Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/797481
46 / MARCH.APRIL.2017 USICERINKS.COM by DAVE POND I n any given month, hockey players of all ages (and skill levels) likely pass through the doors of your home-away-from-home, leaving their mark—literally and figuratively— everywhere they go. To be fair, with all that traffic, it might seem that facility damage is inevitable. Things do wear out and need replacing, but the majority of damage is easily prevented, according to Jay Freeman, general manager of Flyers Skate Zone at Voorhees—the official training facility of the Philadelphia Flyers. So, with that, here's how to turn your top-notch facility into a run-down, refrigerated mess. Let kids be kids Especially when dealing with younger players, we want to make sure their hockey experiences are fun and that their love for the sport grows. However, it doesn't mean they should be allowed to run wild and unsupervised. As a facility manager, it's imperative that your parents and coaches know that you expect players to treat your facility as they would their own home. "The best 'tool' in their bag is the puck—did you know they can draw on walls?" Freeman said with a laugh. "Boy, can a kid make a mess of a wall with a puck! If you're not careful, you'll get drawings, their names, their friends' names, or even pictures of certain body parts everywhere." If your facility hosts a lot of younger players, Freeman has another tip to help keep your bathrooms clean. See, even if a kid's a pure sniper on the ice, he might not have the same, ahem, "aim" in the bathroom. And—as anyone who's potty- trained a little boy knows—once that smell gets in, it's hard to remove. "We actually took the glued-down rubber flooring out of the bathrooms in our locker rooms because hitting the toilet was a problem," he said. "The smell got so bad that your eyes would burn, and no amount of bleach seemed to be able to kill it off." However, bleach does do wonders when it's used to clean a non-absorbent surface—like those under rubber flooring. So, each morning, Flyers Skate Zone bathroom floors are cleaned with bleach and a chemical called Rid-Odz—and foul smells literally go right down the drain. As players get older, their aim might improve, but other concerns move to the forefront, Freeman said. "In our building, those guys are usually past the graffiti age, but we've found that they like to rip things like toilet partitions, mirrors, and shower heads off the walls," he said. "Usually, this kind of damage is caused by a player who was tossed from a game for whatever reason. "If their on-ice discipline is bad, what do you think they're going to do, unsupervised, in a locker room with a long stick?" Don't enforce locker- room etiquette Before Flyers Skate Zone staffers leave each night, rooms are swept and all toilets flushed. Then, a morning cleaning crew comes in to scrub toilets, wipe down showers, clean mirrors and wash the floors. However, that leaves a lot of hours in-between—and things can get messy, quickly. So, the same people who would The Three Fastest Ways to Ruin Your Rink "IF THEIR ON-ICE DISCIPLINE IS BAD, WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY'RE GOING TO DO, UNSUPERVISED, IN A LOCKER ROOM WITH A LONG STICK?" RINK ISSUES Locker Room Destruction