Sparta Warriors
| Sparta Warriors | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| City | Sarpsborg, Norway |
| League | GET-ligaen |
| Founded | 1958 |
| Home arena | Sparta Amfi |
| Colors | Blue, white and gold |
| General manager | Jonas Elofsson |
| Head coach | Sjur Robert Nilsen |
| Captain | Niklas Roest |
| Website | http://www.sparta.no/ |
| Championships | |
| Regular season titles | 4 |
| Playoff championships | 1984, 1989, 2011 |
Ishockeyklubben Sparta Sarpsborg, commonly referred to as the Sparta Warriors, is a Norwegian ice hockey team based in Sarpsborg, Norway. They currently play in the GET League. They play their home games in the Sparta Amfi arena. The team colours are blue and white.
The ice hockey department of IL Sparta was founded in 1958, and got off to a fantastic start when Norway's first indoor hockey arena Sparta Amfi was opened in 1963. Within only three years, they earned promotion to the first division as the first team outside Oslo. It was only to be a short stint, and through most part of the late 1960s and 1970s, Sparta spent their time in the second division, with the odd visit to the top flight.
The 1980s was to be Sparta's greatest decade. Under the leadership of coach Lasse Bäckman and strengthened by several strong signings from other Norwegian clubs, and a couple of Swedish stars, they claimed the Norwegian Championships in 1984. The feat was repeated in 1989, when the club beat heavily favoured Trondheim in the final after claiming the last playoff spot in the last rounds of the league.
The success proved costly for the club, and in 1995, after years of economical problems, Sparta had to file for bankruptcy, the only sports club in Norway ever to do so. This meant that they had to start from scratch in the third division, and they lost their best players to other clubs in Norway. However, many of them came back to Sparta. They made the stay a short one, and in 1997 they were back in the Eliteserien, where they have remained since.
As of December 2007, Sparta once again assumed the top of the league table, closer to winning a title in Norwegian hockey, since the 1980s.
In the 2008/09 season, the team won the league and won silver in the Norwegian Championship after being defeated by Vålerenga.
This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Sparta Warriors. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Sparta Warriors seasons.
As of November 27nd, 2016.
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