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The Northern Berkshire Black Bears want more kids on skates. The photos were taken by Shannon Vanderwoude and Jennifer Sweet, and provided by Leigh Harrington.

Northern Berkshire Youth Hockey Looking To Build Participation

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Coach Guy Cariddi has been coaching generations of youth hockey players and is trying to build the program.


NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Parents often cite the cost of youth hockey as reason they do not allow their children to play but officials from the Northern Berkshire Black Bears' program are trying to debunk that "myth."

"No kid has ever been turned away based on their ability to pay," U10 Coach Guy Cariddi said recently. "You can get [the cost] down to almost nothing."

The program's attendance numbers have been dropping since the beginning of the recession but Cariddi says the expenses of the "house league" can be defrayed by participating in fund raisers for the organization. The cost to join the league is about $280, but children can work in the concession stand, sell raffle tickets, work spaghetti dinners or other fund raisers to reduce fees, sometimes down to nothing.

The equipment can also cost nothing. The rental shop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Skating Rink will rent the equipment for a deposit of $50, a cost the parents can get back when the equipment is returned.

While Cariddi concedes that the higher level leagues and travel teams the program offers can get more expensive, the house league provides youngsters all they need from learning to skate to game play.

"The primary goal is to teach kids to have fun playing youth hockey," Cariddi said. "We have a rule that all the kids on a team play. So, if there is 15 kids on the team, 15 kids play. It's pretty much equal time across the board ... if you don't play all the kids, they'll never get better."

Despite the efforts of the non-profit league's volunteer board of directors and coaches, the program is struggling to attract youth players. The program had been up to 300 players at one point but is now near 100, which is actually a one-year bump in enrollment from the last few years when it was low as 80.

"I think the economy has hurt the attendance," Cariddi said. "We've seen the numbers go down. This year, we had a little upswing."

Cariddi has seen the peaks and valleys of the program from years when there were enough players for an all-woman's team to years when the program has just scraped by with enough players to run the minimal amount of teams.

He started playing hockey in the program at age 7 and is now coaching his third generation of players. His assistant coach was a former player and that coach's children on are on the team. Cariddi has played, coached, sat on the board of directors and refereed, at one point spending 12 hours a day in the various roles. Now, with the program at a lull, he is hoping to rebuild it.

"We're in a building mode and trying to get those numbers up," he said.

Cariddi's pitch to parents harks back to an old bumper sticker the organization used to sell that read "keeping kids on ice and out of hot water." The hockey program has created close friendships for Cariddi and he hopes the next generation can experience it too.

"This is why I do it," Cariddi said when the interview was interrupted by an older player asking if he could help teach the younger ones skate.

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Williamstown Planners Advance Bylaw Proposals, Discuss Sweet Farm Road

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week advanced two of its zoning bylaw proposals to keep them on track for inclusion on the annual town meeting warrant and discussed what issues it should consider when considering a proposal it is tasked with considering.
 
One of the board-generated articles has been on the table for years: limiting the number of days a "primary dwelling unit" can be used as short-term rental to 90 cumulative days in a calendar year. The other is a more recent project of the planners: requiring installers of geothermal wells in the two Water Resource Districts to either use only potable water or prove their systems pose no threat to the town's public water supply.
 
Both proposals last Tuesday were sent to the Select Board, which will take a ceremonial vote to refer them back to the Planning Board for public hearings in March.
 
But those are not the only town meeting articles that the Planning Board will need to discuss in the weeks ahead.
 
The owner of the Sweetwood assisted living facility on Cold Spring Road has submitted a landowners petition to create an overlay district for the South Williamstown property that would allow conversion to multi-family housing. While the planners have no say over the content of the proposal, the board will need to host a public hearing on the article and likely will make an advisory vote to the May meeting.
 
And the Sweet Farm Road Homeowners Association plans to ask the annual meeting to accept Sweet Farm Road as a public way. By law, that request requires input from the Planning Board to determine whether the road design conforms with the town's bylaw and decide whether to grant waivers before passing the article to the Select Board for a public hearing.
 
At the outset of the Planning Board's Feb 11 meeting, Chair Peter Beck informed the group that the HOA asked to reschedule a planned discussion of the road acceptance request.
 
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