Cleveland. 

For the upcoming 2025-26 season, all national bound teams in our program will compete as Team Ohio and all non national bound teams will compete as Team Cleveland. 

The Team Ohio Hockey organization, established in 1994, has long been known as one of the premier Tier 2 AA youth hockey organizations in the United States.   Since moving from Tier 1 to Tier 2 in 2008, Team Ohio Hockey has won 19 state championships (18U, 16U, 14U + HS) and an 18U National Championship in 2019.   

Each time a team wins a state championship they move on to compete at the USA Hockey National tournament, a great honor and something Team Ohio is quite familiar. 

The term national bound does not mean a team has an automatic bid to the national tournament rather it means they are eligible to compete in the state tournament where they must win in order to earn the national bid.  

Team Ohio, at the 18U, 16U, 14U and High School levels have teams that are designated "national bound" and these teams will play as Team Ohio moving forward.   All other teams at both the split season and youth levels will compete as Team Cleveland.   

The decision to separate our national bound and non national bound teams was a purposeful one.  To play on a national bound team is something players aspire to do and the proof is in just how many players make the move to our program for their final year of Bantam hockey or to play split season at either the 18U or 16U level.  The growth of our own high school program is another indicator of how players view the Team Ohio brand.   We believe that local youth players, in and out of our program, want to compete for a chance to win a state championship and compete for a national title; Team Ohio provides that pathway from 14-18U and High School. 

Our youth program moving to play as Team Cleveland is by design a way for us to differentiate as well as to start anew in the Cleveland area.  We believe that we fit firmly between the Tier 1 option in the area, the Cleveland Barons, and the recreational level of play, the teams in the Cleveland Suburban Hockey League.   We wish to celebrate our standing as the only viable Tier 2 AA option in Cleveland and what better way to do so than to play as Team Cleveland. 

Onward and upward. 

Patrick Metzger, President
Jeff McCarthy, Program Director