The former proprietors of the Bold City Battalion are facing criticism after the team unexpectedly dissolved merely a month into its new season.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The abrupt shutdown of a Jacksonville youth hockey team has left families seeking explanations. These families are now also requesting refunds.
The Bold City Battalion was affiliated with the U.S. Premier Hockey League, a junior hockey league featuring teams nationwide, including in Florida. Athletes from various parts of the country and state joined the Battalion, which was based at the Community First Igloo.
Among these players was 17-year-old Kaiden McCue, whose mother, Chantel, shared that he has been passionate about hockey since the age of six.
“He’s a remarkable young man and handles situations with poise,” McCue stated. “We’ve always encouraged him to be resilient and composed,” she added.
Kaiden aspires to continue his hockey journey into college, having steadily progressed through the youth hockey tiers. This ambition led him to the Bold City Battalion in Jacksonville. McCue expressed their initial enthusiasm when he joined the team in June, as it meant he would be just a short drive from their Orlando residence.
“He’s a senior in high school right now,” McCue explained. “So, he’s got to do online school, he’s away from home. That’s comforting for us. It’s only 2.5 hours.”
Mimi and Steven Castaneda’s 20-year-old son Josiah shares a similar dream. They moved their son all the way from Texas to join the Battalion, hoping for a fresh start in Jacksonville.
“When we got there, it was great. It was a great program, the coach is incredible,” Mimi explained.
This was supposed to be the third season for the Bold City Battalion, and the first under new ownership. Chris and Rhea Reaves took over the team in May 2025 and brought in a new head coach in June.
Parents were expected to pay $10,500 in tuition for the season, which covered training on and off the ice, hotels, meals, travel to games, team-branded clothing and some equipment. They were also expected to pay an additional $500 a month in billet fees, which would pay for housing and meals in Jacksonville. Typically, players at this level live with a ‘billet’ or ‘host’ family.
That is where parents said things started to take a turn.
“We were constantly sending money to him to go out and buy food, and that put a lot of strain on our family financially,” Mimi said.
The players were told to report to Jacksonville the last week of August to begin practicing. Steven said his son was put up in an Airbnb with several other players and no adult parents, but they were not provided food or meals despite paying the billet fee.
“I mean these kids were eating peanut butter and chili sandwiches and ramen,” Steven said. “You can’t be an athlete and live off of Costco hot dogs.”
Carol Ethos says her 17-year-old son Davian was in a similar situation. They live in Colorado where her son has played hockey since he was six years old. She says he was promised a billet family, but when he arrived in Jacksonville in late August, he was put in an Airbnb instead.
“At one point, they had nine kids in a four-bedroom Airbnb,” Ethos said. “And so, there obviously were not enough beds, so the kids were buying air mattresses.”
Parents told First Coast News there were also issues with filling the team roster. McCue said her son, a goalie, was taken out of the net and told to play another position during their first weekend of games.
“He hasn’t played in player skates since he was six. He’s 17, so he did a great job, but still, it doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do,” McCue said.
The team played a total of six games out of the more than 30 on the schedule. Their last one was on Oct. 5, 2025. Around that same time, parents began receiving invoices from the owners for the rest of the tuition money and billet fees.
Emails obtained by First Coast News show owner Rhea Reaves asking for immediate payment for the billet fees despite parents saying players were not being fed. That is when Ethos contacted the USPHL with concerns about the billet situation in Jacksonville.
A representative for the league said minors must be placed with a billet family and asked the owners to make changes.
“That’s not what I signed my child up for, especially halfway across the country,” Ethos told First Coast News. “Like, he’s a high school student, he’s a minor. I did not sign him up for that.”
According to parents, the team folded a week later on Oct. 10, right before another weekend of games.
“That’s what’s so disappointing, is that the day that this all just died, was they were supposed to leave for a showcase in North Carolina,” Mimi said. “And at that showcase, they would have had the opportunity to be seen, and that’s what’s so disappointing is that opportunity was taken from these boys.”
Parents now want their tuition money back and their contracts with the team to be released, claiming the Reaves never held up their end of the terms.
The wife of head coach John Bowkus said he has not been paid in full for his work over the season. The vendor that made the team’s jerseys also confirmed to First Coast News that they have not been paid either.
Chris Reaves pushed back against these claims, which he called “damaging.” He told First Coast News the head coach should have received all his paychecks, and all vendors will be paid according to their contracts.
“You don’t know what my arrangement is, you don’t know the terms,” Reaves said. “Every business has that and it’s their right with the vendor and to say that, ‘Oh, he’s not paying vendors,’ that’s falsifying and damaging information.”
Reaves also addressed the billet situation. He said he and his wife did not know there would not be enough host families at the start of the season. He added only a handful of parents paid the billet fees.
“We found out last year that eight players stayed with the head coach, six players stayed with the assistant coach, two parents moved to Jacksonville, Florida for kids to live in there with them and then everybody else stayed in apartments,” Reaves said. “And so when I bought the team, I had no idea the difficulties or whatever because supposedly, this team has been around for two years. So, the assumption was made, we’re all good.”
First Coast News also reached out to the USPHL to find if any action was being taken against the Reaves. A spokesperson with the league provided the following statement:
“The USPHL is deeply concerned about the treatment of players and families associated with the Bold City Battalion. Despite the vetting process of this ownership, the players and their families did not get what they were promised and should expect from our teams. The USPHL worked (and continues to work) within our constitutional bylaws to best navigate this difficult situation. USPHL staff are coordinating directly with our coaches and programs throughout the league to place players in safe, compliant, and stable environments where they can keep developing on and off the ice.”
Reaves told First Coast News he feels as though the league did not provide enough support for him throughout this process.
“To spend this kind of money with the league and get nothing back, get no support,” Reaves said.
In a matter of days, the players had to pack up their lives again and move to a new city with a new team. The Castanedas said their son switched leagues completely and they were disappointed with the way the USPHL handled this situation.
“I would really love to see the USPHL step in and do a better job at supporting families, players overall,” Mimi said. “I don’t think that they have.”
McCue’s son also went to an entirely different league. She hopes the Reaves will be held accountable and the USPHL will make changes to prevent something like this from happening again.
“That makes me angry as a Florida native and Florida hockey player,” McCue said. “That makes me really angry because my son’s had a hard time already getting out of the state…it needs to be flipped. This whole market in Florida needs to be purged, expunged. It needs to be gutted and rebuilt.”
The Reaves owned three other teams at the start of the season. A spokesperson for the USPHL confirmed they no longer own any of those teams, including the Bold City Battalion.
Chris Reaves added they are in the process of doing a financial review and final reconciliation of accounts, which should be finished within the next week. He also said he plans to take legal action against people associated with the league.
