Kemptville 73's
Division	Robinson
Founded	1969
History	Kemptville Comets 1969–1973 Kemptville 73's 1973–present
Home arena	North Grenville Municipal Centre
City	Kemptville, Ontario
Team colors	Red, black, white
Media	FloSports
Owner(s)	Paul LeBreux Joe Jefferies Jason York Craig Whitten
General manager	Terry Nichols
Head coach	Shawn Fensel
Official website	www.kemptville73s.com

The Kemptville 73's are a Junior A ice hockey team based in Kemptville, Ontario.^[1] The 73's compete in the Central Canada Hockey League (CCHL) as a member of the Robinson Division, which is the west division in the league. The club was founded as the Kemptville Comets in 1969 as part of the Eastern Ontario Junior B Hockey League (EOJBHL). The Comets changed their name to the 73's in 1973 to coincide with that year.^[2] For their first 36 seasons in Kemptville, the 73's were based at the now-demolished North Grenville Municipal Arena. Before the 2005–06 season, the team moved to the new North Grenville Municipal Centre in Kemptville. The 73's are owned by Paul LeBreux, Joe Jefferies, Jason York and Craig Whitten, and are coached by Shawn Fensel since 2023.

The franchise was poor to mediocre in the first eight years in the CCHL as they failed to make the Bogart Cup playoffs six times in eight seasons and never finished higher than fifth in their division, in which contained six teams. Their fortunes began to turn around following the hiring of the president and general manager Terry Nichols in 2012.^[3] When they were part of the EOJBHL, the team has reached the finals multiple times including two championship victories in 1997 and 1999.^[4]

The 73's have a rivalry with their Highway 416 neighbor, the Brockville Braves, as well as a rivalry with the Carleton Place Canadians and Smiths Falls Bears. The Carleton Place–Kemptville rivalry has been present since the 1969–70 season when they were both part of the EOJBHL, and have faced each other in the playoffs multiple times in their history. The Kemptville 73's have always been the only sports team located in the Municipality of North Grenville, billing themselves as solely representing the North Grenville township in any sport.^[5]

The team was founded in 1969 in the Eastern Ontario Junior Hockey League along with the Carleton Place Canadians.

In the 1996–97 season, the 73's achieved an undefeated season with a record of 38–0–4 en route to the Eastern Ontario Junior B Hockey League championship. They repeated the championship victory in 1999.^[6]

The team moved up from the EOJBHL to the CJHL in 2007. On September 14, 2007, the team played their first ever Junior A hockey game at home. The 73's took on the Nepean Raiders and have lost the game 5–2. Anthony Scarpino scored the 73's first ever Junior A goal in the first period. Alex Beaudry started the historic game in net. On September 23, 2007, the 73's won their first CJHL game by defeating the Kanata Stallions at home by a score of 4–2.^[7]

On April 8, 2008, Mark Nasca become the first 73 in history to commit to a Division I school when he signed with the Colgate University Raiders for the 2008–09 season. A few months later, Rob Capellupo was announced as the head United States scout for bringing in players. He was also announced as the teams physical and psychological doctor.

During the summer of 2017, the 73's changed their ownership from Ron and Lisa Tugnutt to Jason York, Joe Jefferies and Paul LeBreux.^[8] The ownership group expanded in 2020, when Shawn Fensel and Craig Whitten joined the group. In 2023, Fensel left the ownership group to become the 73's head coach.^[9]

Since 2018, the team has made a tradition of playing an annual Family Day Game on a Sunday afternoon in February, due to the fact that most of their home games are played on Wednesdays. This became the 73's most popular game in the regular season beside the playoffs, attracting over 800 people during the annual contest, and peaking at 1,350 fans in the 2023 edition.^[10]

• Calvin de Haan
• Ben Hutton

• 73's Webpage
• EOJHL Webpage
• CJHL Webpage