Williston's Ice Goes In This Month. Two September Openings Make Hockey and Gymnastics Season Local.

Last winter, how many miles did your family's indoor sports season put on the car? For some families the answer included regular trips to Ray for gymnastics. For hockey families it could mean a trip across the state for goalie equipment. This fall, Williston gained a sporting goods store and a gymnastics studio within days of each other. They opened about a month before the ice goes in at the Raymond Center.

The ice calendar starts October 19

Williston Parks & Recreation has posted that ice installation at the Raymond Center begins October 19, 2026. The Raymond Center is at 1002 11th St. W. Its rink is Pete Conlin Arena. The open skate page says it is coming back for the season and that skating aids are available for beginners. It also encourages helmets. Session times are not posted yet, and the page tells skaters to "stay tuned for details."

These dates are already set:

The Learn to Skate deadline comes first and is the easiest to miss. Registration for the first session closes October 26, a week before the November 7 start. Parks & Rec says on the program page that classes fill quickly. The program has a revised format this year. Each week includes a 15-minute class and up to three hours of supervised practice ice. The first day is an evaluation day for placing skaters in the right class, and the last day of each session is a testing day that decides who moves up.

Organized hockey is getting started too. On October 5, Williston Hockey posted a notice that parent meetings for all teams would happen during tryouts "next week," with each family getting an email with its team's meeting date and time. The club's 2026–27 calendars already show mid-October ice times for its tryout groups at WBSC Agri, 519 53rd St. E.

The gear stop is now on Reiger Drive

Every skater on that calendar needs equipment that fits. That used to be harder to find in Williston. ProZone Sports held its grand opening September 18 in Units 2 and 3 of 433 Reiger Drive, at The Shoppes at Creekside. Co-owners Nick and Jordan Harstad, who are married, opened the store after they and others struggled to find sporting equipment around Williston. The Williston Herald reported that the lack of local options often had athletes traveling hours away. Online ordering helps with some gear but not with equipment that has to be tried on or tested first.

The store is set up around that problem. The tour started at an enclosed area where customers try hockey sticks before buying. ProZone carries other hockey equipment too, including goalie gear that the owners believed couldn't be bought anywhere else in North Dakota except Fargo. Customers can bring in figure skates for sharpening.

Stock changes with the seasons. Baseball equipment was limited at opening because the sport is out of season, and Nick Harstad said the store would add more when baseball returns. The same approach applies to every seasonal sport. In the back, golf has a small turf for testing putters, and customers can bring their own clubs for fitting. A golf simulator for full-swing fittings is still in progress.

"Our goal is for this to become your sports store, and your feedback is going to help us make that happen," Nick Harstad said at the opening. ProZone is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Its website, pro-zonesports.com, offers online ordering for in-store pickup, though some features aren't live yet.

The ice season makes the timing matter. ProZone opened 31 days before ice installation at the Raymond Center, so skates bought for Learn to Skate or hockey tryouts can be sharpened in town.

The gym moved closer, too

Three days before ProZone's ribbon cutting, Acro Stars opened its Williston location at 606 E. Broadway on September 15. The gymnastics and cheerleading program has run in Ray since 2017. It started with about 75 children in the community auditorium and later moved to the Ray Grain Palace on Highway 2, where it still operates.

The Williston location opened because families were already making the trip. "We had the interest," founder and head coach Tanya Hill said. "We have a lot of people trying to drive to our location already." About 120 children had registered before the doors opened. Enrollment is capped for now, and Hill's long-term goal is 200 students at the Williston location. Enrollment across the two locations is now split roughly evenly.

The Williston studio offers:

• Recreational gymnastics
• Toddler programs, plus "Mommy and Me" parent-and-child classes for ages 0 to 3
• Homeschool classes, new to Acro Stars this year after families asked for them
• Recreational and competitive cheerleading

The program serves ages 2 through 18. Competitive gymnastics stays in Ray, so families on that track will still drive. Acro Stars is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It runs mostly on 15 to 20 volunteers, many of them parents of participants, and it hired its first paid employee, a director, in May.

Acro Stars adds to Williston's indoor youth options. It doesn't replace anything here. For families with one child on the ice at the Raymond Center and another in recreational gymnastics, both activities are now in town on the same winter Saturday.

What still involves a drive, or a wait

Some things haven't moved yet:

1. Competitive gymnastics stays at the Ray location.
2. Full-swing golf fittings at ProZone are waiting on the golf simulator the owners are working to get.
3. Open skate times at the Raymond Center aren't posted yet beyond the installation date and Costumes on Ice.
4. Bogey's mini-golf next to Williston Water World is funded, and the latest public record of it is from the lease-and-financing stage. The City of Williston announced STAR Fund support for the project in a July 7, 2026 release, with a Flex PACE request of no more than $45,000. On August 13, the Williston Herald reported that the Flex PACE support had been amended to add $63,000, for a total of $108,000. The WPRD Foundation's August 19 minutes say the board talked about meeting in early September to finalize the lease and financing. The minutes don't list a construction start or opening date.

Between practices and the Saturday rink

The same few weeks brought two more openings that suit indoor-season weekends.

On Main Street, Cooks on Main celebrated its grand reopening with a new Le Creuset Shop on September 25. Founder and owner Angela Skogen opened the store in 2010 and expanded it in 2016. She called the Le Creuset addition a "complete refresh." "We really want to provide top-quality merchandise with the big-city assortments and small-town customer service that Williston and Cooks on Main have really been known for since we opened our doors," she said. The shop carries Dutch ovens, braisers, bread ovens, skillets, rice pots and more. The store is at 224 Main Street, open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. During opening weekend, Chef Tom Hart cooked beef bourguignon in a Le Creuset Dutch oven and baked no-knead bread in a bread oven.

For a quicker meal after practice, Rocky's Burgers, Franks and Fries opened September 14 in Williston Square. It's the chain's third North Dakota location and fills the former Slim Chickens building at 3118 3rd Ave. West.

The October dates to keep

The ice goes in at Pete Conlin Arena on October 19, Learn to Skate registration for Session 1 closes October 26, and Costumes on Ice runs October 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. Skates can be sharpened at ProZone on Reiger Drive, and recreational gymnastics is on East Broadway.

Carla Kemp follows these Williston openings because daily routines are part of what buyers and sellers here want to know. If you're thinking about where your family's winter week starts and ends, or what your current home is worth, reach out to Carla. Get your free home valuation.