High school hockey will finally be a reality for athletes in Belvidere, Belvidere North, North Boone and Sycamore.

The Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois (AHAI) on Tuesday approved the Belvidere Hockey Association’s request to join the North Central League with a Belvidere co-op team that will include students from the four schools, which is the max amount that AHAI allows teams to draw from.

BHA board president Stacy McGowan helped lead the initiative to give students from those schools a chance to play, which they previously didn’t have once they reached the high school level. After the opening of Belvidere’s Riverside Ice Arena last winter, the board contacted AHAI to see if they would support a new team. And McGowan said the idea was given full support.

“(They said) anything you want to do to create another high school team, we would be 100 percent behind you because the more teams, the more kids that can get the opportunity to play, the better off everybody is,” McGowan said. “And that’s what we’re all about is getting kids the opportunity to play.”

Belvidere won’t be competing against the Rockford Icemen, who are part of AHAI’s Scholastic League. The North Central League includes 23 teams from the Chicago suburbs. Belvidere Co-op will be one full 18-player varsity team this season, but isn’t ruling out a another squad in the future should there be enough interest from players in the communities.

“If we have more kids to have two teams, that would be even better,” McGowan said. “We don’t want to turn away anyone, so if we have kids that come and say they really don't have much hockey experience, that’s OK because you don’t know how a kid is going to develop from their freshman year to their senior year. They could go from having no hockey experience to being No. 1 in the state in that position. We’d bring them along and we’d coach them.”

The team’s name, colors and coaches will be officially announced Thursday at 5 p.m. during a “Puck Drop” event at Riverside Ice Arena in Belvidere.

— Adam Kradle: 815-987-1388; akradle@rrstar.com; @AdamJKradle