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Hockey purists like to talk about the good old days when kids went up to the rink and played hockey just for fun after the ice froze in the winter. Chisago Lakes youth hockey coach Bill Emeott decided to do something about it and organized the Rink Rat League to try to bring back some of that old-fashioned fun for kids who are used to playing a more structured version of hockey, mostly indoors.

Thirty-five players representing the three PeeWee teams in the Chisago Lakes Hockey Association (CLHA) were split into five teams of seven players each. All games were played on the two rinks in Lindstrom across from city hall. The teams played four-on-four hockey with no checking and no offsides. The games consisted of two twenty minute running time periods with a five-minute break in between. Any penalties called resulted in a penalty shot instead of a trip to the penalty box. If a player broke the "no-checking" rule, he would have been out for the rest of the game, with his team skating one man short for the entire time. We're glad to report that all of the League's players were smart enough to abide by that rule.

Emeott recruited Chris DuBose and other Chisago Lakes youth coaches to coach the teams. The coaches were there mainly to keep things from getting out of hand. Coaches were told not to use the time for instructional purposes; the point was for the kids to have fun, figure out some individual skills on their own and just play, with no pressure from adults.

The games were played on Wednesday nights in January and February. And while only the PeeWees had a league this year, Squirts were invited to show up to play on Tuesday nights. Girls 12 and under could show up on Thursdays. Any player who showed up on Tuesday or Thursday received a white Rink Rat T-shirt.

Emeott looked around for a unique trophy for the league, but couldn't find anything he liked. So he asked his dad, Roger, to come up with something. Roger created a great-looking trophy, which is shown in the picture near this article. The trophy will be displayed at Chisago Lakes Arena, and each year the names of the players on the league's championship team will be engraved on it.

Ironically, the championship game had to be played indoors because a two-day thaw we had in late February ruined the outdoor ice. On February 25, Red met Yellow at Chisago Lakes Arena for the championship game. Yellow beat Red 11-9 to win the first-ever Rink Rat League Championship.

Emeott sees this year's experiment as a success and hopes to build on it in the future. "There were some rumblings from a few of the parents at first, wondering why we had to spend another day out of the week at hockey. But once the league started, the kids found out how much fun it was and most of the parents were on board after that. We had great ice at both Lindstrom rinks this year, so that helped. I don't feel kids skate outside enough. We were glad to be able to give kids this opportunity and look forward to continuing it next year and well into the future."

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