Displaying items by tag: Weibel Ice Rink

Thursday, 11 April 2019 12:51

The Weather’s Getting Warmer but the Ice is Freezing Up

SARATOGA SPRINGS — For the first time ever, the Weibel Ice Rink will be open throughout the spring.

“We are so excited that the City will be keeping the ice available for our skaters,” said Bart Bergbom, president of the Saratoga Springs Figure Skating Club.

Each spring the Saratoga Figure Skating Club travels in search of good ice to master their skills, traveling as far as Scotia and Albany during rush hour. The constant change of venue creates an inconsistency with their practice schedules.

“There’s only a couple other ice rinks in the area in the capital region and they’re overcrowded at this point because of the limited ice, which makes it difficult for our skaters to practice when they want to,” said Bergbom. “It kind of becomes unsafe just with literally overcrowding on the ice.”

Due to this need, the Saratoga Springs Recreation Department partnered with the Department of Public Works in order to make the Weibel Ice Rink available for the months of April through June. However, keeping the ice rink open as the temperature rises is not a simple task.

"As the weather warms up, it becomes harder and harder to produce good ice,” said Skip Scirocco, the commissioner of Public Works. “We’re gonna keep our fingers crossed and hope that we can maintain a good quality of ice out there."

The equipment used to keep the ice running is ten years old, and as of right now, there isn’t a back-up plan in place, in the rare instance the equipment fails. “Right now we’re at the mercy of our equipment. That’s not without issues. I think overall we’re gonna have a good run this year,” said Scirocco.

To learn about the spring offerings from the Figure Skating Club visit .ssfsc.wordpress.com.

Published in Sports

Pucks and Ponytails

Photos by Lindsay Wilson.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Springs' co-ed hockey league, The Saratoga Blue Knights Pee Wee team is a representation of the national growing trajectory of female participation in hockey.

There are three teams in the PeeWee division, A, B and C all divided based strictly on skillset. Of the 12 players on each team, the A team has five girls and the B team has three. Five of these girls participated in the Empire State Winter Games three weeks ago in Lake Placid and won the gold.

According to the National Federation of State High School Association, the participation of girls in ice hockey has increased by 585 players recorded nationally between 2013 and 2016.

“What’s awesome is to see a number of girls that are coming up,” said Pee Wee A assistant coach Molly Morgoslepov. “These kids are 11 and 12 years old and to see what they can do now - stuff I wasn’t doing until I was 25. It’s really fun to watch.”

Last year the USA Women’s Hockey team made headlines when they took home the gold medal against Canada at Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Even with the rise of girls and women being represented in ice hockey, these girls still get mixed responses whenever someone hears that they play the sport.

“They are always confused at first but then they’re like - wow, that’s so cool,” said Annie Tolan of the Pee Wee B team.

Rowyn Pemrick of the Pee Wee A team explained, “they’re normally surprised and they always think that boys should just be the ones playing hockey.”

Luckily for the girls of the Pee Wee teams, these assumptions do not cross over into their rink.

“As coaches, it’s great because people don’t care if you’re a boy or girl, they just want you to be an athlete and compete,” said Coach DeAnzeris.

Seeing these girls eager to play hockey shouldn’t come as a surprise, because like many child athletes, they were introduced to the sport from it simply being a family affair.

“I went to one of my older cousin’s college hockey games,” said Lucie Frazier of Pee Wee A. “My brother started playing and I liked watching it so then I wanted to try playing it.”

“I think for each one of them, it’s their favorite sport. I’ve never met a kid who plays hockey, and it’s not their favorite sport,” said Coach Edward.

In unison, the girls all agreed with a passionate “yes!” It is indeed their favorite sport.

The only time the difference of gender takes the forefront of the player’s minds is the absence of a designated locker room. In many non-co-ed team sports, locker rooms are a place to shower and change before and after practices and games. As for the Pee Wee team, the locker room is designed to be a communitive meeting spot before games, as opposed to a place to change. This format is common for USA Hockey leagues nationally.

Both the coaches and the players agree that they all treat each other with respect. They have fun and challenge each other to be their very best.

When on the ice, Coach DeAnzeris tells us, “you won’t be able to tell in a good way (who's a boy or a girl) based on skill; you can tell mainly by the ponytails.”

Published in Sports

Local Athletes All Star Moments

[Photos provided]

Saratoga Blue Streaks vs. Adirondack Rivermen Hockey
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Blue Streaks played the Adirondack Rivermen in the Blue Streaks’ first sectional game at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at the Weibel Ice Rink. Saratoga took the win, 4-1. All goals were made at full strength. In the first period, Saratoga’s Nick Larrabee scored the first goal with assists from Ryan Jones and Devon Wormley. In the second period, Ryan Jones scored with an assist from Matt Shamberger and Will Detora scored with assists from Charlie Leary and Ryan Jones. For the Rivermen, Andrew Rizzo scored with the help of Jordan Willis and Cullen Krug. In the third period, Matt Shamberger scored the final goal with an assist from Gary Blanchard. Saratoga’s goalie Brad Hipsley had 12 saves and Adirondack’s goalie Ben DiFiore had 18 saves.

Saratoga Central Catholic Bowling
SARATOGA SPRINGS — On Thursday, Dec. 14 Saratoga Central Catholic played a match against Waterford, winning each game with an overall score of 3261-2092. For the Saints, Micaela Barbolt had the highest average, 194, and Tim Barrett with an average of 189. For Waterford, Mackenzie Fletcher had an average of 132 and Elias Martin had an average of 125. On Monday, Dec. 18 Saratoga Central Catholic played a match against Whitehall. The Saints won all matches and overall defeated Whitehall, 2855-2040. Zac Niles
had the highest average for the Saints with 169 and Micaela Barbolt followed closely behind with an average of 164. For Whitehall, Abby Melvin led the team with an average of 152 and Zac Hollister with 131.

Saratoga Central Catholic Boys Varsity Basketball
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Overall, the Saints are 4-1 and 2-0 in the league. On Tuesday, Dec. 12 the Saints played Hoosic Valley and won, 53-45. On Friday, Dec. 15 the Saints defeated Stillwater, 71-55. On Tuesday, Dec. 19 the Saints beat Waterford 59-44 in a Wassern League matchup. Leading the way for the Saints, Tyler Haraden had 19 points, Terel Tillman and Aiden Dagostino each had 10 points.

Saratoga Springs Gymnastics Team
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Gymnastics, the 16-time defending Section II champions, opened their dual meet season with a convincing win over Shaker on Monday night, 166.95-150.35. Saratoga secured four out of the top five all-around scores led by Ava Dallas (1st all-around; 35.10), followed by Sophia Damiano (2nd all-around; 34.05), Kate Dellaratta (3rd all-around; 32.00) and Megan Wishart (5th all-around; 31.00). Shaker’s top all-around finisher was Brianna Morris (4th allaround; 31.95). Saratoga gymnasts captured the top spot in each of the four individual events, with Ava Dallas winning the vault (9.00), the floor exercise (8.90) and the bars (8.70), and with Emily Ward winning the beam (8.90).

Saratoga Regional YMCA Youth Basketball League
ROTARY JUNIOR DIVISION: Saratoga Financial Services 31 — Mexican Connection Restaurant 25 In a nip and tuck game, Saratoga Financial outlasted Mexican Connection by a score of 31 to 25. Alex Cutler dropped in 12 points and teammate Ryan Boyle added another 8 points in the victory. Nick Scalo led his team in scoring with 11 points along with 7 points from
Yankiel Bracero in the loss.

Saratoga PBA 30 — PJ BARB-QSA 19
In a defensive battle, PBA got 9 points apiece from Steve Bebee and Emylyn Tineo and Jack Foster added another 8 points and defeated PJ’s BBQ 30 to 19. PJ’s was led by Caleb Beverly with 7 points and 5 points apiece by Jacob Armer and Jordon Cousar. SENIOR DIVISION: Saratoga Firefighters 54 — Berkshire Hathaway Blake, Realtors 36 In a very physical game, the Firefighters got off to an 18-point first half lead over BHHS, Blake Realtors and went on to a 54 to 36 victory. Noah Rourke exploded for a team high 21 points and Enyer Tineo scored 13 points while Curtis Bennifield added 12 points for the Firefighters. Ian Fisk had a game high 27 points with Jake Graham and Tim Leary each contributing 5 points in the defeat.

Village Photo 55 — Cudney’s Launderers 34
The game was even through the first half but in the second half, Village Photo used a smothering pressure defense to get a win over Cudney’s 55 to 34. The victors got 19 points from Jose Garcia along with 12 points apiece from Donald Steves and Patrick Deschaine. Cudney’s got 13 points from Hunter Regels and Lydia Green added 7 points, Tom Leary had 6 points in the loss.

Published in Sports