The Management of Cardiff Fire IHC are excited to confirm that Cardiff Fire have been offered and accepted a position in the EIHA National League division 2.
The team will compete against current champions Bristol Pitbulls, Basingstoke Buffalo, Swindon Wildcats and Wightlink Tigers in the South West section of the division.
The top 2 teams in the West go head to head with the top 2 teams in the East for the right to win promotion to Division 1.
Cardiff Fire IHC can confirm that a similar management & off-ice structure that ran the NIHL Division 1 team up to the 2013/14 season is already in place with some exciting additions:
Director of Hockey/Head Coach Mark Cuddihy
Child Protection/Match night team Manager Marilyn Parsons.
Most people are familiar with Marilyn in the Cardiff hockey community.
Marilyn has been involved in hockey for over 20 years and for over 15 years has managed teams in the South West conference. Maz is the face everyone sees when they enter the rink at NIHL games and has an outstanding reputation within the hockey community nationwide.
Joining the Management team is Stephen ‘Ricky’ Deacon.
Ricky returns to Cardiff as Player/General Manager.
Ricky spent last season playing for London Raiders in the NIHL Division 1. Ricky has played in Cardiff most of his career and has played 232 games in the National League Division 1 scoring 85 goals and 185 assists. Ricky brings a huge amount of experience on and off the ice.
Ricky commented “I’m really pleased to be back in Cardiff again this year after spending last year playing for London. It’s been a strange off season not knowing what team or league I would be playing in, or even if I’d be playing at all, but there is a good group of players coming together for this next season that I just couldn’t miss out on.”
“Despite spending the past 7 years playing at ENL1 I don’t think I have looked forward to playing for a team more than I have this year with the new arena just around the corner and what looks to be a team that could take the league title”
The 2nd addition to the management team will be Mike Brabon.
Brabon also played last season in London and joins Cardiff Fire as goal keeping coach. He has amassed a wealth of experience during his hockey career and will be no stranger to Cardiff hockey fans having played for the Elite League Cardiff Devils and being part of the successful 2005 Challenge Cup winning team.
Brabs also has vast experience playing in the EPL for Telford Tigers, Swindon Wildcats, Romford Raiders and Wightlink Raiders.
Brabon will also register as a player for Cardiff Fire 2015/16 season.
A further addition is Jason Proctor.
Jason has been ever present at NIHL games supporting his brother in-law Ross Wilkinson. He has enormous experience running successful football teams in South Wales and has many contacts in the South Wales area both sporting and in business. Jason has assisted the NIHL programme with various things over the years, and we’d like to welcome Jason officially to the team.
Joining the coaching team is Dan Blakemore.
Dan himself has represented the Elite League Cardiff Devils and the Swindon Wildcats in the EPL. Dan has come through the Cardiff junior system and has great hockey experience and good local knowledge of players in and around Cardiff.
We have two additional player announcements for the 2015/16 season:
Ross Wilkinson and Phil Manny join from London Raiders NIHL Division one.
Both are tough utility players that can play forward and defence. Phil Manny has played for the Elite League Cardiff Devils 121 times and has also played in a number of EPL and NIHL teams across the country.
Ross Wilkinson has been a fan favourite for a number of years in Cardiff with his no nonsense style of play and his willingness to drop the gloves when the team needs a lift.
Ross is a real team guy and incredibly has even ended up playing in net on two occasions for two different NIHL1 teams when both starting, and back up net minders have been injured. All four players are fantastic additions to Cardiff Fire IHC
Mark Cuddihy added “What has happened in the past has happened and we all move on, we have banned all talk of it and are all really excited to start the season and play some hockey. Deacs and I discussed at length if there was a desire to enter a team in Division 2 and we both had the same mind-set – as long as we could be very, very competitive and guys also had the desire to play division 2 then we would go for it.”
“That desire has been quite incredible so we have decided to go for it. We are all aware how much work there is to do between now and the start of the season and we are getting on with it the best we can. We are all very excited to be back playing the game we love in Cardiff. I am also really pleased with the new additions we have made in management that will help us out a great deal. We have a long way to go but I am confident we can all reach our goals and deliver an exciting entertaining team again”
Cardiff Fire IHC will be updating the website and are hoping to get it live with a lot more information ASAP.
In the meantime if anybody is interested in supporting, sponsoring or playing for Cardiff Fire then please email mark.cuddihy@cardiff-fire.com or ricky.deacon@cardiff-fire.com
