Eagles History
KMC EAGLES HISTORY
The KMC Eagles ice hockey organization has been around in one form or another since the 1950’s. One of our players, Mike Mamer, can recall playing for the Eagles in 1979, team named CANUSA. Yes, it was a combined team of American and Canadian players, which played at the Zweibrucken Air Base rink. The team played friendly games throughout Germany and Luxembourg, especially against Canadian teams at other NATO locations such as Baden Baden and Lahr.
After the Canadians departed Zweibrucken in 1991, the American military took responsibility for the base to include the ice rink, renaming the team to USA Ambassadors. They expanded the area of playing friendly games to teams in and around Paris, France. On one occasion, the USA Ambassadors traveled to Odensee, Denmark for a NATO tournament, only to find the game was field hockey.
The history of the team during the 80’s and 90’s becomes a little sketchy, but mostly the team dwindled to pick-up games and occasional invitation to play other teams. In 2001, the team was renamed to the Ramstein Rams, led by John Hoffman and Frank Barker, playing pickup and friendly games around Germany.
In 2004, under the new leadership of Tom Duggan, the name changed to the KMC Eagles, to encompass the Kaiserslautern Military Community (KMC) area of 50,000 military forces (U.S./NATO) and host nationals. The team averaged about 20 players during the season, welcoming any skill level to help off-set the costs of being an ice hockey organization.
Expanding beyond friendly games, the KMC Eagles was invited to play in a newly formed German league known as the Die Players Liga www.dpliga.com , managed by an American Educator, Ken Robinson. The league consisted of 8 teams. Struggling thru the season with one goalie, the KMC Eagles was challenged with maintaining a strong enough roster to be competitive, averaging about 9 to 10 players per game. In the league’s second year, the KMC Eagles won the DPL championship.
In 2005, Tom Duggan was scheduled to deploy, missing the start of the upcoming season. Seeking a replacement, the old timers nominated Todd Poynter to take the reins of the newly formed team, a novice player to the game but connected to the NHL by his father, Anthony “Tony” Mancuso. With the support of his wife, Paulette, and his family, Todd decided to take the position of President of the KMC Eagles.
Knowing that the team was in need of new players, Todd was aggressive in marketing the KMC Eagles to the community in hopes of recruiting new talent to replace the outgoing players that were returning to the U.S. At the first practice, approximately 47 new players were on the ice, rounding the four corners of the rink during drills, a concern for high flying slap shots over the net. Paul Hilfer an ex-academy team captain and now Eagles coach had concerns on how to satisfy the amount of players with enough ice time for games and practices. An issue Todd would have to resolve in the next year. One of the highlights of the season is playing the Luxembourg National team during an end-of-season tournament, 15-0 loss to the Eagles.
In 2007, Todd decided to create a second team as the KMC Adlers, known in German as “Eagles”. Both teams, KMC Eagles and KMC Adlers were entered into the DPL for league games and the USAFE Armed Forces Tournament, an annual military event for the past 15 years. Tom Duggan had returned from his deployment to assist the coach, John Nagy, with managing the KMC Eagles, placing second at the USAFE tournament. This was the highest level achieved. The KMC Adlers led by Scott Smith, placed eight.
In 2008, the roster for the organization continued to grow, with an email distribution list of more than 90 players. As the two teams became stronger, the teams were a more formidable force with the league and friendly games in and out of Germany. Under the coach of Phil Forward and assistant coach Tony Mancuso, the KMC Eagles again placed 2nd in the USAFE Tournament. The KMC Adlers placed eight but with more goals scored during the event.
In 2009, Brian O’Connor (player/coach) took the KMC Eagles to a banner year, winning the DPL Championship against the Baden Bruins (arch rivals), DPL Harder Cup, Prague New Year Tournament, and most importantly, the USAFE Armed Forces Tournament. The KMC Adlers under the management of Mike Mamer, and late in the season, Parker Hamilton, continued to show team development like a young Eagles team, placing sixth in USAFE, and winning numerous friendly and league games.
A season highlight was the Eagles playing against the German 2nd league team, Zweibrucken Hornets, with over 450 paying fans and professional photographers in attendance.
The Eagles organization conducted 27 practices, played in over 40 leagues games and 4 tournaments, and traveled to 4 European countries, roughly 55,000 miles in all. The support and dedication from the players to take on key roles, offer assistance, and to play whenever, wherever is what makes us strong, like no other hockey team. The overall success of the season was largely in part to player’s families, supporting late games and practices, traveling to other countries, out-of-pocket expenses for equipment and hotels, and all the while, showing support in cold ice rinks.
We look forward to another exciting and challenging year with many of the old timers moving on during the summer. Contact Todd Poynter if you would like to add more historical events or facts to the webpage, [email protected]
