At the Campbell County Ice Arena, Gillette Wild Hockey Team practices for their first game on Oct. 1.
Pipe corrosion under Spirit Hall Ice Arena forces Gillette Wild Hockey Team onto smaller, unapproved rink
A whistle sounded inside the Campbell County Ice Arena as 20-year-old Austin Newson slammed his teammate against the plexiglass bordering the ice rink. It was 8 p.m. by the time the team was finally able to begin running drills because the ice couldn’t hold up during the earlier, hotter hours of the day, Gillette Wild coach Ethan Hayes explained Wednesday.
The team has practiced on the smaller rink located off 4-J Road since the beginning of their season last month, Newson said. The long-time Wild player said he hasn’t formally practiced on this rink since he moved up from the junior Gillette Wild team over four years ago.
“This rink is a lot smaller than what we’re used to,” he said before practice. “We’ve had to shrink all of our drills, so we could run them here.”
The team will play their first game of the season Oct. 1 in Helena, Montana, Hayes said. Originally, their first game had been slated to be at Spirit Hall Ice Arena in Gillette until pipe damages caused the rink to close entirely in August.
Campbell County Public Works Director Kevin King said that two pipes were leaking brine into the insulation encasing them during a director’s meeting with the Campbell County Board of Commissioners last Monday.
Public works originally ripped out two 8 x 8 sections of concrete to reach the leaking pipe. That was when the county discovered that the insulation around the pipes had been severely damaged by the leak, leading them to remove yet another section of concrete and all of the insulation before repairing the pipes.
Campbell County Parks and Recreation Executive Director Rick Mansur said that the county could have opted not to rip up the third section of concrete, which would have saved both time and money in the interim. However, he predicted that similar repairs to this section would have been necessary in five to 10 years had the county postponed the project.
At this point, the arena is completely dry, and the 2000-gallon brine tank has been emptied by the only business in the region that performs maintenance on ice arenas.
Both Masur and King said that the total cost of project would increase by an unknown amount when the Colorado-based company is able to return to Gillette and refill the tank.
Currently, King estimates that the project will cost $105,000, of which $55,000 was pulled from Public Work funds while Parks and Recreation covered the remainder of the cost.
As Mansur and King work to resolve scheduling conflicts, the Gillette Wild Hockey Team is ready to reclaim their rink in Spirit Hall.
Center Wild player Declan Young, 19, said despite the less than ideal beginning to his second season in Gillette, he is confident that the team will perform even better than they did last year.
“I think we’re still gonna do alright this year,” he said at Wednesday’s practice. “We have a lot of older, experienced guys on the team and we have great chemistry between the players.”
Defender Mason Hoffman, 19, agreed, adding he’s actually improved in some areas by virtue of adapting to the smaller rink and predicted that the team will best its opponents with precision, awareness and perseverance.
“We’ve definitely had to keep our heads up and watch out for each other, being over here,” he said.
“We figure things out together,” Newson added, “whether that’s in a game, in practice or just in general.”
He gestured to the junior-sized rink as he spoke, where his fully grown teammates warmed up by hitting pucks back and forth.
After the enriching experience he’d had on with the team last season, Young said he was already worried that the Wild could lose some community support this year, since state issued public health orders restricted Spirit Hall to half capacity, or 500 people, inside the arena.
The closure of the arena added to Young’s concerns, he said, yet he’s confident that the Wild, like most other sports teams in Campbell County, will quickly recover from this year’s uncertainty and continue to provide a local source of entertainment.
Until then, Young said the best way for the community to support Gillette Wild Hockey is to simply keep the team in mind.
“Don’t forget about us,” he said, urging residents to come out and watch a game when the rink is planned to reopen at the end of October.
“We just need everyone to remember that we’re still here,” he said.
