Draft:ESC Darmstadt Dukes

ESC Darmstadt Dukes is a ice hockey team in Darmstadt, Germany. The club currently competes in Hessenliga, the Hessen-division of third level of ice hockey in Germany. The club was originally founded in 1989 with the current operations setup in 2011. Dukes home arena is the Eissporthalle Darmstadt, which holds 2,000 spectators. The club also operates junior ice hockey and floorball programs.

History
Ice hockey became established in Darmstadt at the latest with the opening of the ice rink in 1989. TSG Darmstadt (Stars) achieved promotion to the then fifth-tier Hessenliga in 1989/90 and to the regional league in 2003, in which they played until 2008. In March 1990 the team played against today's Dresdner Eislöwen and lost 2:6. The before the reunification of the two German states) was the first German-German comparison in 36 years.

The TSG team achieved its greatest success in 2006 with the championship of the RL-Hesse. In 2007 an ice hockey department was founded at RSC Darmstadt and in 2008 the TSG department was dissolved.

In the 2007/08 to 2010/11 seasons, the senior team (Dukes) played in the Hesse Regional League. After the leagues in Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia were reorganized, they played in the Hessenliga in 2009/10 and were promoted to the Regionalliga West for the 2010/11 season.

At the RSC's general meeting in 2011, the ice hockey department was outsourced to the newly founded ESC Darmstadt e.V. with effect from June 1, 2011, which was recognized as the universal successor by LEV North Rhine-Westphalia. A year later a floorball department was founded.

After voluntary relegation from the Hessenliga in the 2021/21 season, the Dukes will play in the state league Landesliga. There they won the championship 14-3 in the final on March 27, 2022 against EC Wallernhausen, so that there will be a relegation game with the last-placed team in the Hessenliga and promotion was possible.

Achievements

 * Champion of the Landesliga : 2021/22.