Down on the Farm: Inaugural Hockey Days in Iowa set for this weekend

DES MOINES -- Mike Scebold knows exactly what kind of weather he wants Saturday for the first Hockey Days in Iowa celebration.
"I want it really cold and snowing," said Scebold, who played defense for the club hockey team at Iowa State University. "I couldn't think of a better way to play pond hockey to enhance the experience."
The forecast appears it could cooperate: Mid-20's with the possibility of snow on Saturday.

Scebold is one of nearly 300 hockey players of all ages who will initiate what Iowa Wild officials expect will become an annual celebration of Iowa hockey in the only place where it should begin -- on a Warren County farm among tractors, corn stalks and corn bins. Called Hockey Days in Iowa, four 3-on-3 rinks stand in what should become known as the Field of Rinks, as players young and old will take to the ice in the elements of an Iowa winter.
Tournament officials say that players from all over the state will be playing Saturday and Sunday and from as far away as South Dakota.
Make no mistake about it, the annual celebration of hockey in neighboring Minnesota is the template that Iowa Wild president Todd Frederickson and his staff are using.
"Hockey Day in Minnesota has been a tradition that they have had going on for a long time up there," Frederickson said. "It has been a way for people to go out to support or play the game of hockey. That is the same thing that we have in mind for us in Des Moines. We certainly have the climate and the weather to play hockey outdoors."
Ironically, pond hockey and outdoor hockey rinks in Iowa are just now gaining popularity.
"My 20-year-old played for 15 years and he never had a chance to play outside," said Amy Goss, who is bringing her seven-year-old son and five of his teammates from Sioux City to play in the U-8 division. "It is something different and none of our kids have every played hockey outside."
Frederickson said the lack of an outdoor facility to hold a Wild-sponsored hockey tournament prompted his staff to take an even broader perspective to hold the event. He said the famous baseball Field of Dreams outside in rural northeast Iowa was very appealing.
"You can't get much more Iowan than playing baseball in a cornfield. Then we said, 'Why not put a hockey rink in the middle of a cornfield?' It works for hockey too."
To help with the tournament, the Wild first enlisted the help of Iowa Corn, which combines the efforts of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and the Iowa Corn Growers Association to promote corn and Iowa agriculture, as the event's title sponsor.
Duane Aistrope, who farms near Randolph, Iowa, and is president of the promotion board, said the idea of promoting hockey on Iowa farms fit in with promotion board's goals to promote farming as well as the commitment of Iowa agriculture to preserve and enhance clean water for the state.
"It's important we as farmers connect with people where they are and find opportunities that encourage open conversations to build collaboration and trust," Aistrope said. "We are looking forward to Hockey Days in Iowa because it will give us a chance to bring people to the farm to learn about agriculture."
He added: "It takes clean water to make clean ice. We want Iowans to discover the efforts that farmers are taking to ensure we have clean and safe drinking water for our families."
The next step was to locate the event at North River Adventures, a combination of a 500-acre working farm and event venue, about 10 minutes from downtown Des Moines off Highway 65.
Jason Steigleder, who operates North River with his father and brother, said that when the Iowa Wild approached them they were more than happy to consider it. North River has been a sponsor of the team for two seasons and Steigleder began playing hockey about seven years ago, even though he didn't play it in his youth.
"I do it to get my cardio workout," he said.

The four rinks were installed and flooded before Christmas at a time when the sponsors were nervously wondering when winter would arrive in Iowa. But fall-like temperatures fell to Arctic-level cold over the last 10 days, leaving ice in the rinks frozen solid.
"I feel a lot better now that it's been cold," Steigleder said. "At Christmas they came out and set up the rinks and filled them. We just didn't know when it would freeze. You never know with Iowa weather."
The rinks are set in the middle of the Steigleder farm with corn bins, tractors, combines and some still-standing corn stalks in the background.
"They left some of the corn up that will act as an unbelievable backdrop to the event," Frederickson said. "Everything that you think about Iowa will be there and will create a really cool setting for the folks involved in it."
Scebold, who will play with five friends on a team named Hennessey's Homies, jumped at the chance to play in the tournament, registering on the first day registration opened.
"It really has been something to look forward to," Scebold said. "Our group has played in pond hockey tournaments before, but never have played pond hockey in Iowa. It's exciting to be able to have a home tournament."
With more than 40 teams registered and parents accompanying their children to the tournament, there is little doubt that the Hockey Days in Iowa event has a good chance of continuing in the future.
"For us not knowing what to expect, it is a great step and start," Frederickson said. "Eventually we will have more teams come out from outside the state as well as from Iowa."
And, according to Steigleder, there is no reason why Iowa can't become a hockey state.
"We have Minnesota where it's big. Illinois where it is growing," he said. "We are even getting guys from Missouri drafted into the NHL."
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