Youth hockey in West Salem has come a long way. The program began back in the mid-1970s when a physical education teacher named Jim Zanter used a hose to create a sheet of ice behind what is now Coulee Christian School.

Today, the program has a completely enclosed indoor rink in the West Salem Lions Club Community Building that affords youngsters from the age of 3 on up to 14 the opportunity to learn how to skate and enjoy the joys and lifelong lessons provided by competitive hockey.

“It’s an awesome facility,” said Joe Belling, former president of the West Salem Hockey Association. “We have a unique situation in that we (the association) operate our own facility, schedule our own ice time and fund the program on our own. In essence, kids and people in the community can go up there and skate any time the ice is not being used for a practice or a game.”

The ice schedule is posted on the association’s Web site: www.westsalemhockey.com. Belling said he had to laugh at the reaction of outsiders a few weeks ago after one of the youth teams had a game with La Crescent.

“After the game, all the West Salem kids took off their uniforms and went back out on the ice to play a game of ‘pond hockey.’ The jaws just dropped on the parents of the La Crescent kids. ‘You really do have a great program here,” they told me.”

“A lot of other associations are jealous of our ice time,” admitted association President, Brian Meyer. “We even have extra ice time on weekends.” Saturday nights are recreation department open skating times.

In the past five years, the association has spent close to $300,000 installing a refrigerated ice system, new boards and glass, a new ice resurfacer. In addition, they completely enclosed the rink.

“That’s made a huge difference,” Meyer said. “It keeps the wind out of the facility. On really cold days, it keeps the snow or wind out and on hot days it keeps the ice cooler.”

“It’s made an immense difference in the comfort level,” Belling said, “and it gives us a predictable, stable environment.”

Back in the ’70s and ’80s, with weather being virtually the only factor, the environment was anything but predictable. The outdoor rink was eventually moved to where the Community Center’s parking lot is now.

The center was built in 1981 by the West Salem Lions Club and the Lions continue to make much appreciated improvements to the facility — last month the Lions presented Meyer with a check for $8,500 to improve kitchen facilities.

“The environment is controlled now, but I can remember the dads getting together and shoveling snow off the rink between periods,” Belling said.

Belling played on those outdoor rinks as a kid of 9 and all the way through high school and even on to collegiate hockey at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

“In West Salem my dad (Al Belling) was heavily involved. I guess I’ve followed in my dad’s footsteps since then with my kids,” he said. Belling’s sons, 11 and 13, have taken part in the hockey program all the way through.

The year 1989 was pivotal for ice hockey in West Salem because that was the year the association partnered with the village and the Department of Natural Resources to build an open air shelter.

“The building is actually classified as a bike shelter campground (thus the DNR involvement). It’s owned by the village and used by the hockey association during the winter.

Before the rink was completely enclosed over the past four to five years, the association tried some makeshift approaches to making things a little more comfortable.

“For several years we had a pretty archaic system of enclosing the rink,” Belling recalled. “We hung tin on the sides. It didn’t do much to protect us from the environment, and it just kept out some of the wind.”

All that changed after the remodeling projects of recent years. The association spent $175,000 for the refrigeration system (which was paid off in just two years), upwards of $50,000 to upgrade the boards and glass and $35,000 for a Zamboni ice surfacing machine.

The association saw a large jump in participation once the refrigeration system was installed. Belling said he believes that was because kids could finally depend on there being ice to skate on from Nov. 1 through March. In the past, warm spells might melt the ice three or more times per season.

Meanwhile, the association is financially self sufficient to a degree rarely seen in other towns.

“We’re very close to having the Zamboni and the new boards paid off,” Belling said. “We’re extremely proud of being able to provide a top notch program for kids in West Salem and Bangor. A lot of people worked hard to pull all this together.”

Belling is also proud that the program is affordable for participants (it has the lowest registration fees of any association in the area). Amazingly, the bulk of the money used to upgrade and maintain the facility has come from community fundraisers.

There’s a yearly calendar raffle and a big Neshonoc Days fundraiser on Leonard Street over Memorial Day weekend with a chickencue and raffle. There are also smaller fundraisers like candle sales, as well as fundraising that takes place during tournaments like the Frozen Tundra Squirt Tournament held recently. That event drew teams from as far away as Cedar Rapids and Waterloo.

“This program has become so special that it has become a passion for a lot of us,” Belling said in explaining the immense amount of work required to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For him and other enthusiastic backers of the program, it continues to be worth it because of the positive impact it has on youngsters.

“Maybe I’m jaded, but our kids come out of the program understanding three things — teamwork, sportsmanship and doing your best. Those are important life lessons and if you look at our trophy cabinet you’ll see there are a lot state champions there.”

This year there are 109 kids in the program, Meyer said. There are teams at four different skill and age levels: bantam, peewee, squirt and mite. In addition, there is an introductory termite level for kids 3 to 8 who have never played hockey or learned how to skate.

One termite session has already been held, but another is scheduled for the second week of January. Anyone interested in having their youngsters learn how to play hockey can contact Brian Meyer at 780-0376.