Ice time for everyone

Marion program teaches hockey basics without competitive pressure

Collin Westgate (left), 8, gets some hockey advice from Hockey Unlimited director Tim Dyer at Tabor Academy in Marion. (Paul E. Kandarian for The Boston Globe)

MARION - Collin Westgate isn't an imposing force on skates. But the shy 8-year-old from Wareham isn't out to smash an opponent into the boards at Tabor Academy's Travis Roy Arena on a Saturday morning.

He's here to have fun. He stutter-skates his way toward the goal, tapping the puck ahead of him on his stick with adult coaches urging him on. After he slips the rubber by the goalie, the smile that breaks on his face tells the story of Hockey Unlimited.

Now in its 44th year in what may be the longest-running youth hockey organization in the state, Hockey Unlimited offers youngsters, most aged 7 to 14, a place to take to the ice, learn the basics of the sport, and have a blast.

"We may do some drills but mostly we just scrimmage, get out there and play," said Tim Dyer of Marion, who has run the program for 35 years. "There's no checking, it's all fun. It's like organized bog hockey."

Back in the days before rinks were prevalent, when kids - including Dyer - wanted to play hockey, they took their gear into the woods to frozen ponds or cranberry bogs. They shoveled enough snow to fashion a makeshift rink, and skated, sunup to sundown in many cases, playing and learning on the fly.

That's the gist of Hockey Unlimited, started 44 years ago by Josephine Saltonstall DuBois of Marion.

"She just wanted to give kids the chance to play, to learn," Dyer said last Saturday morning as he laced up his skates to take to the ice. "Tabor's been a great partner for us; they always give us great ice time on Saturday morning."

"It seemed like a good thing to do," DuBois said. "We have all sorts of opportunity in little old Marion, and I like to further those kinds of things."

Her father was one of the original coaches, she said, back when the Tabor rink was outdoors, and brutally cold in winter. It has since been covered.

The fee is $360 per child to skate once a week (sometimes more, on holiday weeks) from mid-November through February. The ice time generally runs 8:30-9:45 a.m., a full 75 minutes in which all players get to skate. Players supply their own gear.

At the first session, 20 or so children showed up, mostly from the tri-town area of Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester, and a few others from Plympton and Plymouth.

Collin's mother, Jennifer Westgate, sat on the bench, helping children on and off the ice, along with Lynne Foley of Rochester, whose son, Hunter, 10, was on the ice.

"We wanted something casual like this, and not worry about getting on a team," said Jennifer Westgate. "Maybe he will try for a team, but for now he enjoys this."

Hunter Foley, bedecked in matching white-and-blue hockey jersey and socks, was clearly having a ball on the ice as well, his mother said. "This is great, it's a team environment for the kids; they meet and make friends."

Don Anderson, 60, of Marion is one of the adults who come to skate and coach the youngsters, advising them on technique, playing on teams with them, and sharing the fun.

"I started doing it when my oldest son was eight," said Anderson, a research scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Falmouth. "I've been doing it 18 years now."

Dyer's son T.J., 17, a squash player at Tabor Academy, is another helper. He started in Hockey Unlimited at age 4.

Some players are faster than others; some are turtle-like in their measured pace toward the goal. None of that matters, Anderson said, as faster players adjust their game to slower ones to ensure a fair share of getting into the game spirit of the sport. No score is kept. Occasionally Dyer will stop and have skaters face off at center ice; other times he'll award penalty shots to players, letting them skate in alone on a goalie, if one shows up.

This Saturday, one did, Steve Healy of Rochester, whose son, Travus, is enrolled in the program. The elder Healy donned the pads to help out, playing from his knees when smaller players came in on goal, delighting when they would get a puck past him.

"It's about building their confidence and having fun, that's it," Healy said. "I enjoy helping out."

Dyer's brother-in-law, Peter Lalli, ran the program in the early 1970s. Dyer took over in 1972 and has been at it ever since, lacing them up with a couple generations of youngsters over almost four decades.

"For most of the kids here, hockey won't be their number one sport," Dyer said. "But for some it will be."