E a r l y  Y e a r s      The Grottes first broke ground on a hockey rink back in the winter of 2001.  The rink was around 20x40 ft. and had 2 ft. boards that were very easy to fly over, both puck and body, but surprisingly, I don't think we lost as many pucks with the 2 ft. boards of then compared to the 8 ft. boards we have now.  Anyways, the boards were simply doghouses leaned on their sides.  Our goals were usually painted on the boards, and we used a foam puck.  2 or 3 flood lights were used to light up the rink at night. Most of us had no equipment whatsoever, and I remember one week when 2 of the Rivelands ended up with black eyes.  This rink was located east of the Grotte house and north of their shed, where the garden usually is.      This rink had the same dimensions from 2001-2003, but some improvements were made in 2002 when the Grottes welded a couple of goals together, and although they lacked a top shelf, they were sure an improvement. These nets are considerably smaller than a real net. The scoring was definitely brought to a new level, and with nets, there came into the existence, goalies. Although there was no goalie equipment, we had some goalie sticks and that's all we needed.  A few players even bought some equipment, such as helmets. It was mostly just the Grottes, Myrons, Rivelands, and Luke Schmidt that played Grotte Hockey in these first years. T h e  E v o l u t i o n      It was in the winter of 2003, that the Grotte Rink underwent some major changes that started with moving the rink to the west side of the house. The rink would be bigger, 100x40 ft. and the boards would be 4 ft. high plywood with 8 ft. boards at the ends to prevent pucks from flying out of the rink.  By this time, most of the "regulars" had most of the hockey equipment and consequently, the puck was changed from the foam puck to the "blue puck" which weighs just a few ounces less than a standard black puck. The rink also included curvature in the corners which was something new. The old rink had basically been square.  Posts were drilled in at the 4 corners of the rink to hold 4 flood lights.  The doghouses, used before as the actual boards, would serve and still do serve as the support for the plywood, only this time they were stood up on there ends.  Screws were used to connect the plywood to the doghouses. This was the year that Travis Peach first started playing goalie for the GHL.  He used street hockey pads, a baseball glove, and the red helmet, and he was ready to go.  This was really the first year that many new people visited the rink and started playing Grotte Hockey.              Travis playing goalie GHL 2004-2005 The year of the lines GHL 2006-2007 The new "Sin Bin" GHL 07-08

The Grotte Boys...and the Grotte rink... back in 2002. You can see the new nets below. GHL 2002-2003 T h e  M o d e r n  R i n k     More changes were still to come in 2004-2005 when more of the perimeter became 8 ft. boards instead of 4 ft.  A huge improvement involved the painting of the boards. The white boards made the rink a lot classier but most of all, made the puck very contrasting and easy to follow.  It was also in 2004 that top shelves were added to the nets and the old netting was replaced with new netting.  Players improved too, and learned the art of slapshots and wristshots, as well as backhands.  Harder checks came along with speed and improved stick handling.  By now, equipment was the standard along with jerseys. 2004-2005 was the first year of the goalie pads: the left-over goalie pads of the parkboard were donated fo the GHL for the season. Travis Peach, Luke Schmitz, and Zach Riveland all became goalie regualars this year thanks to the coming of these goalie pads. Of course there were harmless fights now and then too. Many new players started visiting the 2004 rink outside of GHL's "regulars" and saw the awesomeness of the Grotte Rink.       The next year as usual also brought some improvements.  The rink of 2005-2006 was widened about 8 feet making the dimensions about 100x50 ft.  8 ft. plywood stood up on end would make up most of the perimeter except for 16 ft. on both sides in the middle, which would be 4 ft., to provide an opening for players and for shoveling snow from the rink. Kelly also created a deck in the 4 ft. area that would hold pucks, water, equipment, and even a suite chair. 2005-2006 was the first season that Grotte Hockey became known as the GHL, which stands for Grotte Hockey League, and is a knock off of the NHL. A cool feature of the 2005-2006  rink was a GHL scoreboard, made by Nicho.  The 4x4 ft. scoreboard features a large GHL logo and two spinners that keep score up to five, which has become the standard winning score of a GHL game.  T h e  K G  E r a  2 0 0 6 - 2 0 0 7     Of course, there were improvements to this year's 2006-2007 rink that have made the rink even cooler than years before.  The Grotte Rink is now called by some "The Ralph Engelstad II", or "The Bob".  The GHL scoreboard was repainted, the boards got a fresh coat of paint, and most impressively, lines were added in the ice using rope lights, along with lines painted up the boards in red and blue.  Kelly Grotte named commissioner of the GHL. 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 0 8  ( Y e a r  o f  t h e  I C E  D r . )     Although the blue lines didn't show up in 06-07, the red line was a huge success.  The red line will stay.  The 2007-2008 GHL hockey year will always be known as the year of the ICE Dr., the new ice resurfacer.  Also, due to the fact that there have been some unruly players over the years, or players who just happen to feel the urge to fight or commit flagrant fouls, a penalty box has been installed, going by the name of the "Sin Bin".  As usualy the boards and lines received a fresh coat of paint.  Stats have also been installed and can be kept track of due to the GHL website.  Believe it or not, pucks still flew over the 8 foot boards in 06-07, so many in fact, that the GHL decided to install 3 ft. of chicken wire to the top of the boards on each end to decrease the amount of lost pucks.  The last neat thing about 07-08 is that the GHL decided to buy reversible jerseys, in order to tell teams apart. GHL 2003-2004