Lindsay Koepke, from Oroville, gave the first solo skate at last year’s Sun Bowl Skating Club annual performance. (Richard McGuire file photo)
All 51 members of the Sun Bowl Skating Club will hit the ice as another long skating season comes to an end with the club’s annual season-ending public performance.
This year’s performance will take place on Thursday, March 9 at the Sun Bowl Arena, beginning at 6 p.m.
Head coach Andrea Umstaetter said the club’s 44 girls, who range in age from three to 19, and seven boys, are all looking forward to the season-ending show.
“They get more excited the closer we get to the show,” she said. “They all have a million questions for me every day as we get closer, so that’s when I know they are excited.”
The theme for this year’s show is ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’, the No. 1 hit by pop superstar Justin Timberlake that was written for the hit movie Trolls.
“Most of the kids just love music and every single time that song has come on, they go crazy and start dancing and singing, so we thought it would be the perfect song and perfect theme for this year’s show,” said Umstaetter.
There is usually a solid crowd in the stands for the year-end show as parents, grandparents, siblings and friends show up to cheer the skaters on, she said.
Once again, there will not be any admission price, but the skating club will accept donations at the door, she said.
The club ends its winter season with this performance and all of the skaters will get an extended break off the ice, but many will return in early April as the Sun Bowl Skating Club’s annual Spring Skating School will return and run from April 3 to May 4.
Umstaetter, who is wrapping up her sixth year as head coach, said the skaters really put a lot of time and effort into preparing for the season-ending show.
“We try and show off all the skills they have been working on all season and basically everything they’ve done throughout the year is showcased at this show,” she said.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
