Dodge County Youth Hockey History

The information for this article was contributed by Joe Wieners, who had a key role in organizing the effort for hockey in the Dodge County Youth and the Dodge County High School Wildcats programs.

Organized youth hockey has been present in the Kasson-Mantorville and Dodge Center communities since the late 1970's, but the program was quite limited due largely to the vagaries of having to rely on outdoor ice. In the 1980's, the Kasson and Dodge Center programs combined with the combined program serving no more than 50 skaters. Without indoor ice the local program did not see any appreciable growth. Almost all of the kids who participated played on Rochester teams under a cooperative agreement between Dodge County Youth Hockey and the Rochester Youth Hockey Association.

A new indoor rink was constructed in 1996. The availability of money from the Minnesota "Mighty Ducks Ice Arena Grant Program". provided the impetus. A $250,000 grant was obtained through the program. Local monetary and in-kind contributions together with a $650,000 jointly issued government bond enabled the construction of the present $1.3miilion arena. The joint power agreement between the participating local units of government established the contributions as 50% from Dodge County, 34% from Kasson, 12% from Dodge Center and 4% from Mantorville.

The arena was designed to he able to have ice year around. After the first summer it became obvious that summer ice would create serious problems in the building without the addition of dehumidification. Luckily "Mighty Ducks" renovation grants were available and a $30,000 grant was secured which covered most of the cost of adding needed dehumidification to the arena.

With year around indoor ice available, the Dodge County Youth Hockey Association was quickly able to form its own teams for both "C" level in-house and "B" level District 8 play. Close to 150 players signed up the first full winter after the arena was built. DCYH has had teams at the "C" and "B" levels for squirts, peewees and bantams ever since. A U-12 girls team began in 2001 and this year (2003) marks the first year that DCYH has sponsored a team at the "A" level with the creation of an "A" level squirt team.

Spring and fall 4 on 4 programs sponsored by the arena as well as a 3 week summer skills camp sponsored by DCYH have recently been created to improve the skills of players. Meanwhile the number of players has increased over the years with the present number being around 190. DCYH continues to work toward making its program as comprehensive as possible to accommodate both highly competitive and recreational skaters while maintaining its relatively low cost.