Skating in Park City?
You Bet Your Ice!
Art: Roseanne Liztinger
First came the Utah Olympic Park with its refrigerated bobsled/luge track. And then, on the eastern edge of town, came the Park City Ice Arena & Sports Complex.
The arena sits at the base of a hill near Quinn’s Junction at the intersection of U.S. 40 and S.R. 248. The 46,000-square-foot building features a 20,000-square-foot ice sheet, seating for about 400 spectators, team locker rooms, meeting rooms, a rental shop and administrative offices. It’s surrounded by a complex of playing fields for soccer, softball, lacrosse, rugby, baseball and other sports.
The rink opened in February 2006 during the Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy. The timing was no coincidence, according to general manager Stacey Noonan. “We worked fast and furious so we could ride the coattails of the Olympics,” Noonan says. “We didn’t have a computer system or a phone system right away. We pretty much chased our tails for a while.”
But it didn’t take long for the arena to hit its stride. In its first three days of operation, about 3,000 people showed up to try the new ice surface. An offer of free admission didn’t hurt. By the end of the first year, there were regular programs in four sports — hockey, figure skating, speed skating and curling — and clubs associated with each one.
“This is such an athletic community,” Noonan says. “I wasn’t expecting anything less.”
Among the arena’s amenities is an “ice alcove” that allows sled-hockey players to move on and off the playing surface without having to clamber onto the typical team benches. So it should be no surprise that people from the nearby National Ability Center (NAC) have taken to the ice like ducks to a pond. The NAC has its own sled-hockey team — the Golden Eagles — who practice at the arena once a week. Recently featured in a segment on NBC’s “Today” show, the Golden Eagles will host teams from around the country in a sled-hockey tournament on March 20-22, 2008. The national sled-hockey teams from Canada and the United States have also competed at the arena.
Noonan points to the NAC as one of a growing number of health-related facilities that are sprouting in the area. Already under construction nearby is the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association’s $22.5 million Center of Excellence, which will feature high-performance athletic facilities plus educational resources for athletes, coaches and clubs. Soon to follow is a 25-bed, 100,000-square-foot hospital.
“To me, this Quinn’s Junction area has become a health and recreation Mecca,” she says.
Noonan was lured to Park City after working in a similar capacity in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. A Michigan native who grew up on figure skates, she added hockey to her repertoire after watching her husband and son take to the sport in Steamboat. In Colorado, she launched a hockey association for kids ages 6 to 18 and watched it grow from 22 to 275 participants in 17 years. She also started and nurtured the Colorado Girls’ Hockey League. “We now have a youth hockey association in Park City, and I hope our youth find out how fun the sport is,” she says.
Not too many years ago, seeing a woman in hockey pads was about as common as seeing a black player in the NHL. Ah, but the times they are a-changing. Among the 12 adult hockey teams at the Park City Ice Arena, two are composed entirely of women. Watch the Park City Predators in action, and you’ll find it hard to believe that when the team formed in March of 2006, only three players had prior game experience. Today, when the women are in full uniform, it’s only the long hair flowing from beneath their helmets that tells you this isn’t your typical men’s team.
Oh, there is one other thing: “The women will form a team and hire a coach,” Noonan says. “When you watch a C/D [level] women’s game, the women are always in position because they’ve been coached. The guys that don’t have that luxury tend to chase the puck.”
Judging from the caliber of the coaching and participants in the other club programs, Noonan predicts they’ll make similar strides. “I expect to produce some really good skaters out of our figure-skating club,” she says.
Depending on when you’re there, you just might run into someone who’s clearly a cut above the average rink rat. Among those who’ve been spotted at the Park City Ice Arena lately are:
Eric Heiden, winner of a phenomenal five gold medals in speed skating at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid. An orthopedic surgeon and the medical director of The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital (TOSH) in Murray, Utah, Heiden is a Park City resident. He has presented the awards at a number of speed-skating events at the rink.
Claude Lemieux, one of only five players in NHL history to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup while playing for three different teams (Montreal, Colorado and New Jersey). Lemieux held a month-long hockey camp at the arena during the summer of 2007.
Derek Parra, the former in-line skater who switched to speed skating and won gold in the 1,500-meter event at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. From time to time, you can see Parra gliding around the Park City ice sheet.
Luc Robitaille, who scored more goals (668) than any other left winger in NHL history. Robitaille, who has a summer home in Heber City, a few miles south of Park City, will hold a charity hockey game between ex-NHL players and Hollywood celebrities on January 20, 2008, during the Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Hockey Challenge will raise money for two charities, “Echoes of Hope” and “Shelter for Serenity.” Started by Luc and his wife Stacia, the charities are designed to provide opportunities for at-risk youth and housing for disadvantaged families.
For information on arena programs, upcoming events and public skating hours, please call 435.615.5700 or go to www.pcice.org.
Freelance writer David Hampshire spent his high school years in Canada, where he developed a passion for hockey but not the skills to go with it. He still gets nostalgic about the days of the “Original Six” NHL teams.
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