Ice time

Frontiersman

WASILLA — What has 45,000 legs, about 20,000 sets of long underwear and countless hand-crocheted scarves and mittens?

For Sheree Hugli, the answer lies in her life’s passion for the past 25 years — the Learn To Skate Program at the Brett Memorial Ice Area. Celebrating a quarter century of teaching children and novice skaters the basics of ice skating, Learn To Skate has become one of the Valley’s premier youth programs.

“The first year, we didn’t have any heat, we didn’t have any rental skates and we had to take the kids into our warm room because their lips turned blue,” Hugli said. “It was more-or-less a large warehouse-type building. It was pretty bare bones.”

That was January 1985, barely four months after the Brett first opened in 1984, she said. Former Wasilla recreation director Bruce Urban managed the Mat-Su Borough’s new ice arena and approached Hugli to start a youth skating program.

“That was when we started to put together some type of grassroots program,” she said.

Today, Learn To Skate runs year-round teaching an average of about 700 to 900 people the basics of ice skating, she said. Over the past 25 years, that translates to roughly 17,500 to 22,500 skaters of all ages getting their first ice time at the Brett.

Although the sport has many incarnations, like figure skating, it’s hockey that drives many in the Valley to get on the ice, Hugli said.

“This is definitely a hockey-crazed valley,” she said. “We do take a lot of small kids. In fact, about 50 percent of the kids we enroll are kids age 3 to 7 who want to learn to play hockey. We also teach some puck-handling.”

One of those future Joe Sakics is Nathanial Stotler, a 7-year-old who, along with his siblings, received Learn To Skate lessons for Christmas.

“I want to play hockey,” he said. “I wanna play center, because I can easily grab a puck and I can whack the other stick out of the way — and I can use my speed to break away.”

Right now, however, the youngster is tying to break away from holding onto the boards to maintain balance, said his mother, Linda Stotler.

“My 7-year-old could not stand up on skates the first week, and today he was going around the rink without holding onto the railing,” she said. “He didn’t even realize he was free skating because he was chasing his brother.”

That would be Jonathon, 5, who isn’t taking to the ice with as much gusto as his brother and older sister, 9-year-old Danielle.

“Two of them like it a lot,” Linda Stotler said of the Learn To Skate program. “The youngest one’s getting a little frustrated right now, but he’s getting it. He’s up on his feet more than he’s on his back right now.”

Although her brother has dreams of National Hockey League glory, Danielle said she just has fun on the ice.

“I like it a lot,” she said. “I learned how to spin a little and I know how to skate around the rink. I couldn’t get it at first. I started walking around the rink, then I let go, then I just started skating from there.”

At $68 for seven 45-minute sessions, the Mat-Su Borough-run program is a bargain, Hugli said. It includes instruction, skate rental and a four-punch pass to return and practice on the ice. And after 25 years, Hugli said teaching is still as fun as it ever was.

“I was a student of figure skating and I started classes at UAA,” she said. “I can’t tell you how many years ago, because then I’d have to reveal my age. I came to the Valley right at the time the (Brett ice arena) opened, so I came out to practice on the ice.”

Now the program is teaching the children of some of Hugli’s first students.

“I actually have a young lady whose mother I taught when she was a freestyle student,” she said. “It’s been a long time, but the industry is constantly changing and evolving. It’s an exciting sport, real exciting. This is kind of a dream job for me. I enjoy skating and I enjoy working with children.”

Programs like Learn To Skate also pay large dividends for Valley high school athletics, said Paul Cossette, athletic director for Wasilla High School.

“Coming from the state of Minnesota, I grew up playing hockey,” he said. “I moved up here from a place where every town and every school had their own ice arena. (It’s nice) to see how more ice and more programs like this have improved the game of hockey in the Valley. The skill level is much better than it was when I moved up here. Any of these programs, from a skill-set point of view, we love them.”

Cossette’s not the only one, either. It seems seeing his brothers and sisters out on the ice is almost too much for the youngest Stotler, 2-year-old David.

Chanting “ice skate! Ice skate!,” the toddler kicks his shoes off during the lessons, Linda Stotler said.

“He’s got to wait until he’s 3,” she said.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.