Rockland Nationals

Rockland Nationals
City	Rockland, Ontario, Canada
League	Central Canada Hockey League
Founded	1987
Home arena	Canadian International Hockey Academy Arena
Colours	Blue, white, green
General manager	TBA
Head coach	TBA

The Rockland Nationals are a Canadian Junior ice hockey team from Rockland, Ontario, Canada. They were a part of the National Capital Junior Hockey League from 1987 to 2017, when they merged with the Gloucester Rangers to become the Rockland Nationals CCHL team beginning play in 2017-18.

The original Nationals were founded in 1973 to replace the Hull Festivals who had just left the Central Junior A Hockey League for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. In just three season the Nationals, coached by Bryan Murray, won the league, the Dudley Hewitt Cup as Central Canadian champions, and the Centennial Cup 1976 National Championship. Unfortunately for them, in those days the teams played sets of best-of-seven series to determine the national champion. Many successful Tier II clubs like the Red Deer Rustlers, the Guelph Platers, and the Vernon Vipers franchises were well rooted in their communities when they were victorious, with warchests of cash from major sponsors and massive fan support awaiting long playoff runs. The Nationals were in their infantile stage as an organization and found themselves not only national champions but financially bankrupt from months of travel across the county. They survived one more season on life support funds from the CJHL before packing it in for the 1977-78 season. The fall of the Nationals convinced the CJHL to petition the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to consider alternate, cheaper, playdown methods to determine regional and national champions. The CAHA answered back a few seasons later with the formation of round-robin championship tournaments. Until the Pembroke Lumber Kings won the 2011 Royal Bank Cup, the Nationals were the only team in Central League history to win a national championship.

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