The South Carolina Stingrays have been a member of the ECHL since the 1993-94 season. Multiple-time NHL 50-goal scorer Rick Vaive was the team’s first head coach, lasting five years. The Stingrays have won the Kelly Cup championship three times to date, most recently in 2008-09. The team plays at the 10,537-seat North Charleston Coliseum in North Charleston, South Carolina. Currently, the Stingrays are affiliated with the Boston Bruins of the NHL and the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League. The team has retired three jersey numbers.

Number 12 is retired in honor of the late Mark Bavis. Mark played just three years of professional hockey between 1993-94 and 1995-96 totaling 87 regular season and 17 playoff games for South Carolina. Mark was selected in the ninth round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Rangers, ranked 181st overall. He chose to play four years at Boston University between 1989-90 and 1992-93.

Bavis was working as a scout for the Los Angeles Kings when he was aboard Flight 175 that hit the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. Mark died alongside fellow Kings scout Garnet ‘Ace’ Bailey. . The Stingrays retired his jersey number just before the start of the 2001-02 ECHL season.

Number 14 is retired by Carolina in honor of David Seitz. David played nearly 500 regular-season games and nearly 60 playoff games for the Stingrays between 1996-97 and 2003-04. He put up a very respectable 587 regular season and 73 playoff points during that time. He played his last professional hockey season in 2004-05 with the Lubbock Cotton Kings of the Central Hockey League. Interspersed in his years with the Stingrays were 17 games with the AHL’s Rochester Americans and seven games with the IHL’s Chicago Wolves.

Seitz helped the Stingrays win two of their three Kelly Cup titles. In 1996-97, the Louisiana IceGators fell to Carolina four games to one. In 2000-01, it was another five game series with the Trenton Titans as casualties. David was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame in 2012.

Number 24 is retired in honor of Brett Marietti. Brett is the only Canadian of the three players and played junior hockey with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League before turning professional. With the exception of 1993-94 when he played in the AHL with the Rochester Americans, Marietti played his entire professional hockey career with the Stingrays.

Between 1994-95 and 2002-03, Brett played in 550 regular-season games, contributing 481 points and spending 1,127 minutes in the penalty box. He played in 69 playoff games for the club and had 62 points. His shirt number was retired in 2003 and he served one season as an assistant coach with the club in 2003-04.