By: Mark Allred | Follow me on Twitter/X @BlackAndGold277 @AmesburyMaples
As a lower-end sports journalist covering the Boston Bruins organization from the NHL level down to the prospects worldwide, I’ve had the pleasure of talking to the next ones coming up through the professional minor-pro ranks. On most occasions, these professional athletes often tell me they started playing the game of hockey by participating in youth dek-hockey (Ball Hockey) or inline hockey leagues growing up.
It’s no secret that ice hockey is a costly sport, and with equipment costs and local ice time constantly on the rise, many are seeking alternatives to getting their children interested in hockey. Many communities with a National Hockey League teams close by are starting to promote the game’s growth by building outside facilities for all ages to enjoy and spark interest where everyone has an opportunity to participate.
Recently the city of Gloucester, Massachusetts, broke ground and completed a tremendous hockey facility dedicated to street hockey. It got me thinking about why our Amesbury community couldn’t get the ball rolling on something like this below. In this YouTube video, Gloucester Hockey did its due diligence in seeking grant money for recreation and getting local fundraising to create the facility below.
Having a facility or two like this in our Amesbury community would be a huge step in developing the next generation of homegrown hockey players. In my opinion, this type of internal developmental idea in our area would relieve the need for our Amesbury athletes to merge with surrounding communities and drive the interest in the game higher than it is today.
The city of Amesbury has fields for baseball/softball, football, and soccer for activities that need open areas for sports recreation. Why can’t a sport like hockey, which was successful here in Amesbury, Massachusetts, at the high school level to the semi-pro ranks of the Amesbury Maples hockey team for nearly 90 years, get the same opportunity?
Amesbury Maples legends Albie Roy, Alphonse Picard, Archie Cloutier, and Fred Fournier Sr., to name a few, were Amesbury residents that instrumental factors in building a foundation of strong internal hockey development in our community. These men were not only outstanding hockey players but also charitable, with their time for younger generations, and often there to help out if a child didn’t have the appropriate gear to play.
For instance, a legend like Alphonse Picard would save old hand-me-down equipment if a local child interested in the game didn’t have the proper protection to participate. Alphonse was always there to help out when families couldn’t afford the required protective gear. Picard didn’t separate people from money and who made what. To him, it was about the game, and no individual is above the team.
Those men were also skilled volunteers when it came to building an outdoor hockey rink facility. After the Maples left the Pattens Pond (Pattens Hollow Back Then) mobile ice rink, they moved to the Biddle & Smart property across Main Street and their ten-team shop league, where the first man-made rink in town was located at the foot of Aubin Street. The Maples were so good in the Biddle & Smart league that they were forced out of participation after five years and had to look for an area where the team’s home games would be played.
The new home of the Amesbury Maples would then be located at the rear of the original St. Jeans Club, which today would be located right next to the old Mill Restaurant, which is now the Barking Dod Bar & Grill. Albie Roy and Alphonse Picard led the way for the new rink construction to house a frozen outdoor sheet measuring 150-foot by 85-foot playing surface. This rink, located on Friend Street here in Amesbury, was later named the Lemoine Rink in honor of goaltender Chiefie Lemoine who passed away from an infection at a practice session.
The Lemoine Memorial Rink was the home ice of the Maples until the 1940-41 season. The Essex County League and several league members deemed the Lemoine Memorial Rink as undersized for league competition forcing the team and town of Amesbury to seek another location that was regulation size at 200 feet by 85 feet.
After not having home ice for close to five seasons and traveling to Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and Lynn Arena in Lynn, Massachusetts, the Maples moved their home ice location to the flats of Amesbury, located off of Clinton Street Extention, where they helped build the Powwow Skating Arena, which was completed before the 1947-48 winter season. The Maples would stay at the flat’s location (Clinton Street Extention) until the 1957-58 winter season, where again, they would need to travel to find suitable ice for competition outside their hometown of Amesbury.
Before the winter of 1961-62, the Maples would again find a place to call home where a collaborative effort of local players and Amesbury city/town workers would complete the rink at the Amesbury Park. The park facility would be the last outdoor surface that was built here in our community. After the park rink lasted about a decade, it was becoming more and more difficult to maintain competitive ice conditions in our location in New England.
The Maples and youth programs would find overhead cover and suitable ice conditions when the Begin & Hudon families partnered up to literally raise the roof of the old Crossroads Bowl building to facilitate the new Amesbury Hockey Arena. The first season for hockey at the Amebury Hockey Arena was in 1971-72 and would be in operation for a little over a decade ending home ice in the area, which remains without a facility in-house.
With the uncertainty of home ice with the Maples Crossing facility and land being passed to the Munters Corporation on the South Hunt Road site, I believe the time is now for street hockey with inline and ice capabilities to better prepare the next generation of local hockey players. Again hockey is expensive, and having home places to play games recreationally or visit for personal skills training, as seen in the video above, we need to start thinking about the developmental survival and dream so many great men and families had in our communities hockey history.
I often think of the iconic movie Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner. If you build it, they will come, which is something I constantly think about. This is exactly how non-traditional areas in the NHL, like Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, are thriving with how they produce local talent with professional teams nearby. I know some people have pushed back on my ideas about this type of outdoor facility, but you have to lay a footprint on a young aspiring hockey player, and I believe we as a community don’t do enough about it to drive that potential passion with an all-season training facility internally.
If the land was available at the Amesbury Park for the local fundraising efforts to give the sport and participation of skateboarding a place to go, why can’t we get together as a community and see what we can do about an all-season outdoor rink? This is a win-win, in my opinion, because, as I said earlier, it gives families that might be struggling financially an opportunity for their children to participate at some level of the game.
If a child gets into it and a parent sees that progression and drive to be better with more costly ice time, then great, invest in your child’s dreams. If a child doesn’t like inline play and is not interested in hockey at all, it’s a minimum loss financially instead of dumping thousands investing into elite programs your kid might not follow through with.
As I said, I interview professional hockey players regularly, like Boston Bruins goaltender Brandon Bussi who told me last week that inline hockey was the level that sparked the drive to transition to the ice game. Bussi grew up on the North side of Long Island, New York, and had a successful youth hockey career in the net and thriving in the local elite leagues surrounding his South Beach hometown.
Many younger hockey players are finding their roots in the game of hockey like this throughout North America, and it doesn’t matter what the local weather elements are. If you provide the facilities for a child to get better at something, the skies are the limit. I will never ask the city of Amesbury for money as I believe this is an important topic that fundraising and advertising can thrive on. All I’m asking is to be heard not only at the historical aspect of my research but the importance of this type of training facility is needed in our community somewhere.
A facility like this is also a great idea to keep local youth hockey players active with outdoor participation during the summer off-season. As seen in the videos above, whether it’s participating in games or using a facility like this to train. To me, this should be heavily considered to rebuild the hockey player pipeline this community once had.
I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this topic, as it means a lot to me as a historian and might be an excellent tool for your child wanting to learn to play the game of hockey. Please send me an email at blackngoldproductionsllc@gmail.com
