New ice opening soon for area skaters

PIERRE — It’s taken the work of a skating community to fund and help build the Pierre Area Youth’s Skating Association ice rink, and soon that group would like it to be open to the community.

Construction of the ice rink began nearly a year ago with funding provided by families of figure skaters who wanted as much time on the ice as possible.

With half of the piping laid that will keep the ice frozen, Ron Hauck, PAYSA board member, said the piping work should be completed early this week and the rink will be ready to open in early to mid-November.

Registration is ongoing for the Central South Dakota Skating Club, and skating director and coach Diana Helfrich and coach Mackenzie Kusser said the new rink will benefit figure skating in the community but will be a part of the community as well.

“We had to try to keep our numbers a little low at the Expo Center,” Helfrich said of when she coached with the Oahe Ice Riders in Fort Pierre. “We mainly got the small ice and that gets crowded quickly, especially when the girls are doing high-level jumps and spins. So that is one of the good parts of having a big rink, the kids have a lot more room. They can build up their speed and their precision and their power and advance more quickly.”

The 230-foot-long, 100-foot-wide building will likely be a place community members can use as well, said Kusser.

“We’ll have open skating,” she said. “We’re looking to have family skating where kids can skate if they have adults with them and skating for adults.”

A tentative schedule has time reserved for open skating and drop-in hockey throughout the week. In addition, there are blocks of time for the rink to be rented out, used for curling, broomball and lap skating during the week and weekend.

The nearly limitless ice time for figure skaters will allow the club to expand its synchronized skating, according to Helfrich.

“It is essential to have the big ice for that,” Helfrich said. “You have 20 kids on the ice at the same time, doing formations and that goes really fast. That is one thing we’ll really work on this year.”

The club will also be able to offer more dance instruction and is accepting skaters as young as three years of age, said Helfrich.

“We want to leave this open to as many as possible,” she said.

Kusser said much of the work going into the rink has been supplied by parents volunteering their time.

“We’re a really close community,” she said.