The Sheffield Raptors Skater Hockey Club started out back in the fall of 1995. Initially just 4 or 5 would meet outside in the car park of Toys R Us at the Meadowhall retail park in Sheffield. Before long there were regular meetings on a Friday night and the team began to take shape. Some of those original players are still on the team today. The images you see here are taken from video footage from a November night in 95. At that time we had little in the way of equipment and were perhaps typical of many other street hockey teams - just there to have a good time and play hockey! Some of the players at that time, played ice hockey for local rec teams. Before long the weather got the better of us and we decided it was time a sports hall was booked! Saturday mornings became the time, Hillsborough leisure centre the venue. From now on things became a little more official and we felt we should aim to join a league by September 1996. Over the weeks everyone got kited up and we started to look more of the part. More players joined the team and it wasn't long before the squad was in excess of twenty. The team needed a name - many suggestions were made but in the end we decided on RAPTORS. One of the guys ran his own design business and he set about creating the shirts. Players came and went but the overall numbers in the squad remained the same. Several friendly matches were set up with other local teams and most of them we won, we were ready for the league, or so we thought..... RAPTORS Est 1995 During the next six months there became an obvious interest shown by local kids, so in response to this, we embarked upon the formation of a Peewee team. The team began to train in the spring of 1997. The Peewee age category at that time catered for kids between the ages 10 to 13. To this end the Sheffield Raptors fielded it's first Peewee team in the YLASH organised league for the 97-98 season. Following an immense interest shown in youth skater hockey and recent changes initiated by the sports council, the Sheffield Raptors SHC have developed and formed two new teams in the recently created age groups. Skater hockey has, for the past two years, proved to be the fastest growing sport in Europe.