Ste Anne arena staff preparing for busy winter

Many arena's in the southeast are preparing for winter and winter sports. Staff are either putting in ice or trying to build out their ice-time schedules. Each arena manager doing their best to ensure that their home teams’ practices, games and tournaments will have a time slot, that is besides all the other winter sports that need ice-time like rec hockey, ringette, figure and pleasure skating.

These days Sarah Normandeau, Ste. Anne Rec Coordinator is busy with the latter. And surprisingly is also answering phone calls from Winnipeg hockey team managers hoping to find available ice times.

Normandeau says,  “I get calls every single year from hockey teams in Winnipeg because, what people in the rural areas here don't understand is that, they're lucky here. All of us small-town arenas, we can offer our minor hockey programs their own chunk of ice and all those types of things. While in the city they are lucky to get enough ice for their games and they are all responsible to find their own ice for practice.

"So, every year I get Atom teams, I get PeeWee teams, I get Bantam teams begging for ice, on a weekly basis, to come in here to hold their practices. I talked to one lady last year from Winnipeg who said they had all their games scheduled but they were going all the way to Saint-Malo for 7:00 AM practices on Saturdays just to let their teams in practice." 

Normandeau continues, "We're so fortunate out here with a small-town arena because the city struggles too and the numbers are climbing and it's a great thing. It's a great problem to have. Our community here in Ste Anne is growing and we have a lot more families moving into the community and calling and asking, where they can sign up for hockey. Our minor hockey is exploding, so we don't have the room and as it grows it's become more of a need.”

However, because of the age of the Ste. Anne arena, staff are only able to make ice starting at the end of September, if it’s cold enough overnight, which means there are fewer time-slots available for practices or games for their own teams, let alone Winnipeg teams. 

“It’s an old facility, and that's the thing, it's really hard to manage that facility properly because it's not like other arena's that are brand new or have proper insulation and things like that. So, a lot of people would love us to get the ice in a lot sooner, but the weather doesn't allow us. If we have a really hot September, they have a really hard time making the ice. People need to understand the process and how long it takes in an old arena like this, with little to no insulation. They are trying so hard to make ice happen, but when you get hit with 20 degrees, they're shutting it down and hopefully incubating whatever cold mist they can hold in the building, so the ice won’t melt.”

When asked whether there’s the possibility of upgrading the arena, Normandeau says, “Absolutely, with money, grants.” Currently, they are working on fixing up the outside of the arena as well as the outdoor rink and looking for grants to apply for in order to make this happen.

Once the upgrades happen, they will have more space on their arena calendar for more winter sports for their own community, besides hockey adding ringette and figure skating. It might also mean available ice time for teams from outside of the Ste. Anne area.