Team History

The Bismarck Bobcats are a Tier II junior ice hockey team in the North American Hockey League’s Central Division, and play out of Bismarck, North Dakota, in the V.F.W. Sports Center. Originally a part of the America West Hockey League, the Bobcats joined the NAHL in a merger of the two leagues in 2003. In 2005, the Bobcats hosted the Robertson Cup tournament.

The Bobcats won the 2010 Robertson Cup, winning the national championship with a 3-0 victory over the Fairbanks Ice Dogs on May 9, 2010.

The Bobcats came to Bismarck in 1997 and played their first season at the Bismarck Civic Center. They moved to the V.F.W. Sports Center the following year and have called it home ever since. The V.F.W. Sports Center was remodeled in the summer of 2008.

The Bobcats also won back-to-back Borne Cup titles as champions of the America West Hockey League (AWHL) in 2003 and 2004. Their 2004 title was the last Borne Cup to be awarded prior to the complete merger between the NAHL and AWHL for the 2004–05 season.

Byron Pool, who served as head coach 2007–10, was named the NAHL “Coach of the Year” in 2009. In addition to leading the team to its first-ever Robertson Cup title in 2010, he led the Bobcats to the most successful regular season in history in the 2008–09 season. The Bobcats won 43 games and earned 88 points in the standings, which both set franchise records. The Bobcats won consecutive Central Division Playoff titles under Pool in 2009 and 2010.

Layne Sedevie is the current head coach, having been promoted from assistant coach following Byron Pool’s decision to accept an associate head coach position with the Fargo Force of the United States Hockey League. Sedevie, a Bismarck native, was a goaltender at Bemidji State University and played professionally in the CHL before serving as assistant coach under Pool for the 2009–10 season. In 2010-11, his first season behind the bench, he led the Bobcats to their third straight Central Division Playoff championship and went on to win three more Central Cups (2012, 2013, 2016).

The Bobcats have had five head coaches in their tenure in Bismarck including: John Becanic; Chad Johnson, Dane Litke, Pool, and Sedevie.

Currently, they are the second-oldest franchise in the NAHL behind the Springfield Jr. Blues.