Inside the Kondos Ice Hockey League

The Origins of Kondos Ice Hockey League

15 years ago Chris Kondos started running his own scrimmages and as a bit of fun called it the Kondos Hockey League.

“We started by scrimmaging and giving young kids somewhere to go on a Friday night rather than going out drinking and taking drugs. We provided a healthy avenue and environment for these kids on a Friday night. We would start our scrimmage from 10:30pm on a Friday night at Olympic Ice Skating Centre, in Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia. We would scrimmage for 4 hours some nights as we were given the key to the rink and would simply lock the front door when we were done. Some nights we would get off the ice at 3am. We were addicted to hockey, not just any hockey, but fun hockey. Hockey where the competitiveness side was taken away and we could just go out with any skill level and enjoy the sport.”

Fast forward to 2023, and Kondos has gained some ice time from Joey Hughes, the rink owner and fellow legend of Ice Hockey in Australia. Joey played for Melbourne Mustangs, Melbourne Ice and CBR brave for the AIHL (Australian Ice Hockey League). Joey loved what Kondos was doing and wanted to help the league continue growing by giving more ice time availability for participants.

As Chris Kondos describes it, “We started in 2023 on a Tuesday night at 9:45pm for 90 minutes. Having to work the next day these skates were hard but we never found it hard to get the numbers down there. We would get changed and run a mini draft every Tuesday in the change rooms before the game. We would pick 2 random captains every week and they would select their teams.”

After a few months of games, Kondos gained more followers and more participants signed up helping lead to his dream vision coming to fruition. He would set out to officially start the Kondos Ice Hockey League.

The Evolution of Kondos Ice Hockey League

Chris Kondos started with 4 teams, “I selected 4 captains, 4 players that wouldn’t get the call up in our other league here in Melbourne, so this was a good opportunity for them to have a go and lead a team. We had a draft night in the Café at the Olympic Ice Skating Centre and we had a roulette style draft, almost like the draft lottery. That’s where the teams were born. The original 4 teams were selected and we were away. Season 1 consisted of 35 players, a ref and passion for the sport.”

After a few games, Kondos bought himself a DSLR camera because he wanted to make the league well…