The owner of just moved to Lake City; so when he saw a group of people outside of his restaurant slapping pucks into an old net, he was inspired to help them out.
“It’s cold, so what better do we have to do beside get out here and skate and have a good time?” Nathen Norman says.
Since Norman’s high school travel hockey days ended, he says he doesn’t get many opportunities to get out on the ice.
“I love ice hockey and unfortunately the closest place to play is Cadillac, we don’t have anything here since I graduated high school,” he said.
So Norman and a group of his buddies decided to clear some ice on Lake Missaukee and make their own team.
“I put it on social media, put it out there for the neighborhood and said hey, if anyone wants to come play we have five or six guys, let’s see how it turned out,” Norman says.
grabbed Luke Hammer’s attention. He owns Hammer’s Pub and Grub, which sits right in front of Norman’s ice hockey rink
Norman says, “At first he reached out and said I need to talk to you, it’s about the ice and your net behind where his location is and I thought man this ain’t good.”
But Hammer had a different plan in mind.
“I walk back here and I’ve seen the net, the net looked like it was in pretty rough shape, so I just decided to donate two nets to his cause and to the community so that people could come out here and have a good time,” Hammer says.
A small gift Norman says the community can enjoy for years to come.
“I hope this gets people together, you know, there’s not much to do it seems in small towns,” Norman says. “If people can come together and play hockey, which in my opinion the greatest sport, it’s awesome.”
You can usually find Norman playing hockey on Lake Missaukee Friday nights. He says everyone is welcome to join in the fun.
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