Looking Forward….The Next Year Highlights at ISCC

As Summer wraps up and the leafs start to change to Fall colors the International Skating Center of Connecticut media team thought it would be a good idea to look forward at the upcoming events for the next year! So get your calendars out, and your permanent markers cause, you are not going to want to miss these events!  

Wolfpack Pre-season Game

The International Skating Center of Connecticut will be hosting a Pre-Season American Hockey League game for the Hartford Wolfpack and visiting Springfield Falcons. The game will be held at 2:00pm on Sunday, September 29^th. The cost will be $5.00, with all proceeds going to youth hockey programs in the state of Connecticut. This is a great opportunity to see future stars of the National Hockey League right here in your back yard in Simsbury! Come check it out, we promise you will not be disappointed!

Thanksgiving Avon Youth Hockey Tournament

So if you’re like the ISCC media team, you love your food and your hockey. So what better way to get a fixing of both all in the same weekend! Starting Friday the 29th after Thanksgiving and through the whole weekend (30^th and 1^st) the International Skating Center of Connecticut is co-hosting, along with Avon Old Farms Prep School the Avon Youth Hockey Thanksgiving Tournament. Though this is a small tournament, usually twenty to thirty teams, the hockey is great! After you’re all full from your big meal come check it out! It’s free admission too!

Winter Learn-to-Skate Show

Right before Christmas and school vacation the International Skating Center of Connecticut hosts a Winter Learn-to-Skate show. Now, the show is very similar to your kids ballet recitals or plays in school! However, we also put in a few amateur figure skaters that love to perform for a pack crowd. Kids taking our Learn-to-Skate have the opportunity to perform right at center ice in  a group or individual performance. We assure you, this is entertaining and really a great time to bring the family out to! The cost is only $5.00 a person (kids two and under are free)but all the admissions profits go back to our Learn-to-Skate program for future shows and improvement to the program!

Simsbury Holiday Hockey Tournament

Much like the Avon Youth Hockey Thanksgiving Tournament this is the Simsbury Youth Hockey Tournament which is hosted at the International Skating Center of Connecticut, Westminster Prep School and Simsbury farms. The tournament is similar sized to the Thanksgiving one and features many of the same teams. So if you miss that tournament come check this one out! This event is also free to public and we promise it is extremely entertaining. This Tournament is scheduled for the 26^th-29^th of December.

Winter Fantasy on Ice Figure Skating Show

This is the real deal! You are not going to want to miss this show! Olympians and World Champions come and do a show right here in Simsbury, Connecticut! Not just once, but twice! The dates are set for New Years Eve Day and New Years Day. Not only do Olympian and World Champions take the International Skating Center of Connecticut’s ice but our terrific amateur performers skate right alongside of them! Wait, wait! It gets better! There is on ice seating for these events, that’s right you can sit on the ice and be like at Sea World in the “Splash Zone.” Based on last years ticket prices this even costs $20.00 for general seating and $30.00 for on ice seating (well worth it and highly recommended). Last years stars were Ekaterina Gordeeva and Ilia Kulik.

USA Hockey Tier III National Championship

Lastly, we are going to wrap up this posting with the big news! The International Skating Center of Connecticut is proud to host the 2013-14 USA Hockey Tier III National Championship. Not only will this be held at I.S.C.C. this coming year but also in 2014-15! These athletes will be attending Division I and III schools and could make it into the N.H.L. one day! I.S.C.C. beat out New York City, Chicago, Dallas and Rochester, Minnesota in bidding for this championship. Though prices are not set, the date is in late April so make sure your calendars are open because this is going to be an exciting time in the Hartford, Connecticut area!

Hockey, Figure Skating and More!

The International Skating Center of Connecticut is known primarily for our figure skating excellence with past skaters winning medals in the Olympics and past World Championships. However, there are many other exciting things that the skating rink can offer you if you so choose!

Did you know that we offer full facility rentals? That’s right! You could have the ice all to yourself or even have a private party! Full facility rentals can include having one or both ice rinks at your disposal, rental skates and even have the Sk8ter’s Café  cater your party or and outside vender. If you want to book your private party there is just a few steps you need to follow:

1.)   Pick a day

2.)   Pick a time

3.)   Call 860-651-5400 and ask for the rink manager

4.)   Book your time and put down a deposit

That’s right just four easy steps! We have even had people book parties for broom hockey and corporate events!

Maybe the ice is not your thing though? You have always seen the workout facility that overlooks both ice rinks on the second floor! They have some great classes that they can offer you such as Tumbling, Gymnastics and more! You can rent that space as well by contacting the PlayStrong Group at 860-651-5000 or even at their email: playstrong@comcast.net.

Well what if your kids want to have a birthday party at the rink but you don’t want to rent out the full facility? Guess what! We have that option. In fact, for just fifteen dollars a head you can get skating and food in the Sk8ter’s Café! The skate time is during any one of our public skate times which consist of an hour and fifteen minutes of skating and you have an unlimited time in the café for post skating celebration! These packages include: skate admission, rentals, pizza or hotdogs, chips, soda, ice cream, balloons and private tables. In order for you to book one of these events all you need to do is follow these four steps:

1.)   Pick a day

2.)   Find the corresponding public skate time

3.)   Call 860-651-5400 ex. 21

4.)   Book your time and put down a deposit

We hope that this has helped to show you that we are more than just a figure skating and hockey rink but we can host your parties of any and all sizes! Please respond with any questions and we will answer your right away! You can also inquire by following us on Facebook and/or on Twitter at: @ISCCSKateCT!

Connecticut Hockey Academy - Summber Camp

This week the International Skating Center of Connecticut is hosting the first ever, Connecticut Hockey Academy Summer camp. The dates are August 19^th – the 22^nd and feature a terrific coaching staff that really cannot be rivaled in the Hartford, Connecticut area. Through the connections of Bob Crawford, owner and general manager of I.S.C.C., we have established a four person staff that will provide their expertise on and off the ice this week. The purpose of this week’s blog entry is to make you more informed about who will be coaching your children this week if attending one day or the whole week of camp.

First, from right here in Simsbury, Connecticut, Tim Joncas, Westminster Prep School head coach. Tim has been serving as Westminster Prep Schools head hockey coach for seven years and has produced N.H.L. caliber talent. Coach Joncas, trained Tommy Cross, Simsbury born and raised, for three seasons before he signed with Boston College and now plays for the Providence, Rhode Island Bruins, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Boston Bruins. In addition, Joncas coached 2013 Stanley Cup Champion Ben Smith of the Chicago Blackhawks. In his playing days, Tim Joncas compiled 75 points: 22 goals and 53 assists for Wesleyan University and later Trinity College.

Second is, Pat Boller, the active assistant coach of the Hartford Wolf Pack, the American Hockey League affiliate of the New York Rangers. Coach Boller has served in the New York Rangers organization for now nine years as both an assistant coach and Director of Operations. Boller played for SUNY Potsdam where he served as an assistant captain for the team. Upon graduating Boller joined the coaching staff of Manhattanville College where the Division III team won the E.C.A.C. Championship three years straight.

The third coach is, Ken Gernander, the active head coach of the Hartford Wolf Pack. Gernander played in 14 A.H.L. seasons and the final eleven with the New York Rangers affiliated team in Hartford, Connecticut. Gernander served as captain for the Wolf Pack for ten years and won the Calder Cup, as the A.H.L. best team in 2000. Gernander amassed 347 points for the Wolf Pack and owns the franchise record for most games played and most playoff games played. Finally, Ken Gernader was originally drafted to the Winnipeg Jets in the fourth round of the 1987 N.H.L. entry draft.  

Lastly, Kevin Maxwell will be the fourth coach this week at the Connecticut Hockey Academies Summer Hockey Camp. Ken is the Director of Professional Scouting for the New York Rangers of the N.H.L. Maxwell, has been a scout for the following National Hockey League teams: Dallas Stars, New York Islander and the home town Hartford Whalers for the 1994-1995 season. Kevin Maxwell knows firsthand what it takes to make it from a youth hockey player through the ranks and to skate on the world’s most famous arena ice, Madison Square Garden.

If you missed the first day of camp, no worries! Come out tomorrow morning starting at 9:00am and you can pay day-by-day! There are two ice sessions, one off-ice session and lunch every day! So strap on your skates and come get coached by some of the best coaches around!

The Amazing Facts of U.S. Figure Skating

So just the other week, our Learn-to-Skate Director here at the International Skating Center of Connecticut sent me a link to the U.S. Figure Skating fact sheet. At first I didn’t think anything of it, and honestly was not sure what to use it for. However, I said what better way to boil down eight thick pages then to write a blog post about it?

Well here you go!

Did you know that U.S. Figure Skating started 1921 with just seven clubs? Well believe it! In fact today there are more than 690 clubs spread all across the United States of America. One of these clubs has produced the youngest member of the 2013-14 U.S. Team, Vincent Zhou is just 12 years old. In the 690 clubs there are more than 165,000 athletes. Right here at the International Skating Center of Connecticut we have, the Charter Oak Figure Skating Club which is certified through U.S. Figure Skating and our Learn-to-Skate program is in fact also registered with each coach having to pass a test in order to qualify as a U.S. Figure Skating Credentialed coach. Our Learn-to-Skate program is one of 900 Basic Skills programs registered through U.S. Figure Skating.

Did you know that at least one U.S. figure skater has won a figure skating medal in the Olympics for 17 consecutive Winter Olympic Games? Well believe it! The streak all started in 1948 when Dick Button took home gold for the United States. Since, 1948 U.S. figure skating has excelled and the International Skating Center of Connecticut has been home to some of those great skaters in the past!

 So you don’t like to pay your dues to U.S. Figure Skating? Well maybe you do not know what all the money goes to! Your yearly dues amassed to 10.6 million dollars last year and goes directly into athlete funding for assistance, international competitions, program design at all levels, synchronized skating and performance bonuses for the U.S. Skating Team. Last year $52,000 was given to U.S. Skating Teams performers for bonuses.

Skating has been around for many years, but during the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada the viewership was unprecedented. On the Networks of NBC there were 190 million viewers. To put that into comparison that is nearly two thirds of all Americans tuned into watch U.S. Figure Skating Members in the Olympic Games!

I hope that his post was interesting and you learned more about what a great nationwide skating program we offer here at the International Skating Center of Connecticut. If you want to learn even more head to the below link! There is tons more information right at your finger tips!

www.usfigureskating.org/content/factsheet.pdf

The National Hockey League Taking the Game back to its Origins….Outdoors

I know it is still awfully hot outside still, so with this week’s post I want to try and make you cold. So grab your sweatshirt, sweat pants and mittens and get ready to get cold!

The National Hockey League has recently announced that they are going to take the game of hockey back to its origins through the use of stadiums across the country to host outdoor regular season games. Why talk about this? The International Skating Center of Connecticut has been involved in the past few years with Whalers Sports and Entertainment, “Whale Bowl” an outdoor ice rink in Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut.  Though the “Whale Bowl” is not the National Hockey League it is fairly similar so we thought we would share some details because many of the area N.H.L. teams are set to play outdoors this coming season.

This year the N.H.L. will kick off the outdoor hockey season with its main event, the Winter Classic. This will be held on New Year’s Day, 2014 when the Detroit Red Wings will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs at the “Big House,” Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor Michigan. After a few week lapse in outdoor hockey the N.H.L. will be set to start their newest event, the Coors Light Stadium Series.

What better way for the N.H.L. to make a bang than to bring outdoor hockey to California. Yes, you read that correctly! The Anaheim Ducks will take on the Los Angeles Kings at prestigious Dodgers Stadium on January 25^th, 2014.  

Second, and just one day later, the popular brand new, Yankee Stadium in New York, New York will host an outdoor game. Arch rivals will battle it out at center field of one of the most famous franchises in all of sports. The New Jersey Devils will play the New York Rangers on January 26^th, 2014.   

Three days after the Devils and Rangers battle at Yankee Stadium, the New York Islanders will have a crack at the New York Rangers. Again, arch rivals square off in the house that Babe Ruth played at. This game will be held on January 29^th, 2014.

The Coors Light Stadium Series will wrap up on March 1^st, 2014 when the Pittsburgh Penguins play the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. These two teams feature some of the N.H.L.’s best offensive talent in a single game, and best of all outside! The game will be held at Soldier Field in Chicago.

One more game? Sure, why not! The N.H.L. will hold one last outdoor game that will feature a all Canadian match up, which is known as the N.H.L. Heritage Classic. The 2014 Heritage Classic will be held on March 2^nd, 2014 when the Vancouver Canucks play host to the capital cities, Ottawa Senators. This game will be held at B.C. Place just outside of the city of Vancouver, in Canada.

With the N.H.L. going “all-out” outside, it is still yet to be determined if the city of Hartford will put forth the funding to once again host a “Whale Bowl.” The outdoor ice rink at Bushnell Park will happen regardless and sponsored by the International Skating Center of Connecticut and our sister rinks, the Bolton Ice Palace and Champions Skating Center in Cromwell, Connecticut. With thousands of people showing up to these events yearly it sure would be another spectacle for a casual to hardcore hockey fan or even a recreational skater to see. So who is with us? Who wants to see outdoor hockey return to the Hartford Area and see the Hartford Wolf Pack again play outdoors?

Sources:

www.NHL.com

www.TheAHL.com

http://articles.courant.com/2011-02-19/sports/hc-a1-whale-bowl-0220-20110219_1_whalers-hockey-fest-outdoor-hockey-whalers-sports  

 

                                                               

How Ice is Made Even in the Summer Heat

Have you ever wondered how ice rink ice is made?

How about how thick the ice actually is?

And how all those lines are added?

Don’t worry that is why I am here to answer all these questions. An ice rinks ice is called a sheet and is very similarly constructed to a “sheet cake,” as it layered from the ground up.  So let me start the discussion by looking at the ground and working our way up.

Some ice rinks have a cement floor which house cooling pipes that help to keep the layers of ice cold even in this brutally hot summer we have had in New England. Other ice rinks, like the International Skating Center of Connecticut have a sand floor to which the ice is then layered on top of. Sand floors are usually the better option to be working with incase one or any of your cooling pipes have an issue. As for the cement floors, major construction is necessary when a problem arises with a cooling pipe and could cost tens of thousands of dollars to fix and replace the cement floor. In fact this had to be done in New Jersey, when the Prudential Center in Newark was built. After final construction it was found that the cooling pipes were not functioning properly and the whole cement floor was subsequently removed, pipes fixed and the cement floor replaced.

Now that we have the floor situated its time to add some ice to this equation. Well not very much, a typical ice crew will lay down 1/30 of an inch of ice and let that freeze, next a second layer is added. These layers are the first of what in total will add up to between 12,000 and 15,000 gallons of water used to fill an ice rink per HowStuffWorks.com.

Now the fun begins! Painting now can start first with the layer of white on top of the now 1/16 of an inch thick sheet of ice. Once the white layer of paint is dried and there are no places where the sand can be seen the ice crew then will add a second 1/16 of an inch of ice over the white paint. Once completely frozen, which does not take long due to the cooling pipes still just below, the ice crew then can paint all the lines, circles and dots that are found on our typical ice hockey rink.

The final stage of the ice making process consists of adding the remaining roughly 10,000 gallons of water to the ice rink. This is done in 500-600 gallon increments and can take 15-20 hours of continuous work until the ice is built up enough for figure skaters, hockey games or speed skating. This process is done with the Zamboni or ice machine, which both adds and removes ice with a simple flip of a switch. At the end of the process an average ice rink will be 3/4 of an inch thick. From melting a sheet of ice to replacing it to its original 3/4  of an inch think, the full process can take as much as one week to complete, depending on the number of hours put in daily.

The cooling pipes are constantly working to keep the ice roughly twenty-eight degrees at the International Skating Center of Connecticut, due to our large figure skating population. In addition, we allow the building to remain around 45 degrees throughout the year. This is an increasing challenge with the recent heat wave, which is why our building has dehumidifiers. Dehumidifiers must work constantly as well to make the indoor humidity level around thirty percent. The last time this process was done at the International Skating Center of Connecticut was during the summer of 2012 for the Olympic rink and the summer of 2011 for the NHL rink.

Sources: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/ice-rink6.htm

                Chuck Fultcher – I.S.C.C. Rink Manager 

History....On Ice

This week we thought it would be appropriate to do a little history lesson! Let us take a look back over the years of some of the amazing talent that have called the International Skating Center of Connecticut home previously in their illustrious skating careers.

First up we have Shizuka Arakawa. So what does her name translate to? We have the answer! Shizuka translates to Prince while Arakawa translates to Hotels. Shizuka last skated at the International Skating Center of Connecticut three years ago where she skated just prior to competing in Turin, Italy at the Winter Olympic Games. Shizuka became the first female in Asia to win a gold medal when she skated a nearly flawless short and free-skating program. Shizuka skated under Nikolai Morozov when she practiced at I.S.C.C. who is a world renowned figure skating coach that has had the privilege of training many other Olympic and World Champion skaters. In addition, to becoming an Olympic Champion, Shizuka is the first Japanese skater to win both the World Championship and become an Olympic Champion.

www.shizuka-arakawa.com/english/profile/index.html

Second, the well known Scott Davis skated at the International Skating Center of Connecticut during the best time of his career, 1993 and 1994. Davis really helped to make a name for the rink that we all call “home” today and paved the way for many other skaters to aspire to what he completed in the figure skating world. Scott Davis is the 1993 and 1994 U.S. Men’s Figure Skating National Champion and placed 8^th in the Winter Olympics of 1994. While training at I.S.C.C. Scott was coached by Galina Zmievskaya. Currently, Scott Davis is the Director of Skating at the Calalta Figure Skating Club.

www.davissportsenterprises.com/content/dse-skating/skating-instructors  

 

Third we have a pairs team: Ilia Kulik and Ekaterina Gordeeva. Okay, so ladies first right? Ekaterina “Katia” Gordeeva is a two time Olympic gold medalist and four-time World Champion. In addition Ekaterina is a member of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Ilia Kulik is the 1988 Olympic Champion, 1995 European Champion, 1997-1998 Grand Prix Final Champion and the 1995 World Junior Champion. Together the married couple skate as a pairs team and tour on such shows as: Stars on Ice. Regarding I.S.C.C., the pair has come and starred in our Winter Fantasy on Ice, New Years figure skating show and put on clinics throughout the year to pass on their skills to up and coming figure skaters. Ilia and Ekaterina have passed skating tips, tricks and guidance to many of our young skaters for years in the past and currently at our Summer of Gold, figure skating camp.

http://www.kuliksskating.com/index.php

The International Skating Center of Connecticut truly lives up to our name: “The Worlds Home Ice” as we have demonstrated through having professional figure skaters utilize our facility from three different countries on their way to winning medals in the Olympics, World Championships and other distinct nominations/awards.