Halloween Website

“A lot of people see it as their time to hang out with friends,” said Ryan McGovern, recreation supervisor with the Telluride Parks and Recreation department.

The competition gets as stiff as you can handle, though, with both a coed team for the casual players as well as a full lineup of youth and adult traveling teams.

The traveling teams are organized by the LizardHead Hockey Club here in Telluride, and are designed to provide a competitive outlet for serious amateur hockey players, according to club president Teddy Errico.

Due to the budget crunch in Telluride, fees for the hockey program have gone up by about 25 percent, McGovern said.

“You know, we have to try and recoup as much revenue as we can and lower our costs,” McGovern said, noting that the Parks and Recreation department still subsidizes the program, and that it’s a bargain compared to similar programs in other ski towns like Breckenridge and Aspen.

Prices for the traveling programs for the 2009-2010 season range from $350 to $550 for kids and $350 to $425 for adults. McGovern said the biggest factor in the cost is the amount of time spent on town ice. The Hanley Rink is the most costly Parks and Recreation asset to maintain in the winter, he said.

For those not serious enough to join one of the leagues, there will be open times for pickup matches and also time for open skating when hockey will not be allowed. In general, adult pickup games will be Monday through Thursday from noon to 1:30 p.m. and kids times will be after school until the early evening. No times are set in stone, McGovern said, depending on club games and practices, but his department will publish a complete schedule for the rink every two weeks. The schedules are available on the town web site, as well as by e-mail for those who sign up.

The teams are coached by volunteers, though the club will be paying for Bryan Smith to train the coaches for a week. Smith is the director of the Rocky Mountain Hockey School, and will “bring a high level of experience to Telluride,” Errico said.

“When I grew up, a lot of people coached me, and they weren’t anybody’s parent,” Errico said. “They coached for the love of the game.”

Now, he feels it’s time to give back to the sport he grew up playing north of New York City.

And speaking of giving back, the hockey club made a donation to the New Community Coalition to support the environmental sustainability work going on there.

Errico said he’s well aware that maintaining the Hanley Rink takes a tremendous amount of energy, and a donation to TNCC is part of doing what they can to mitigate their carbon footprint.

The club has also purchased wind power from the San Miguel Power Association to help keep their sport a little more green.

“We recognize the hockey rink uses a fair amount of energy,” Errico said. “It’s a fantastic facility and the hockey club decided to take on reducing our carbon footprint without sacrificing the activities available to our kids, adults and tourists.”