Northern Exposure
By Chuck Lennon

Duluth Mite and Squirt players learn the
game – outdoors – out their back door.

Most kids in Minnesota play their hockey games and practice in indoor arenas. In a state with more than 200 sheets of indoor ice, that’s no surprise. But Mites and Squirts in Duluth play a majority of their games on outdoor rinks that are located in neighborhood parks through-out the city.

These rinks are beautiful outdoor facilities with quality ice. Some of the outdoor rinks have advertising from local businesses on the boards - similar to the home run fences at small town baseball fields - which create an intimate setting. This all adds to the unique atmosphere surrounding Mite and Squirt hockey in Duluth.

“It’s great having our kids learning to play hockey at the local park, like the way it was when I grew up,” said Tim Cortes, father of a Mini-Mite player at the Portman Park. “The ice is great and because the park is located right in the neighborhood, it becomes the place for the kids and families to hang out. Many kids go right from school to the park and hang out there all night: skating with their buddies for an hour, then having their organized practice or game, and then back with their buddies again. It really is like it was 10 or 20 years ago.”

Both Mite and Squirt level teams skate the majority of their practices and games outdoors. The Squirt A and B teams even play a majority of their games on these unbelievably smooth sheets of ice, which include blue lines, red lines, goal creases and face-off dots, all laid into the ice by volunteer parents.

“We skate outdoors for all of our practices and about half of our games,” said James Stauber, coach of a Squirt B team.

In addition to the great ice and neighborhood atmosphere, skating outdoors also has anotherattractive benefit: it saves on the pocketbook.

“The cost to skate is in the neighborhood of $180 for the entire season,” said Stauber. “Because we are skating outdoors and the parents take care of the ice maintenance, concessions and related labor, we are able to keep the costs down.”

One of the neatest of these outdoor neighborhood rinks can be found at Lower Chester Park. Nestled right into the neighborhood, it has ads on the boards and the only refrigerated outdoor ice sheet in the city. And they’ve even got a resurfacer to maintain it!

Another cool rink is Lester Park, located high on Duluth’s Lake Superior-facing hillside. Lester Park has the most unique warming house, a long lodge-like structure with a fireplace. And, like Lower Chester, Lester Park also has a resurfacer.

But not every park rink has these luxuries. Maintenance duties like scraping, shoveling and flooding, working concessions, and organizing and hosting tournaments are handled by volunteer moms and dads. Just like every hockey association around Minnesota, it’s the moms and dads who do all the work!

“We take a lot of pride in our ice quality and there is definitely some competition going on between rinks, especially those that don’t have resurfacers,” said Cortes. “It’s the responsibility of every parent to take their turn flooding the rink during the wee hours of the morning. We go out in crews and spend a couple of hours flooding and then the next crew shows up and continues.”

And what happens if that next crew doesn’t show?

“Let’s just say that everyone is expected to do their fair share, and most parents really enjoy the camaraderie of the experience. For those that don’t, well there is always indoor ice for them.”

The Glen Avon rinks on the edge of Duluth’s Woodland area are a case in point. Two rinks and a pleasure skating rink are carefully maintained by a corps of adults.

Elaine Buckner is mom to three kids in the hockey program at Duluth’s Glen Avon Park, where she works shifts in concessions and helps at their annual tournament - the majority of the funds used to maintain the rinks are raised at these tournaments. But mostly she spends time as an air traffic controller at Duluth Airport and being a hockey mom to eight-year-old Sarah and seven-year-old Wyatt, both Mites, and 10-year-old Hayden, a Squirt. All three came up via Duluth’s Rink Rats program at Glen Avon, which starts kids in a developmental program until they make the jump to Mites or Squirts.

“It seems like it’s non-stop hockey, but we love it. We also have a rink in our backyard, even though we’re only one half block from the park rinks!” said Buckner.

While each of the Buckner kids has made the jump from Rink Rats, husband and dad Bruce still spends his Friday nights coaching Rink Rats, while his three hockey-playing kids are at home on their only night off! This is the kind of parental commitment that makes youth hockey in Duluth something to brag about!

Coming up in the Duluth youth hockey program has lasting memories for many great players who made names for themselves beyond this international port on Lake Superior.
Robb Stauber, former Duluth Denfeld (1982-1986) and University of Minnesota (1986-1989) goalie, came up in the Duluth program at Piedmont Park, which has two rinks. Stauber and his five brothers all played outdoor hockey through the Peewee level at Piedmont. “As Bantams we went indoors, but still practiced outside,” says Stauber, a volunteer goaltender coach at the University of Minnesota. “And our high school junior varsity played outside, too. The outdoor rinks in Duluth were great places to play.”

Clarke Coole, Executive Director of the Duluth Amateur Hockey Association, lauds the parental involvement in the city’s park hockey associations.

“The ice sheets are like glass and the program really grows talented players,” Coole said. Coole also relates how effectively the Rink Rat program has fed their Mite and Squirt teams. And without the number of outdoor rinks in Duluth, that may not be the case.

“The Glen Avon Rink Rat program really jump starts kids’ interest in hockey and broadens participation in Mites and Squirts,” Coole added.

And that’s one of the points of this tale – experiencing the magic of hockey in unique places. It’s about the participation of kids and commitment by parents. It’s young hockey players piling up stories to tell about pick-up games of shinny hockey, hard practices, competitive games, exciting tournaments, food feasts and loads of laughs. And all that happening in memorable places.

Most youth hockey players from around Minnesota have played in indoor tournaments. Many may have shared the joy of an outdoor hockey experience in Duluth. To a certain extent, Mite and Squirt hockey in Duluth is the way it used to be. Way back when, every level of hockey was played outdoors by great players and coaches like Herb Brooks and Doug Woog, often on frozen ponds, where this wonderful game began. And that’s what Mite and Squirt hockey in Duluth is, as close to pond hockey as you can get!

When he’s not working for the Minnesota Office of Tourism, Chuck Lennon coaches Mites in the West St. Paul Mendota Heights Hockey program.