WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Bay State Games are set to host the 35th annual Winter Games in the Berkshires in 2020.
The Bay State Winter Games have been held in the Berkshire region each year since 1985 except for one year because of funding. The Winter Games expects to attract hundreds of athletes and families to the Berkshire region to compete in sports like figure skating and masters ice hockey.
The 2020 Figure Skating competition will take place Jan. 3-5, 2020, at Williams College. This is the earliest the competition has ever been held in Bay State Games history. This competition will feature more than 400 skaters from Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Skaters ranging in age from 5 to older than 65 represent the U.S. Figure Skating Association or the International Skating Institute.
Highlights for this upcoming competition include the reinstatement of the Bay State Skate Show on Saturday, Jan. 4. Gold medalists from certain events will skate in this exhibition show. The figure skating competition will begin on Friday evening with the short programs. This event will also serve as a qualifier for the 2021 State Games of America to be held in Ames and Des Moines, Iowa. All medal winners will receive an invitation to compete at the 2021 State Games of America.
"We are thrilled to be hosting the Bay State Games again in 2020," says Sue Briggs, executive director of the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce. "The games bring an incredible group of up-and-coming athletes from all over Massachusetts, to our small corner of the state. We look forward to welcoming them and their families into our community in January."
Masters Ice Hockey will take place Feb. 28 to March 1, 2020 in North Adams at the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Skating Rink. Bay State Games is expecting eight to 10 teams to register with the tournament, some of whom have participated in every Bay State Winter Games thus far.
Registration for both figure skating and masters ice hockey is ongoing. For more details and links to online registration, go to www.baystategames.org. For questions, contact info@baystategames.org or 781-932-6555.
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Williams Seeking Town Approval for New Indoor Practice Facility
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week gave Williams College the first approval it needs to build a 55,000-square foot indoor athletic facility on the north side of its campus.
Over the strenuous objection of a Southworth Street resident, the board found that the college's plan for a "multipurpose recreation center" or MRC off Stetson Road has adequate on-site parking to accommodate its use as an indoor practice facility to replace Towne Field House, which has been out of commission since last spring and was demolished this winter.
The college plans a pre-engineered metal that includes a 200-meter track ringing several tennis courts, storage for teams, restrooms, showers and a training room. The athletic surface also would be used as winter practice space for the school's softball and baseball teams, who, like tennis and indoor track, used to use the field house off Latham Street.
Since the planned structure is in the watershed of Eph's Pond, the college will be before the Conservation Commission with the project.
It also will be before the Zoning Board of Appeals, on Thursday, for a Development Plan Review and relief from the town bylaw limiting buildings to 35 feet in height. The new structure is designed to have a maximum height of 53 1/2 feet and an average roof height of 47 feet.
The additional height is needed for two reasons: to meet the NCAA requirement for clearance above center court on a competitive tennis surface (35 feet) and to include, on one side, a climbing wall, an element also lost when Towne Field House was razed.
The Planning Board had a few issues to resolve at its March 12 meeting. The most heavily discussed involved the parking determination for a use not listed in the town's zoning bylaws and a decision on whether access from town roads to the building site in the middle of Williams' campus was "functionally equivalent" to the access that would be required under the town's subdivision rules and regulations.
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