A second hockey rink is now open at the Peconic Ice Rinks in Calverton.
The outdoor rink, located at Veterans Memorial Park, is made out of sports court material and will be used primarily for dek and roller hockey programs, according to Jim Tamburino, general manager of Peconic Ice Rinks, which also includes the year-round indoor ice rink at the town-owned park.
The Peconic Hockey Foundation, which operates the rinks for the town, just started youth and adult roller hockey clinics on the outdoor rink, Tamburino said in an interview last week. The rink is VersaCourt tile, an outdoor multipurpose sports court material, he said.
Soon the rink will transform into a second ice rink for the winter months, Tamburino said. “We’ll have ice by the end of November or early December through March, depending on the weather,” he said.
“We’re gonna have some public sessions, maybe a holiday event,” Tamburino said of the outdoor rink in the winter. “Some of our travel teams will do some practices and games outside, and then some rent outs to the public, too.”
“The rest of the year we’re gonna have dek hockey leagues, roller hockey leagues — youth and adult.” he said. “And we might even throw out some other sports down the road as well, to make it more of a multi-purpose facility.”
The rink was used in August for roller hockey clinics and tournaments during an event Tamburino organizes called “Hockey is Hockey.” It is currently in the soft opening stage. Construction is still underway on locker rooms for the outdoor rink, as well as a family area with fire pits, picnic tables and concessions, Tamburino said.
The programs at the Peconic Ice Rinks are run by the Peconic Hockey Foundation, a nonprofit organization that purchased and donated both the ice rink and the street rink to the town under an agreement to site the facilities at Veterans Memorial Park. The organization was founded by Wading River residents in 2016 to grow hockey on the East End and has the backing of people in the hockey community, including New York Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky.
Information on how to register for events at the rinks can be found on peconicicerinks.com.
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