Learn to Skate students go for gold at 4th annual program showcase

Crown Point Athletics brought a bit of the Winter Games to Bulldog Park on February 21 during its fourth annual Learn to Skate showcase at the Timothy Grzych Ice Rink. The showcase is a fun conclusion to the Learn to Skate program, letting participants show off their skills in a family friendly and encouraging environment.

“It’s just something fun. They get to put together the skills from their classes to music and kind of perform it,” Learn to Skate Instructor Sara Rhoades said.

This year’s showcase was themed after the Olympic Winter Games, with students skating solo and group performances showcasing the skills they’ve developed during the five week Learn to Skate class. Since the Grzych Ice Rink opened in 2018, Rhoades has seen participation in the program skyrocket.

“This program has been the largest. I think we had just under 200 kids, and I think that first year we had maybe 15. And just this ice show alone, it’s doubled in size since last year,” Rhoades said.

Rhoades, who has over 30 years of skating experience, understands how stressful ice skating can be. Limited opportunity for practice coupled with a pressure-filled environment can lead many to bounce off of the sport. Crown Point Athletics’ Learn to Skate program helps students of all abilities find their love for skating in a fun and low-stakes way.

Every year, Rhoades has the pleasure of seeing her students grow to enjoy a sport they can pursue for the rest of their lives.

“It’s incredible. It makes it all worth it. It’s a little special here, because the skating world can be a very competitive, very cutthroat world, and here, I think I’ve tried to promote an environment where we’re all friends, we’re all a team, we’re all working together, and it’s not about who’s better, it’s more about what can we do together,” Rhoades said.

The showcase was free to attend for friends, family, and community members. If you’d like to try your hand at skating yourself, check out the ice rink’s open skate calendar. The ice rink will be open through March 1, weather permitting.

“Here in Indiana, there’s not a lot of rinks around. So having this here, it’s amazing. I’ve been trying to get them to put in a year round rink, an indoor rink, so that we can skate all the time,” Rhoades said.

With winter coming to a close, Crown Point Athletics is currently accepting registration for its spring and summer softball leagues. Find out more about current programming at cityofcrownpointpaceathletics.leagueapps.com.To learn more about the City of Crown Point, visit www.crownpoint.in.gov.