MONROE — The Monroe Blues hockey team were supposed to open their Great Lakes Hockey League season at Fond du Lac this weekend. But after four seasons, the Monroe Avalanche Blueline Club is shutting down the semi-pro hockey team who had their home base in Monroe. The team’s Facebook page, which has over 900 followers, announced the decision in a post Oct. 16.

“It’s never good when a hockey team has to shut down,” said former player Drew Nafzger, a 2011 Monroe High School graduate. “It’s a sport that is growing and becoming more popular.”

The team featured several former Monroe Youth Hockey players, and 33 total players suited up last season.

“It was great be able to play competitive hockey in front of my family and friends back home where I grew up, and at the age I am (26) losing that kind of hurts deep down,” Nafzger said. “But life goes on and there are other hobbies to pick up and create other memories with. All good things end one day, but I thought I would be the one ending it, not the team.”

The Blues moved to Monroe from Madison before the start of the 2014-15 season. The franchise played its games at the Stateline Ice and Community Expo in Monroe. 

The Great Lakes Hockey League is an adult men’s full-contact hockey league that features nine teams across Wisconsin and Michigan’s upper peninsula.