DOOR COUNTY (NBC 26) — For one Sturgeon Bay family, hockey is more than a game. They’ve built a front yard rink where their daughter practices almost every night, dreaming of the Olympics.
Watch below to learn more about how the home-made ice rink came to be:
Her dad, Cal Lautenbach, grew up in Sturgeon Bay, spending his winters playing rec-league outdoor hockey and falling in love with the sport from a young age.
"That was mostly pick-up hockey. They had organized games on the weekends," Lautenbach said.
After spending years away, he and his wife moved back to Door County, settling in Fish Creek—only to discover the hockey league he loved as a kid was gone.
"We were bored in the winter, so I wanted something to do. I made a little rink up there," Lautenbach said.
Eventually, the family moved back to Sturgeon Bay, welcomed a daughter, and built another rink to share their love of hockey with her.
With the Winter Olympics approaching, his daughter, Grace, has already been showing curiosity about the big games.
"It's funny because she was just asking me about the Olympics recently. I had to tell her, and she goes, 'Oh, that's really cool,'" Lautenbach said.
At just six years old, Grace has been on the ice practically since she could walk.
"[It got] more funner," Grace said.
She plays hockey in Green Bay and is already dreaming big.
"I wanna go to the Olympics one day," Grace said.
Cal hopes to start a rec league one day, giving more local kids like his daughter a chance to play hockey close to home. Even with two public ice rinks in the county, he says he still wants to see more opportunities for children to get involved in winter sports throughout Door County.
