James Tang ’18: Episcopal Academy’s fourteen tennis courts are about to become eleven, as the construction of a brand new ice rink is about to begin. From the weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break, EA’s maintenance team and grounds crew will work together on erecting a full sized ice rink gifted by the Class of 1944 and the Episcopal Academy Parent Association.
Christopher Lauer, Director of Plant and Operations, explains, “The rink will be about two hundred feet by eighty five feet or at least similar to that of a full size hockey rink. It was purchased from a company called NICE ICE located in Canada. It comes with a liner, small boards, and mounts for the liner and boards.” Lauer continues, “Obviously, everything is weather dependent. It needs to be cold enough for the ice to freeze. We visited with Merion Cricket Club to discuss their rink construction and maintenance procedures before we embarked on the whole process.”
Mark Notaro, Director of Operations adds, “We are building a seasonal rink, not a permanent structure. It will be similar to the types of rinks you would see up in New England or Minnesota during the winter. Once again, we will only be able to skate on it if the weather cooperates.”
Notaro explained how the approval process for this project worked. “We knew there was an interest in pursuing this as an option so Dr. TJ Locke, Head of School, asked me to investigate the achievability of this project. We looked into how complicated an actual ice rink would be to construct and we felt that we would be able to handle this internally. Once we established the feasibility of doing this, we presented the idea to the Facilities Committee of the Board of Trustees. The final cost of the rink is still unclear,” he explains.
Photo Courtesy of Jenna Cooley ’16
“The decision, like a lot of what happens on campus, was discussed at a board level. The main factors were providing additional ice time for the hockey teams and to have a scattered EA community events on the ice. The idea is to have the EA community benefit from a winter activities that they can do together on the ice and the fact it benefits the hockey team is an additional bonus,” exclaims Lauer.
Steven Schuh, Assistant Head Coach of the Hockey Team and history teacher at EA, explains, “As we are currently practicing at the Skatium in Havertown, and can only do so Mondays and Wednesdays, the opportunity to practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays is great. Four days a week as opposed to two helps us exponentially. Furthermore it makes up for the lost practice slots taken up by games.”
“Since the team doesn’t have many players who play hockey outside of school, the rink is a good opportunity to get some extra time in on the ice and to improve,” says Co-Captain Ben Glidden ‘16. “Practices on ice currently take an hour and a half and there can be an issue for transportation. People who live further away from Havertown face the most inconvenience.”
Adam Kovacs ‘18, member of the ice hockey team, mentions, “When we go out to the Skatium in Havertown on Mondays and Wednesdays to practice, we miss domino. Having the ability to practice more times during the week, as well as having them on campus is great for both our hockey team and for our academics. We get more time on ice without having to sacrifice the time we need for our studies.”
As for the tennis coach’s thoughts on having an ice rink occupy the space of four courts, Whitaker Powell, head coach, exclaims, “Great idea! It’ll be an awesome community building. Hot chocolate, fire pits and skating will make for great winter family activities.”
While there is no guarantee that the weather will stay cold enough for the entire season, Notaro remarks, “We do anticipate at least 30 days of potential use. This year we would like to see how the process works out. We will look to improve upon how the ice is maintained and how easy the set up is for our teams and families to use in future years. We do not have plans for a permanent rink.”