A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Arisan Sehlee, 8, takes a shot at the net being defended by big brother Santana Sehlee, 11, while former teammate Brennan Gerard, 9, takes a stab at the puck and his father, Josh Gerard, waits for the rebound on Saturday at the Pinehurst Park hockey rink.
In the winter The Beach building at Pinehurst Park turns into a warming house for skaters.
Shick, shick go the skates. Then comes the bang of the stick hitting the puck, or the bang of the puck hitting the wall of the Pinehurst Park hockey rink.
With temperatures in the 20s and the sun making an occasional appearance Saturday afternoon, it was a nice day to get out on the ice. Both ends of the rink were busy, populated by younger kids and their parents versus the teenagers who often play fierce games of hockey at the central Cloquet park.
The small groups of hockey players danced with the puck, weaving back and forth: one person shooting, another blocking (or not), yet another scooping it up and skating away from the goal only to circle around and try another shot.
At the south end of the rink were the Gerard and Sahlee families. They know each other but meeting at the rink was a happy accident.
"We go anywhere there's open ice. It's nice when there's an open warming house too, to put stuff on," said Josh Gerard, dad to 9-year-old Brennan Gerard and 6-year-old Makenna (who prefers basketball but was game to skate with her brothers).
They're joined by Santana Sehlee - who turned 11 the next day - and his little brother Arisan, 8. Santana and Brennan were on the same Mite II team last year.
"We go here and Churchill, Scanlon too," explained Josh. "They're flooding the small one outdoors at the hockey arena now, so we will go there too."
In addition to the four hockey rinks that Josh mentioned - at Churchill (aka Sunnyside Park), Scanlon's Sather Park, Pinehurst Park and Pine Valley - there are additional pleasure skating rinks at Sunnyside and Athletic Park. Carlton usually has a pleasure rink outside the hockey arena, and Esko has outdoor hockey rinks and a pleasure rink at the sports complex on Canosia Road, complete with warming house and bathrooms.
All four parks with skating facilities in Cloquet and the one in Scanlon have warming houses. Warming house hours in Cloquet are 4-8 p.m. Monday through Friday, Saturdays noon-8 p.m. and Sundays noon-6 p.m.
The new skating ribbon at Dunlap Island opens for skaters today, Friday, Dec. 14.
The Dunlap Island warming house also has some skates available for people to borrow for free. They also accept donations of gently used skates in all sizes.
