It’s a gray winter morning in Bearden, the sky half-spitting cold rain. But inside the Ice Chalet, all is warm and well. The skating rink’s trademark fireplace is heating up the lobby while parents and siblings watch a group of mid-morning skaters through an observation window. Coach Amanda Bates-Cloutier is leading this advanced group through a series of moves to the sounds of “Holly, Jolly Christmas” and “Feliz Navidad.”
Inside owner/coach Larry LaBorde’s small office, two dogs doze in chairs near his desk. A third, a beagle named Puck, waddles out to the lobby to get kisses from children waiting for lessons. When this class comes off the ice, LaBorde will head for the Zamboni machine and resurface the ice himself before the next session. In the afternoon, he’ll coach. At any time of the day, he can be called upon to be his own “Mr. Fixit,” tackling the mechanics of a 55-year-old building. It’s a pace that suits him well.
“I never wanted to be stuck behind a desk,” LaBorde says. “I love coming here.”
Ice Chalet coach Amanda Bates-Cloutier instructs a group of advanced skaters.
The Ice Chalet has been a staple of Knoxville life since 1962. It’s been a community gathering place as well as a place for serious skaters since the late Robert Unger founded the Robert Unger School of Ice Skating there in 1963. (Unger passed away in 2007). LaBorde has owned the Ice Chalet since 2013, having been manager since 1988, but his roots at the place go all the way back to 1967. He was just 11 years old when he began skating and helping out at the rink. As a teen, LaBorde was a serious hockey player, but Unger encouraged him and the other hockey players to take freestyle skating classes and skate dance classes.
After playing professional hockey in Canada, LaBorde tried college before joining Holidays on Ice in the early 1980s. After he left, he made one more try at a non-skating life, studying in Chicago, before calling Unger and telling him he wanted to accept the coach’s job he had always had waiting for him.
Taking total ownership of the facility was a leap of faith – a necessary one, LaBorde says, as otherwise the rink would have shut down. He knew he had done the right thing when the 2013 Holiday Skating School became the most successful ever, and he and his staff have been going strong ever since.
Those who remember the rink from their own childhoods and teen years will find all the nostalgic touchstones – the fireplace, the rugged hearth – intact, but past the doors to the skating area, LaBorde and his staff have made some serious upgrades in the last decade. A row of exterior windows rings the wall to the skating area, opening it to light, and the ice floor itself was given a total renovation in 2016.
The skating school now has LaBorde’s name on it, too, but Unger is never forgotten. LaBorde says that he left a legacy that made it easy to run the place well.
“He was a great leader and a great teacher,” LaBorde says.
In the tradition of his mentor, LaBorde and his staff continue to give back to the community. With a parent partner, he began a not-for-profit called Skate for Our Future, which helps children in under-served communities participate in skating. The first group of children began in spring 2017, and participated with the other children in the rink’s 30th anniversary “Nutcracker on Ice.”
Skate mom Melissa Ringstaff says the rink “is like a big family.” It is also a home away from home: She and her family live in southeastern Kentucky. Every Wednesday morning, she and her two teen daughters make a two-and-a-half-hour drive to get the 17-year-old, Hannah, to an advanced class. They now stay in town three days a week so that Hannah (who is homeschooled) can have private coaching sessions and ample practice time.
“This has been life-changing for her,” Ringstaff says. “She was so shy, and this has just made her blossom.”
Special, extended public skating hours are available at Ice Chalet from Dec. 21 through Jan. 7.