After spending its first three years working out of the Middletown Sports Complex, the New Jersey 87’s organization announced a transition to its new home at the Jersey Shore Arena in Wall Township.
The facility houses three sheets of ice, a weight and agility training facility, one of the New Jersey’s largest youth programs in the Jersey Shore Wildcats, and several of the Shore Conference’s top high school hockey programs, including 2019-20 non-public state champions Christian Brothers Academy, as well as the public school cooperative between Manasquan and Point Pleasant Beach High Schools, a club led by 87’s Head Coach Adam Houli.
“Moving buildings is never easy, especially when our history starts in Middletown,” Houli said in the organization’s official media release. “We made a lot of good memories both on and off the ice with the (staff of the North American Hockey League’s New Jersey Junior Titans), youth coaches and management and in addition we have a great relationship with the patrons of the rink…However I think we realized that in order for us to grow and prosper we had to make sure that our environment was the perfect setting for success for our players both on and off the ice.”
In the organization’s third season, the 87’s dominated competition in both the Eastern Hockey League (EHL), and its subsidiary EHL Premier division (EHLP).
When the league announced that it would forego the remainder of its 2019-20 campaign, due to COVID-19, the 87’s led the EHL’s Mid-Atlantic Conference with a record of 36-8-2.
Additionally, the 87’s EHLP program also sat atop its respective Mid-Atlantic Conference with a mark of 32-6-3.
