It was in full gear and official game jerseys that the Monticello-Annandale-Maple Lake Stars skated onto the ice in the Moose Sherritt Ice Arena to kick off their first high school hockey season with home ice. Thursday, Dec. 1, marked the long-awaited first game in Monticello’s new arena, named after 1940s NHL pro and Monticello native Gordon “Moose” Sherritt. Although the arena is located 20 miles northeast of Annandale, dozens of local parents and athletes had a role in making it a reality. Now it is home to half-a-dozen hockey programs including the M-A-ML Stars, a group that is strengthened by approximately 60 Annandale athletes of all ages. Six of those athletes have significant roles on the high school team. Stars fans had been waiting nearly 25 years for Thursday night to come – since the idea of an arena was first conceived. Over the years there have been plenty of attempts to break ground, but something was always missing. Lately the need had begun to turn dire as growing girls hockey programs began using up ice time on neighboring arenas and squeezing the Stars out. “We were getting less competitive,” said Stars Youth Hockey Association president Laurie Knudson of Annandale. As renters, the Stars were getting about half the ice time of other teams in their conference and section. “We knew if the program was going to continue to grow, we better start now, or we were going to be stuck practicing on outside ice.” At that time, the Monticello district had already had a cooperative agreement with Annandale and Maple Lake. The three schools had been skating together as one team, the Stars, for the last two years, but the two hockey associations had yet to merge. That happened 21/2 years ago and opened up a whole new realm of options for an arena. “Monticello knew they had to merge with either A-ML or Becker-Big Lake because they couldn’t get a loan without the numbers,” Knudson said. The Monticello Hockey Association had about 140 members. Joining with A-ML bumped them up to 200 and made them a reliable investment for bankers. But the merger wasn’t a popular idea for many. When a vote was called, it passed by only eight more yeas than nays, Knudson said. With that out of the way, the association immediately began talking about an arena. The Sherritt family lifted things off the ground last April with a $100,000 donation, and construction began. A combination of fundraising and volunteerism kept things moving along to the October completion date. Volunteers Knudson estimates 90 percent of association members volunteered some time to the project. Jim Preusse of Monticello headed a volunteer painting project that saved the association close to $30,000. “He literally gave up his life to get it all painted; he never saw his wife and kids,” Knudson said. But he didn’t do it all alone. He had the help of Wayne Jones of Maple Lake, Woody Haabala of Annandale and Big Al’s Rental in Annandale, which donated painting equipment. With the exception of putting up the shell, which was done by Nelson Building and Development of Buffalo, volunteers did almost everything including installing the ice and all of the cooling equipment that goes with it, Knudson said. The association also received numerous donations from local families. The result is a two-story arena with an NHL size skating surface (85 feet x 200 feet), four “roomy” team locker rooms, according to Knudson, a mezzanine viewing area, six restrooms, a pro-shop, concession stand and seating capacity for 400 with room to grow. The whole thing is worth about $4 million. The Stars Youth Hockey Association helps children as young as 3 or 4 develop a life-long love of ice hockey. The process starts with the Learn to Skate or LTS program, which takes children who have no skills and basically teaches them how to skate, Knudson said. The next level is Termites, which includes kindergarten through first-grade-aged children. The group plays games using half the ice but doesn’t keep score. The next group is Mites, which involves athletes up to the third grade. Their games are a little more serious, Knudson said. It is here that they begin to compete with teams from other schools, although they still do not keep score. The next group is the Initiation Program, or IP, followed by the Squirts. Sixth- and seventh-graders get to start checking at the Pewee level and from there they go on to Bantams. Athletes can play with the Bantams until their sophomore year, then they play high school junior varsity or try out for varsity. Nobody gets cut Throughout the upper levels athletes are sorted into A, B and/or C teams so nobody is cut and everybody gets a chance to play. Traditionally hockey is an expensive sport, but the youth hockey association tries to provide ample opportunity to raise funds, Knudson said. “Some families fundraise the entire bill,” she said. The association will also be introducing a “hardship fund,” which will help families going through difficult times. Parents will be able to request funding for up to 50 percent of their ice bill. As the program grows, the association hopes to create a junior gold level as well. It would accommodate 10th through 12th grade athletes who choose not to skate with the high school varsity team, Knudson said. But for now, members of the association are genuinely exhausted. They’re so burned out that Knudson fears it is going to be a real challenge to take care of the many other chores the association handles. One of them is to flood the outdoor ice skating rink in Annandale. That is why she is looking for more help from the city. The association is creating a fund from which to pay anyone who is willing to help, she said. The group is still reveling in its accomplishment in Monticello. The Moose has been open for public skating since Oct. 1. Three high school teams – Monticello, Becker and Big Lake – have put it through its paces and then there are the numerous youth teams. The North Wright County RiverHawks girls hockey team played its first home game there weeks ago. During the week the arena is occupied from about 3:30 to 11 p.m. and on the weekends the doors are open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. The Stars skated to their first home victory at the Moose Thursday night with a 7-5 win over River Lakes.