1976-1986

The very first AYHA board meeting, held on April 13, 1976, and was only to elect  6 people onto the board of directors.

Very little information exists in this time period.  If you have any, please send it to me or bring it to a current Board Member

1986-1991

The '86-'87 season saw 152 kids playing in our association, registration fees for high school were $50 and it cost $1 to attend a high school game.

March 8, 1987 the first State victory for Amery hockey, The Bantams are state Champions with their win in Chippewa Falls!!! The Team was Coached By Glen & Mary Strom.  Glen And Mary also coached the state champion team in 1992 (pictures of the trophy and Jersey to come soon)

A new outdoor rink #2 was built near the south water tower in October 1987.

October 1988 Friday night open skating was started.

Before 1988 there were only 12 directors on the board, by 1992 there were 19 due to the large increase in membership in the association.

In the late '80's Bob Utech and Don Clark of the Wisconsin hockey association voted our facility as "best outdoor rink" in Wisconsin.

Late in 1988 the "code of conduct committee" was born due to some unfortunate circumstances and the original 1987 code of conduct was completely rewritten.

In 1989 the Bob Rasmussen (Then current president) and the board of directors established a long range planning commission to look into the possibility of an indoor rink.  NSP owned the land the rinks were sitting on and they wanted to sell it to AYHA or the city of Amery.

The spring of 1990 saw the last "Smoker" fundraiser, a long running Las Vegas style event including all you can eat food and beer and several activities including "Games of chance".

The summer of 1990 saw the use of helmets become mandatory for all hockey players, and the "GOOD" hockey stick everyone wanted cost $25.

December 9, 1990 the name for the new indoor rink was proposed, "Amery Civic Center" AKA "The Works".  The original plan stated "The new complex will be built to have as many youth programs as possible" they were planning Meeting rooms for 4-H and the community, a weight room, a racket ball court and gymnasium.

By the end of 1990 the hockey complex, Just east of the water tower, consisted of a public skating rink, a warming house and two outdoor rinks for games.  From the mid '80's though the mid 90's the association paid for development camps for coaches and players, they also paid for all the teams home and away tournament costs.

October 1991, 9 Area churches got together under the name Concerned Area Youth Ministries and demanded Wednesday to be left open for religious education.  We accommodated them and offered open skating to them as one of their youth activities.

1991-1996

The '91-'92 season saw 170 kids playing in our association, registration fees for high school were $100 and it still cost $1 to attend a high school game.  We sent 7 out of 11 teams to state championships and came back with a Midget "A" first place and 3 second place trophies.  These were the years Amery was considered a "Powerhouse" in Wisconsin hockey.  This dominance was one of the determining factors in the decision to build an indoor rink.

Fundraising for the new rink started in January '92. That same month the Pro shop in the old warming house merged into the concession stand.

Through 1992 Mike Karuschak (Then current president) was frequently in the newspaper accepting donations from various individuals and local businesses. These donations came from individuals as far away as Stillwater.

Through 1992 the newspaper printed a graphic of the donations collected.  The goal was to raise $100,000.

October 1992 the land was bought for $50,000 and the rink was set for construction.

On October 23, 1992 75 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new rink.  The plan was to have indoor natural ice for the first few years and add ice making equipment later.

John Legut was a main force behind building the indoor rink and tragically passed away in 1992 before its completion.  Members decided to dedicate the very first game played in the new arena to Johns memory.  Every year since then there has been a John Legut memorial alumni game played during the Christmas school break. 

By February 1993 the main structure was finished and the warming area was being built.  Thousands of hours were volunteered by AYHA members during the summer of 1993 to get the rink built.  Everyone helped in all areas, from laying brick and cement, building benches and  assembling the refrigeration system.  At times there were over 100 members per day helping with construction. This new construction also called for a new scoreboard and ice resurfacer.  The ice resurfacer would have to wait.

The summer of 1993 brought a dilemma. Shakopee had ice making equipment they would donate to us if we disassembled and removed it.  To do this we would need to add a compressor room and Zamboni room to the building shell that was already erected.  This was one of many costs that was not planned for in the budget of the new rink, but in the long run saved us over $200,000 for new equipment.  

A scholarship fund was set up in September of 1993 in John Legut's honor.  Each year, the AYHA Legut Scholarship Committee will select a graduating senior form the AYHA to receive a $500.00 scholarship in the memory of John Legut. 

The new indoor rink was to be ready by November of the 93-94 season.  The vast amount of work caused delays in the opening. By the end of October the rink was nowhere near ready, so the board put an ultimatum up for the members,  Either put more time into the rink or since one of the outdoor rinks was already disassembled, OR they would have to cancel the season.  The board and members both decided to put more hours in.

In November and December every board member put in a minimum of 25 hours a week and most families averaged 20 hours per week to get the rink ready by Christmas. Grand opening was scheduled to be December 26 1993 but was postponed until January 2 1994.  The grand opening included the first John Legut memorial game and open skating.  The season was saved!

In the summer of 1994 the old outdoor rink #2 boards were transferred to the new site so that outdoor ice could still  be made for the community.  Artificial ice was planned for the outside rink, but the plans never materialized.

The skate sharpening booth was built in October of 1994.

Now that Amery had an indoor rink we were able to make ice in September for the new Fall League.  The first Fall League in 1994 saw 78 kids participate.  Players came from as far away as Barron, Baldwin and Cumberland.

December of 94 saw a unique fund raising event, the Minnesota North Star alumni Vs. the Amery Alumni.  The North Stars brought greats like Bobby Smith, Tom Reid and Lou  Nanne.  We had Tim Henningsgard, Tim Christianson and Bart Bergan.  We were over matched!   The next year the the North Stars brought J.P. Pariese. Both events we big hits with the association and brought in a lot of needed funds.

March '95, a storm damaged the warming trailer on outdoor rink #2 and was sold as salvage.

In the fall of 1995 2 plaques were commissioned for the recognition of financial contributions to the new rink.  Those plaques are still mounted on the east wall of the lobby.

The '95-'96 season saw Amery merge with Clayton and Unity and join the WIAA  We had 120 kids playing in our association, registration fees for high school were $140 and it cost $2 to attend a high school game.

By the middle of 1996, the old site had been sold off and dismantled.

1996-2008

November 30 1996 was the first High School "B" WIAA game against st. Paul Como Park.  Como park won 6-3, but just afterwards the High School "C" played  Como park's JV team and Won 3-2.  It was also the Birth of the Blue Line Club.

March of '97, Amery hosted it's first state championship event, Peewee C-2

In 1997 the association purchased a 1993 Olympia ice resurfacer.  Mike Kohlrusch led a fundraising effort that netted enough money to pay for it in full.  The 1972 Zamboni was sold that year.

The end of '97 saw Clear Lake merge into our association.

There were 19 board members in 1997, that was cut down to 12 in 1998, the number we currently have.

From 1998 - 2000 the upstairs addition was added to the arena along with the new High School and JV locker rooms and a shower area.

In the summer of 1999 cement was laid into the rink to make the arena usable in the off-season.  previous to this, there was only sand covering the cooling pipes.

March of 2000 the rinks condenser was replaced.

In 2001 the first AYHA website was launched.

June of 2002, plans were in the works to add a year round , fully functional pizza restaurant attached to the building behind the concession stand.  this was a collaboration with "Pizza Man" that never got off the ground.

July 2003, the bleachers were removed from the Lakeview middle school before its demolition, and new doors were added to the entryway.

In the summer of 2004 a large voluntary crew of association members installed the bleachers in the arena.  A new RFID entry system was installed.

April 2004 saw the first Spring home, garden and recreation show in the arena.

The 2004-2005 Bantam team won the  2B State Championship with coach Bryan Melberg.

It had been rumored for years that Cardinal glass wanted to purchase the arena and land for it's expansion, and move or build the arena on a new location.  In the summer of 2005 it was decided that we will stay right where we are and invest in our future.

In 2005 2 new dehumidifiers we installed, and plans are underway to purchase new boards. Other upgrades over the summer were the painting of the beams, lobby and locker rooms and new speakers and an amplifier in the arena.

In august of 2005, strait line winds tore through Amery and left some of the panels on our arena damaged.

in 2006 the girls league was formed.

The 2005-2006 Bantams won the 3A State Championship with Coaches Scott Ward and Rich Schultz.

the '05-'06 season saw 122 kids playing in our association, registration fees for high school were $385 and it cost $3 to attend a high school game. 

Fall of 2006 saw the first time since the indoor rink opened that there would not be a fall league.

In the '06-'07 season  it became mandatory for coaches to wear helmets. the Ice resurfacer was painted. 

In the summer of 2007 we acquired and installed a set of slightly used boards and Glass, This included new players benches and penalty box. We removed the nets by the bleachers and the varsity locker room got new carpeting.  A new locker room dry erase board was put up.

In the Fall of 2007 we hired our first  rink manager. 

Just before the '07-'08 season, a camera platform was built next to the score booth. A large photo of the varsity team was donated by Cahill Studios, and new booths were put into the concession area.

Future and comments

In our immediate future there are no major changes on the building but we will be concentrating on cleaning the place up.  We may also be buying 20 new sets of equipment for the mini mites to use and hopefully expanding the mite level.

In the future we hope to finish the upstairs bathrooms, replace the lighting and Fix up the outdoor rink.