Sartell Youth Hockey Hopes Nationwide Contest Lands Second Rink

SARTELL -- The Sartell Youth Hockey Association is hoping a nationwide contest will help them land a second sheet of ice.

The organization is participating in the Kraft Hockeyville USA contest for a chance to win $150,000. Bernick's Arena President Chad Ritter says they entered into the contest late last year and thought they would give it another try.

It's an annual competition sponsored by Kraft Foods, The National Hockey League and the NHL players association. You log on to the website and enter pictures, stories and comments and for each item posted you get points.

Votes can be submitted frequently by sending photos or videos, sharing on twitter or writing stories (which are worth more).

Ritter says they've been looking at adding a second sheet of ice for some time.

Since 2003, we've had over 5,000 youth and adults participating in hockey in Sartell. Unfortunately, with one sheet of ice in a growing community, we're playing almost as many games as practices during the week and that's not a great way to develop skill in the sport.

He says they are currently looking at an open air concept to allow for year-round multi-sport use, which will cost about $2.9-million.

The voting runs through March 2 and the top four teams will be announced on March 30.