Rostraver’s Ice Garden the “center of community”
Matt Parrott, of Port Vue, teaches his 3-year-old son, Rhone, how to skate, during a “Learn to Skate” session at the Rostraver Ice Garden.
Bob Mock, skating director with Ice & Blades of Western Pennsylvania, teaches a “Learn to Skate” session at the Rostraver Ice Garden.
Young figure skaters practice their moves during a Sunday session at the Rostraver Ice Garden.
Bob Mock, skating director with Ice & Blades of Western Pennsylvania, teaches 5-year-old Carter Dulak, of West Mifflin, how to skate during a beginners session at the Rostraver Ice Garden.
Barb Gahagen, assistant director with Ice & Blades of Western Pennsylvania, teaches a “Learn to Skate” session at the Rostraver Ice Garden.
Adam Fincik started skating at the Rostraver Ice Garden 30 years ago. At 5 years old, his father took him to the rink to learn to skate.
“I remember the first time I was there,” Fincik said. “As soon as I stepped on the ice, I fell instantly. I went out, cried and came back on the ice. I was a natural after that. It’s a tough sport. You got to be able to take a bump.”
Fincik went on the play travel hockey. He also played for Ringgold and California University.
“At one point, I was on the ice six to seven days a week,” he said. “And a lot of that was spent at the Ice Garden.”
Now, at 35, he owns a roof and construction business, A&T Roofing and Construction, but still gets ice time by coaching his 8-year-old son, Carter.
“He’s the one who brought me back to the rink,” Fincik said. “There’s just so many memories at that rink. There was no question to where my kid was going to start his career. I felt at home there.”
Carter started skating lessons at 3 years old, and by 5, he was on a hockey team.
“He had a stick in his hands from the moment he could walk,” Fincik said about his son. “It really is just in his blood. He’s a pretty elite player.”
The two of them hit the ice every Thursday morning for one-on-one, father and son hockey lessons.
“I live for it – to be on the ice with him,” Fincik said.
Their story isn’t unusual, especially at the ice rink, which has become a mainstay for the community.
“Skating at this rink goes from generation to generation,” said the owner Jim Murphy.
He’s owned it for 26 years, and over that time, he’s seen generations of hockey players, figure skaters and families make lasting memories on the ice.
It’s become so much more for the community in those years too, he said. Now they host several high school hockey teams, California University’s men’s and women’s hockey teams, the Mon Valley Youth Hockey Association and pickup hockey groups. Public skating sessions also draw crowds, he said.
“Once high school football is done, then we get busy,” Murphy said. “We operate from the first Tuesday after Labor Day through the third week of March.”
They also host beginner skating classes, figure skating classes and beginner hockey classes. They host skating classes from Ice & Blades of Western Pennsylvania, for which Bob Mock is skating director. He’s been a skating coach in this area for more than 45 years and teaches at the Ice Garden.
“I love it,” he said. “It’s really interesting to watch people develop as they learn how to skate.”
Mock was a competitive ice skater in the late 1960s and early 1970s and trained in Lake Placid, New York. Now he teaches multiple levels of skating in both group and private lessons.
“I always try to create an environment where they’re having fun,” he said.
That’s what he’s been doing at the Ice Garden since before Murphy owned it.
“It used to be an outdoor rink, but they enclosed it,” he said. “It’s really the center of the community here.”
But there were a few years, during its rebuild, that it wasn’t. On Feb. 14, 2010, the rink’s roof collapsed with more than 400 people inside, Murphy said.
“No one had a scratch-the only one hurt was me financially,” he said. “Everybody told me they wanted me to rebuild and that they’d be supportive. I rebuilt, but everybody went to another rink.”
It took him three years to bring hockey leagues, teams and groups back to his rink.
“I lost my shirt for three years,” he said. “It’s tough for a business to recover when you have no revenue.”
Now the Ice Garden is also an event center with catering by Murph’s Pub. They host monthly comedy shows that include a buffet dinner and a professional comedian from September through Mother’s Day. They host a home show every April and the Loomis Brothers Circus every May. The Ice Garden is also the site for Western Pennsylvania Cyber School testing.
Just recently, the Ice Garden hosted a reception of about 700 people for the funeral of the Rostraver paramedic, Matthew Smelser, who was killed earlier this month on Interstate 70 while responding to a crash. He let them use the hall for free that day since he had worked with Smelser for the annual Sportsman’s Bash held at the Ice Garden, which raises money for Rostraver’s first responders.
“They do their biggest fundraiser of the year here in the arena,” Murphy said. “He worked directly with me for years. I really liked him.”
They also host birthday parties and weddings, Murphy said. During their most recent wedding, the couple went out on the ice for their first skate as a married couple before their reception, he said. He’s also had folks propose on the ice from the Zamboni.
“I’m told that a lot of people in the Valley met their significant other here on the ice either on a Friday or a Saturday night,” he said.
At 72, Murphy is ready to retire and sell the Ice Garden.
“I’d rather see it continue as a skating center because I think it’s so important to the community,” he said.