After one dry season, the oil is rising again in Wooster, Ohio. The Wooster Oilers have announced their return to the USPHL Premier and its Great Lakes Division after a one-year absence. The Oilers will play in 2020-21 under new ownership and management from top to bottom, with Wooster Youth Hockey Association co-founders Marty Kerr and Eric Robinson taking ownership of the nearly 15-year-old junior organization.
“Wooster is a small community with a youth hockey organization that is part of the Cleveland Suburban Hockey League, so hockey is a big part of the community,” said Kerr. “It is so big that when the Oilers [junior team] could not put together a team last year, the town rink, the Alice Noble Ice Arena, almost closed without that revenue. The Wooster Youth Hockey Association and members of the Wooster Ice Community put together a pledge drive and we raised nearly $200,000 annually over three years to save the rink. It was a tough year, but we worked hard.
The prior owners of the Oilers made the decision to sell after the junior team went dormant. Robinson met with them, and within a few months over this past year, the paperwork was completed and ownership of the Oilers junior team was transferred to Robinson and Kerr.
Alice Noble Arena