2000-2001 Season

The schedule was built for 70 games. The Stampede played 38.

Most of the team that won 50 games the year before came back to Belton for another run — Matt Barnes in goal, Chris Johnston, captain Craig Johnson, Chad Michalchuk, Sean Hughes. The goal they set was the one they had just missed: the President's Cup. It never came close to being possible.

The season opened on a bad omen. Central Texas led the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs 2-0, then lost in a shootout — to the same team that had ended its playoff run the spring before. The wins came hard after that, and there were not enough of them. For the first time, a Stampede team was going to finish under .500.

Then the money simply ran out. The franchise folded in January 2001, 38 games into the season; the players who kept showing up found the organization around them had stopped existing.

It was a hard way to end, but it was not the whole story. The Stampede finished above .500 in every full season, made the playoffs every spring they played a full one, scored the first goal in WPHL history, won a division title, and put one MVP and two Outstanding Goaltenders into the league's record. The last line on the franchise reads 14-19-5, 33 points. The team that earned it never stopped playing.