Possible skating rink by December

Hannah Gross 
NLJ Correspondent 
 
When Dr. Sara Thurgood, of the Monument Health Newcastle Clinic, presented the idea of forming a youth hockey team to the community on Facebook, she wanted to see if enough people would be interested. 
“Boy, was there interest,” she said. 
Not only were people in favor of the idea, but Justin Tystad of Pinnacle Bank decided to take it to the next level and proposed putting a rink in. Support began pouring in, and people were willing to donate time, money and resources to the project. 
After Thurgood, Tystad and Scott McGuire (the school psychologist and former college hockey coach) presented their ideas at Newcastle City Council and Rec Board meetings earlier this month, they realized that the next
step would be to “formally charter as a committee,” Thurgood said. A tentative meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 10. 
Thurgood has invited the community to join them at 6 p.m. to discuss ideas and form a local skating association. The location of the meeting will be determined soon. Once an official group is formed, getting the necessary funds and resources will be more probable, she said. 
“That gets us through the door,” Thurgood said. 
According to Thurgood, Tystad suggested having a semi-permanent rink, which would be fairly inexpensive to maintain, up and running by the holidays. In the future, she said, it might be possible to establish a more permanent rink that can be converted to a water park in the summer. 
The first thing that needs to be decided is where to install the rink, Thurgood said. A standard hockey rink is 200 feet by 80 feet, but a half-size rink (100 feet by 50 feet) would be big enough to play on, she said. Suggested locations include the skate park behind Loaf-n-Jug and Centennial Park, but the leading contender is Weston County Fairgrounds.
Because practices will most likely take place in the dark after parents are off work and kids are out of school, light and heating sources are needed to “facilitate a comfortable environment,” Thurgood said. She added that hockey is a risky sport, so there is a need for certain safety measures and equipment installed. Thurgood said 3 to 4 inches of water would be ideal, although it’s possible to skate on 1-inch-thick ice. Time needed to freeze the ice, a certain number of days under 27 degrees Fahrenheit, must also be considered. A Zamboni machine would be needed to smooth the ice, but it can be attached and “jury rigged” to a John Deere, Thurgood said.
Although a temporary rink can be installed quickly, Thurgood said, she is hoping to have something more permanent that won’t get torn up. She wants to get enough people interested and construct something permanent enough to make it last. There is “definitely potential” to “think big,” she said. Eventually, a sound system, skate rentals and a hot cocoa station could be organized. 
Thurgood said that her daughter played hockey in their former home of Birmingham, Alabama, and in order to continue playing, Thurgood has been taking her to Rapid City several times a week, which gets tiring. That’s where the idea of forming a local team came in. 
“She loves this sport,” Thurgood said. 
She said it will take a few years to teach kids in Newcastle how to get good enough at skating to start playing hockey, but the goal is to eventually form age-based teams, possibly as a branch of Thunder Dome in Rapid, similar to how baseball season is conducted. 
Thurgood said she hopes to have training camps and recruitment sessions in the near future, possibly with the National Hockey League’s Learn to Play event or something simple with local coaches. Hockey also offers some great scholarship opportunities, so getting the Newcastle youth involved could help cover college expenses, she said.
“We’ve got so many kids in this community,” Thurgood said. “It’s a great sport.”
To keep up with the updates and developments of the project, check the Newcastle Talk of the Town Facebook page, where Thurgood has been posting information and ideas. More information will be available after the Nov. 10 meeting. She said they’re willing to take any help they can get, including time, money, resources, service and labor. 
“If you’re interested, come to the meeting,” Thurgood said.