WEST BLOOMFIELD ECCENTRIC - Jan. 19, 2003
Icing 'on the lake'
St. Mary's hockey arena to be showcase for prep Eaglets

BY TIM SMITH
STAFF WRITER

Road trips and home games are one and the same for the Orchard Lake St. Mary's varsity hockey team. The Eaglets ride the bus for 20 minutes to Detroit Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills for so-called "home" contests.
But all that will change next season, when a $3.4 million ice arena and fitness facility will open right on the St. Mary's Preparatory campus in Orchard Lake Village. The first shovels of dirt for the privately financed project were turned nearly three weeks ago, and construction workers continue toiling on the site adjacent to Dombrowski Fieldhouse.
"What an opportunity for the kids to play hockey in a building that's right on campus," said Brian Klanow, head coach of the hockey team, off to 10-2-2 start heading into Saturday night's game against Harper Woods Notre Dame at DSC. "It makes it as professional as you can have for high school hockey and my hat's off to the St. Mary's administration."
It didn't hurt that St. Mary's Prep Headmaster Jim Glowacki is a big hockey booster, despite never having played the sport. Yet.
"I just took up Rollerblading," said Glowacki last week. "I'm an inner city kid from Detroit. But it'd be nice to skate in the arena I helped (become reality)."
Glowacki will have plenty of company in wanting to lace them up. The yet-to-be-named arena promises to be a sparkling, multipurpose destination spot for hockey players, figure skaters and other athletes; a weightlifting room and indoor running track are among amenities planned for the two-story, 60,000-square-foot complex. Parking lots will be created on each side of the structure, which will have a seating capacity of about 1,300.
With the arena, St. Mary's will join Cranbrook Kingswood and Grosse Pointe University-Liggett as area high schools with hockey arenas on campus.

NO 'TIN CAN'
"You'll love this place," Glowacki said. "We have spared no expense. It will be the nicest high school hockey arena in the Midwest."
It will be beige brick, to match Dombrowski Fieldhouse, and it won't "look like a big tin can," as some other hockey buildings do, Glowacki said.
Others share in the optimism, including St. Mary's athletic director George Porritt.
"I think it's awesome," said Porritt, also the school's football and boys basketball coach. "It (hockey) is big around here and it's getting bigger in high school sports."
Bearing that out are the numbers for hockey at St. Mary's. The size of the school's hockey program has doubled over its nine-year existence to about 75 players, enough to fill rosters for varsity, junior varsity, club and travel squads.

More about the Orchard Lake Schools, in the news . . .