Nome Winter Sports Association open for business

Last Thursday afternoon, a circle of 16 third graders surrounded local ski “meister” Keith Conger in a back hallway of Nome Elementary School, watching as he demonstrated proper ski carrying technique. Later, the kids lined up “tall to tallest” to tromp down the hall to the ski storage closet and be fitted for boots and skis.
Each Monday, Thursday and Friday, the Nome Winter Sports Association, NWSA for short, take elementary schoolers out skiing. The week before this, the kids practiced using their skis on the carpeted hallways. Last week was their first time on snow.
Ian McRae, a third-grade teacher, lead a conga line of bundled up third graders out into the bright sunny parking lot and across Sixth Avenue, where a fresh set of corduroy waited in the sunshine for first tracks. The kids set to work making their way around the loop, many of them falling – but getting right back up again.
Conger, a NWSA board member said that last year they ended the year getting 70 kids on skis with their afterschool ski program. This year, they expect to have about the same.
In addition to taking the elementary schoolers skiing, the association has a hockey rink with an open skate three times a week and grooms ski trails. Skates and skis are free to borrow from the warming hut. Inside the hut, neat rows of cubbies built by Nome-Beltz Middle High School’s shop class hold skates organized by size, and a rack at the back of the room behind the desk holds skis.
Most of the skates in the building are new, purchased from Play It Again Sports with grant money. The NWSA also has grant funding from Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation and the Bering Sea Lions Club.
The ice rink used to be downtown, where the ice was sheltered from drifting snow by buildings. Now, it’s next to the Nome Rec Center at the edge of town, exposed to north winds and subsequent drifting. When the Nugget spoke to Conger at the warming hut on Saturday, hockey player and Mayor of Nome Kenny Hughes was skating a shovel over the ice, clearing the inch or so of snow that had fallen that morning.
As kids began showing up for the open skate, they started ripping around the ice, skating circles around Hughes as he cleared the ice and playing with his dogs. 
Conger said that Blake Bogart, a longtime hockey player and NWSA board member, helped negotiate a deal to secure the warming hut building from Norton Sound Health Corporation.
Bogart helped to arrange for NJUS to put light poles along the sides of the rink and helped secure the boards surrounding the rink. “My joke is that Blake Bogart is the Director of Facilities, and I'm Director of Programs,” Conger said. “He's the guy that did all the magic getting the building put in here.”
The warming hut has helped the association to expand their offerings from just an afterschool ski program into a community service. Last year, the Boys and Girls Club was the biggest user of the open skate times at the rink. “The word got out a little bit, just slowly, get things going. We did get a pretty good base,” Conger said. “We had 200 different people on skates last year.”
In addition to the open skates, the men and women’s hockey teams utilize the ice on weeknights. Conger said the “hearty” hockey crew helps out with maintenance. “They take care of the ice.”
The rink is open for open skate Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m.. to 5 p.m.. A steady group of kids comes every week, eager to hit the ice.
Conger said that the open skate and the ski program helps kids by getting them outside. “This definitely gives them a chance to play out,” he said. “We teach them how to stay warm, those skills to be out there and playing out.”