From Mites to Midland
Fremont’s Community Hub, Sidner Ice Arena, proves it’s about more than hockey as 20 years of Fremont Ice Association celebrated both on and off the ice.
When Parker McInroy touches the ice at Sidner Ice Arena today as a Midland Warrior, the rink is brighter (Thanks to Fund the Rink), the ice surface a little smaller, but the same familiar hallways, lobby, and faces pressed up against the glass bring him back to when it all began.
“I see the mites and little kids and it’s hard to believe that was me not that long ago,” McInroy said, who left to play his senior year in Colorado for Midget AAA before playing junior in Mason City, Iowa, and returning home to Midland University this year. “Seeing the success and stability of the youth program, especially the High School program now, while I am still able to play and go to school at home brings it all full circle."
Forgive us for focusing on McInroy, but his story is just one of many that dots the Sidner Ice Arena over the past 20 years. His, like so many graduating from High School today, just happens to touch it all - from mites to Midland.
To mark the 20th Birthday of the Fremont Ice Assocation, Fremont Flyer alum Parker McInroy dropped a ceremonial puck for Fremont's Braxton Knop (Fremont Middle School) of the Flyers and Easton Bird (Trinity Lutheran School) of the Warbirds.
McInroy and the Warriors competed at the 2026 Rebirth of the Viking Cup, an international hockey tournament that takes place in Camrose, Alberta, Canada. Photo Courtesy: Stollery Photo and Film
FIA Begins
On Oct. 28, 2005, with ice and no hockey yet, the Fremont Ice Association was born. Twenty years later, McInroy was there, dropping the puck as the Association celebrated with a youth game to mark the occasion. The 20th year to the day, when the Fremont Ice Association was established to foster amateur ice skating activities and competition. It now also serves as the hockey association which is affiliated with, cooperates with and maintains uniform playing rules in accordance with the bylaws, rules and regulations of USA Hockey.
Twenty years sounds like a long time, until you remember a child can start skating at 3- or 4-years-old. That means, when FIA was born, some of its first skaters are now just a shade over 20-years-old, like McInroy.
The Milestones of a Legacy signage documents key moments since Sidner Ice Arena was built and the Fremont Ice Association beginnings. The signage was added during the Fund the Rink Campaign in 2025.
The Wins On and Off the Ice
Shortly after forming the Fremont Ice Association, it was clear hockey would be in the future. Demand for hockey ice in Omaha and Lincoln grew as other ice sports - curling, figure skating, and speed skating did not and still do not have the numbers. However, the rink itself needed some hockey reconfiguration. Evan Schinasi, the YMCA Sidner Director for almost six years said hockey interest grew, but fitting hockey into a building took a little more work.
“We needed a ref room and a coaches room,” he said on a cold January evening while watching his niece from Kansas City play one night this season. “All that was here was a bathroom. We needed to make it work for hockey.”
And work it did. Inside “The Lou,” a new gathering space where families and friends can hang out, have a drink and or watch some games on TV between periods, Schninasi’s pictured with the first group of players who won a game for the “Fremont Flyers.”
Team Photo: Austin Eastep, Brogen Collins, Nicholas Leibold, Payton Siemer, Zachary Griffin, Jaydon Polivka, Brayton Richert, Zachary Gruhn, Collin Bugbee and Jordan Tieken
South Dakota Adopts the Flyers
As more and more kids tried hockey, the Fremont Ice Association now had teams at every age group for the first time, then shortly, more than one. With Nebraska and Iowa not having any organized competitive travel/select level youth leagues, South Dakota’s well-structured league offered Fremont, like Sioux Center, Iowa, a place for a set schedule, quality competition, and a State Tournament each year.
“It was great, you would play every team twice at home and on the road,” said Jeremy Smutz, former FIA President and High School coach,. “Then there was a state tournament. The drives were long, but I will always remember those years fondly.”
McInroy was one of dozens of players to play in the South Dakota Amateur Hockey Association League over those few years. Games against a booming hockey market like Sioux Falls, and traditional mainstays Brookings, Rapid City and Watertown, among many other newcomers like Fremont, sharpened the players’ compete level.
While many can debate WHY Fremont was voted out of the league, the history stayed. Teams from Fremont continue to travel north to the Dakotas and Minnesota for the best competition and ice.
Fremont's Bantam B (14U) seen here in 2018, including McInroy fourth from the top left, went 13-2 during the regular season.
High School Hockey
As McInroy hit High School age, it was clear the competition in the South Dakota league had created some of the best hockey players in the Midwest, and numbers of Fremont players at the High School age reached record highs. A couple years prior, the early group of players coming into High School had formed the Fremont Tigers. They were the first team to not be the Flyers in Fremont Ice Association history, and participated in a Omaha Hockey Club League with several other house teams.
By 2018, in addition to the Tigers, the Fremont Flyers JV and Varsity teams entered the Midwest High School Hockey League. The JV team tied for the final berth into the State tournament, losing on a tiebreaker sadly in 2019-2020. The following season was cut short, and High School hockey paused momentarily.
The COVID pandemic created challenges for not only High School hockey but the association as well. Through it, the Tigers remained, and won their league in 2022. The Fremont Flyers JV and Varsity team restarted with Varsity attending its first state tournament in 2022 as well. Despite losing in the first round, the Flyers scored their first goal in tournament history assisted by Fremont’s Jacob Newell. That goal was scored by none other than Parker McInroy.
Incoming freshman Levi Kreikemeier (10U player at the time) stands next to Jacob Newell and Parker McInroy before a Varsity game in 2022. Newell and McInroy connected for Fremont's only varsity goal in State Tournament history to date.
The Tigers host an annual alumni game that features the head coaches as well as many others who return to Fremont and or still play hockey as adults.
Fremont Varsity alum Austin Smutz, seen here in 2025, coaches the Peewee Gold team in 2026 and has coaching aspirations to give back to the program he and his siblings grew up in.
Girls Hockey and Graduations
By 2025, several groups of Tigers and Flyers graduated, many of whom started playing as 6U and 8U at Sidner.
The Tigers coaches, Spencer Sorenson and Brock McQuistan, returned to help their alma mater. Austin Smutz, son of Jeremy noted earlier, began coaching as well. Smutz, whose sister, Aspen, also played, proved one more connection to a growing Fremont phenomenon. Girls players.
In 2025, the first-ever all girls hockey day was hosted at Sidner Ice Arena. In 2023, in cooperation with the Omaha Lady Lancers, Fremont hosted its first-ever all girls game. In addition, the Flyers have graduated several players to AAA and collegiate level recently, including Kyan Wyle (Madison Capitals AAA), Lauren Koborg (Windy City Storm AAA), and Calie Peterson (Hamline University Division III), who of course, played with McInroy as a Flyer in peewee.
The Fremont Ice Association, in conjunction with a private donor, hosted the first GIRLS ONLY Hockey Day on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, at the Sidner Ice Arena in Fremont.
Calie Peterson, Hamline University
Kyan Wyle, Madison Capitols 19UAAA
Lauren Koborg, Windy City Storm 19UAAA
Midland and College Players
Which leads us to the end. Or maybe the beginning?
McInroy, is one of three former Fremont Flyers on the Midland University Warriors ACHA Division I team, who upset No, 7 Jamestown in January, and is in his first season with the team. He has two goals and six assists, including one helper in the upset win at home.
His coach, Jan Dam, also is a former Flyer. A coach, director, power skating, and if it called for it, zamboni driver when he first came to Midland.
“I did whatever I could to help out and be part of it when my playing days were over. I was helping assistant coach Midland and I saw kids in Fremont needing help knowing how to turn, use their edges, and handle the puck.
“We had to create a hockey culture. It’s never-ending work but it is work worth working for. Parker is just one of many. Even if you don’t play college. Just playing hockey teaches you the commitment and dedication that will help you in life later on.”
Midland University ACHA Division I Head Coach Jan Dam began as a skating and hockey development instructor as well as Assistant at Midland. He then coached High School and now is head coach, who sometimes gives back by running a youth practice or two.
The Next 20 Years
With eleven seniors moving on from the Fremont Ice Association this season. That means we need at minimum 11 new skaters next season. Let’s share this history, continue to promote the game, and grow the sport to help the Fremont Ice Association, Sidner Ice Arena, the community of Fremont, and this burgeoning program be something everyone can come back to and say, this is truly, #HockeytownNebraska.