By Camille Traverse
Three boys gather at dusk, lace up their skates, grab their sticks and glide out onto the freshly smoothed ice.
The only sounds are wooden sticks hitting pucks into nets and shouts of laughter as these three engage in Canada’s national pastime.
But their evening wouldn’t be possible without rink operators – individuals who take hours each day to clear the rinks and get them ready for eager hockey players just looking for somewhere to play the game.
At McNabb Recreational Centre, on the corner of Bronson and Gladstone Avenues, 43-year-old Scott Howarth is that individual.
In 2002 the City of Ottawa began to restructure outdoor rink maintenance.
Today the city has shifted the responsibility of caring for the rinks almost entirely to community groups.
But when a group cannot do the work, an individual is asked to take their place.
By 2006 the city hopes to have every rink operated by community volunteers.
City workers explain that without these volunteers, several rinks could be closed next winter.
“If Scott called us and said he couldn’t [maintain the rink] next year… and we couldn’t find another community organization to do the job…then the rink wouldn’t be open,” says Kelly Robertson, division manager for community recreation and sports in Ottawa.
Howarth’s job may not be glamorous, but without him many hockey players in the area would be left with nowhere to play.
“They [rink operators] really are the unsung heroes of Ottawa,” says Rick McDonald, one of the boys out on the rink Monday night. “They do a hell of a job.”
An avid hockey player himself, the last thing Howarth wants is for his rink to be shut down.
“I [operate the rink] for the game,” he says. “It’s a labour of love.”
Howarth has been playing hockey since the age of six, excluding a brief period in his twenties when he joined a band and got involved in a party lifestyle, which left no time for hockey.
“I was a rock and roller,” Howarth says. “Put a guitar in my hand and I was happy.”
Today, he’s traded his guitar in for a wooden stick, and usually spends a few hours each night playing the game he loves. Those hours on the rink are the biggest part of why being a rink operator is important to him.
“The best part of the job is the hockey…It’s a good way to get some exercise and enjoy the winter,” says Howarth, a gash on his cheek still apparent from last Friday’s pick-up game.
Most of the people who use McNabb rink are between 18 and 30 years old. Howarth and his operations partner Brian Chessie both enjoy having an older crowd use their rink, because it gives them a chance to play against people at their skill level.
“Some days we’ll just come out in our shoes and wait around for kids to show up,” Howarth says.
“We’re just big kids,” adds Chessie.
The work also helps out during the winter when Howarth’s fulltime construction job is slow.
At the rink, Howarth and Chessie scrape off the snow that has gathered on the ice during the day, flood the rink, wait for the water to freeze, and then flood the rink again.
The work may not sound hard, but on a 12,000-square foot rink, in –28 degree weather it can be pretty exhausting.
“Some days it’ll take us four or five hours to clear [the snow off] the rink,” says Howarth.
Despite the hard work and a measly four-dollar an hour paycheque, they still do the job without complaint, six days a week, from December 15 until Feb. 28.
As long as Howarth is around, the job will continue to get done each season.
“I’ll keep doing it until I can’t play hockey anymore,” he says. “And even then I might keep going, as long as I’m physically able to do it…I’ll do it for the kids.”