Local skaters have more options now that Schenectady County has officially christened its expanded ice hockey facility. The process included honoring a longtime champion of youth hockey.
Schenectady County Recreational Facility is now named in honor of a longtime local Schenectady city police official: Ray Wemple.
Long associated with the Schenectady Youth Hockey Association, Wemple died in 2021 at age 89.
County Legislature Chair Gary Hughes says the newly expanded Schenectady County Ray Wemple Memorial Rink is now 4,000 square feet bigger and home to four new locker rooms, additional changing rooms, and more.
At a ceremony Monday, the Democrat called it the perfect tribute to a man who kept the county hockey tradition alive.
“What would youth hockey be without Ray Wemple in Schenectady? It's appropriate and right that today we pay tribute to Ray. His dedication to the Youth Hockey Association exemplified his spirit of community, but it was not the only reflection or aspect of that community service,” Hughes said.
Matthew Wemple is his son.
“He's definitely walking around right now with a bit of a swagger and a little smile on his face, and he's probably held about 20 other people up wherever he is hostage, and he's telling them the whole story. It's going to last probably three, four hours, and they're going to roll their eyes,” Wemple said, “but he'd see this as a very nice way to commemorate all of the work he did.”
Legislature vice chair Cathy Gatta, a Democrat who chairs the body’s tourism, arts and special events committee, says the expanded space is part of an effort to make Schenectady County a sports destination.
“Along with the new Mohawk Harbor Arena, the New York Ovals cricket fields here in Glenville, the Aquatic Center at SUNY Schenectady and our New York Phoenix basketball team, we are building something special, something that will draw visitors, which will in turn, in turn, boost our local economy,” Gatta said.
Leading a tour of the expanded space, rink manager Dennis Kaminsky says it’s a vast improvement over what once was. Upstairs, there’s a new film room.
“They can come up here, watch film, you know, go over their stuff. The high school uses this for looking at their tapes and of the games and critiquing. And this is just nice room for them to do that, and it gets them out of the locker room,” Kaminsky said.
There's a new room for refs, who used to change in a cleaning closet.
The skate shop, where players and public alike can put fresh new edges on their blades, is no longer right on the ice floor but in the much warmer lobby.
“Our skate shop, which used to be out there, kind of like a little narrow closet, and you couldn't fit more than two people in there, you know? Now we have a great room. It's neater, it's more organized,” Kaminsky said.
The new spaces also mean he can have more help, adding wannabe rink rats are welcome.
“I have kids from the high school hockey teams. They come and they ask me if they can get a job here -- absolutely, whether I use them for a skate guard or they work in the skate shop,” Kaminsky said.
While he says he loves the new space, Matthew Wemple says he’d like one more thing.
“I’d like to maybe hold a little space in here for people to learn about Dad's legacy, like who he is, not just the name on a building,” Wemple said.
