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The outdoor hockey renaissance

By Glen Andresen, 04/13/09, 7:10AM CDT

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The Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings rang in 2009 with the National Hockey League’s Winter Classic

The Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings rang in 2009 with the National Hockey League’s Winter Classic played at Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field. In its second year of existence (last year’s game was played in Buffalo, New York), the Winter Classic has achieved widespread popularity, due in no small part to the fact that it captures the memory and the mystery of growing up and playing a game on frozen water in frigid temperatures. Once a year, the pros return to their childhood days of playing outside with their friends.

 

For adults, the outdoor games are reminiscent of the old days of shinny hockey, no rules and hot chocolate. It was a time before indoor rinks and multiplex facilities dotted every suburb. For kids, the Classic allows them to draw comparisons between NHLers and themselves. “We both play hockey outside…sometimes.”

 

Today’s hockey-playing youth are shepherded into more indoor rinks, dry land training facilities and skating treadmills than ever before.

 

And, while undoubtedly valuable in honing skills and building work ethic, can any piece of technology or modern amenity grow the game of hockey as successfully as a game of shinny played simultaneously by a group of 20 “kids” ranging in ages eight to 48?

 

As Minnesotans, we often look at the greatest players in our state’s history – John Mayasich, Neal Broten, and Phil Housley – and recall their past interviews in which they claim that their best memories, and their skills, were developed in unstructured outdoor games played among friends.

 

As hockey’s next generation emerged, those outdoor games seem to have taken a back seat to more structured practices, where all skills are worked on briefly in an effort to fit everything into a limited amount of difficult-to-come-by ice time.

 

Even in Minnesota, where our outdoor lakes, rivers and ponds seem to be frozen over for half the calendar year, ice time is at a premium.

 

Now, some parents whose memories of their outdoor games are as vivid as a Terrence Fogerty hockey print, are doing their best to return the shinny game to local kids. Among them are Tim Sweeney and Brady Bizal of the Hopkins Youth Hockey Association, who have spearheaded an outdoor rink revival in Hopkins.

 

The “Ba-Pav” rink sits directly behind the Hopkins Pavilion, the local indoor rink. By design, the rink provides immediate access to kids just leaving their indoor practice, giving them a place to play some unorganized hockey before heading home.

 

“The emphasis was really just to get kids a quality piece of ice with high visibility,” said Bizal, the President of the Hopkins Youth Hockey Association. “There are no rules, and it’s really just a way to bring the fun back for the kids.”

 

While the rink can be reserved for entire teams at limited times, the majority of skaters utilizing the rink are a mix of ages and skill levels.

 

“The great thing about kids is that they can figure it out on their own,” said Sweeney, the Hopkins outdoor ice coordinator. “Kids don’t get excluded. They just meld together and figure out ways to have fun, which should be easy because there are no rules.”

 

In Twig, a small township on the edge of Duluth, Minnesota, there is another outdoor sheet called “Rink Three” that promotes similar ideals to Hopkins, but there is one rule that must be followed: Rink Three is for “rinkratters” only.

 

“Other than that, there are no rules,” said Jim Kehtel, the Rink Director for the Twig Amateur Hockey Association and Twig Rink.

 

Prior to the summer of 2007, the Twig Rink was similar to countless other outdoor hockey facilities in Minnesota. There were a couple hockey rinks used for practices, games and tournaments, and a pleasure rink surrounded by snow banks where sticks and pucks are not allowed.

 

Similar to other associations, Twig has supported teams from the Mite level up through the Bantam level, which means the outdoor ice time was typically at a premium, especially for the recreational hockey player.

 

As rink director, Kehtel became accustomed to watching kids coming off of practice at one of the two 200’ by 85’ hockey rinks, and head right to the warming shack. He’d hear them wishfully thinking out loud how great it would be to go right back out there and horse around with their friends. Instead of skating and puck-handling drills, the youngsters just wanted to play – for fun.

 

Kehtel recalled his response he gave so often. “We’d have to tell the kids, ‘well, there are games on both rinks, or there’s a tournament, so you’ll just have to skate around on the pleasure rink.’”

 

The sense of community was instrumental in the building of Rink Three, and it continues through its first winter of existence. The Association implemented the Rink Rat program, which allows all skaters to fill out a form and log their hours at the rink. If the kids are members of the Twig Association, the hours only count from time spent at the rink that doesn’t include practices or games.

 

After 20 hours, each kid gets a $5 gift certificate for the concession stand. After 40 hours, they receive a Rink Rat T-shirt. Stauber Brothers, a Duluth sporting goods staple headed by former University of Minnesota star goaltender Robb Stauber, donated two composite sticks to the program. Any skater that logs over 50 extra hours has the chance to win one of the sticks at the end of the season banquet.

 

While the idea of a rink for “fun only” is a no-brainer for folks in the hockey community who just want to see their kids enjoying the game as opposed to dreading a practice filled with drills, pulling off a project like this takes time, and the entire community.

 

“For us, it was really a grass roots effort,” explained Bizal. “We had Mite dads out there flooding. Parents maintain it on the weekends, while the city takes care of it during the week. We have great volunteers behind us.”

 

In Twig, the installation of Rink Three ran a grand total of $8,000, and was funded mainly by Association members selling pizzas and participating in a Skate-a-Thon in which kids skated as many laps as they could in an hour. Minnesota Power donated the poles and partial donation for the lighting. A local electric company sent a boom truck technician to mount the poles free of charge. A nearby lumber company supplied the wood at cost. The township, the county and the Minnesota Department of Transportation also provided miscellaneous necessities.

 

“We had 30 dads come out last summer and we had the construction done in one weekend,” boasted Kehtel.

 

Bizal views the Hopkins community support as parents wanting to give their kids what they had.

 

“We want to give these kids the traditions that we had. If you fish, your children will likely learn to fish. Being from up north, I played my hockey outside, and I want my kids to have the same experiences as me.”

 

While playing outdoors at Wrigley Field (or the new Minnesota Twins stadium) might be a tall order for a Hopkins youth hockey player, playing outdoors and imagining it is possible any day of the week.