Many great basketball players began their careers without a ball, a hoop, or a court to practice on. If that sounds ridiculous, it is; you can’t learn without a ball and at least a basket. When your season depends on the fickle Wyoming climate, it gets even worse.
That’s the situation Fremont County Ice Hockey faces this season. There isn’t any ice. The warmer-than-usual winter, with a few days consistently below freezing, has left the arena on Smith Road in Riverton devoid of safe, skateable ice.
“This is the worst we’ve ever seen,” Fremont County Ice Hockey president Ryan Hamilton said. “We tried a week ago to lay some ice, but the temps climbed back into the 50s and it’s too soft and unsafe for the kids.”
Local teams play 20 games each season, half of them are supposed to be home games.
“Since we haven’t had one of them, parents have been asked to travel for all the games,” Hamilton said.
The teams are broken into age-level competition with 10U, 12U, 14U, and 18U. The three lower age teams are defending state champions.
“There are two brackets, we played in the B bracket but for what we have going up against in Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, Gillette, Cody, Pinedale, Sheridan and Rock Springs, we do pretty well,” Hamilton said. “Douglas has temporary refrigerated ice, everyone else has ice almost all year.”
How do you practice when you don’t have a rink to skate on? The short answer is you don’t.
“We don’t practice, we can’t,” Hamilton said. “Even if we expected families to get roller blades and practice in the gym, it’s not the same, the sizing, the nets, the boards, you have to use balls instead of pucks.”
Fremont County hockey players traveled to Pinedale for a weekend of practice early in the season. They played two practice games. That’s it for practicing.
“We’re done, we won’t have ice this year,” Hamilton said. “The state tournaments are the end of February.”
The solution is refrigerated ice, either with a portable system or, preferably, an enclosed, year-round facility.
“The last time we looked up a portable refrigeration system, it was $800,000 for the piping and the refrigeration system uninstalled,” Hamilton said. “The downside is you spend that kind of money, and it’s a 3-to-5-year life expectancy for those chillers. We didn’t think it was 100% feasible.”
Recently, the Hughes Foundation conducted a $60,000 feasibility study for ice skating options in Riverton.
“It was $800,000 for a temporary system to a full indoor rink at $8,000,000 with enclosed locker rooms, rink, stands, everything,” Hamilton said.
The present location on Smith Road is below the Riverton sewer lines, meaning they can only offer Porta-Johns for restroom facilities.
“Kids can pay $100 a season for practice only, not travel a team,” Hamilton said. “6U and 8U for practice we had about 20 kids. Years past we had 40. We don’t have ice, so you can’t practice. This has crushed the numbers in our club. It’s tough to put your 10-year-old out there at 5 degrees on natural ice.”
Currently, there are hockey players competing from Riverton, Lander, and Shoshoni.
Jesse Smith is the parent of a player and was an athlete in hockey at Riverton in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“It’s been something we’ve had to contend with off and on every year since the organization started in 1995,” Smith said. “Last year, at least we had ice, but it wasn’t much, maybe 5 weeks. It’s been an interesting challenge. I think its high time we can organize as a community and get a legitimate facility like everyone else in the state
Fremont County, specifically Riverton and Lander are woefully behind in recreation opportunities for the youth of their communities in comparison with communities of similar or even smaller populations.
“I’m trying to organize something we can get until a permanent facility is built,” Smith said. “There are avenues where we can get portable systems without buying everything at new prices.
We’ve located a chiller in Cheyenne that would take a huge chunk of the money.”
The future of Fremont County hockey is in the elementary age skater.
“You’re not going to get new hockey members if you don’t give them the chance to learn to skate,” Smith said. “Hopefully, I’m trying to bridge the gap and get an indoor facility. We have a lot of problems to be solved but I’m hopeful we can get them done.”
Smith is a member of the Rendezvous Activities Center Committee with representatives from R-Rec, City Council, and Fremont Hockey.
The committee is looking at Shoshoni, Riverton, Lander, Pavillion, and Ethete, along with everything in between.
“The committee will see if we can locate funding, search for private funding, and find a source to cover ongoing costs,” Smith said. “Taxes aren’t the way to fund this.”
The first step is to see if there is interest in improving Fremont County.
“We have four teams they all somehow have winning records despite having zero practice,” Smith said. “It seems that ice hockey might be Fremont County’s strongest sport. Last year was pretty special, three teams on multiple fire trucks for state titles.”