Big Wheel's Monthly News Letter
March 1998-- Well the words out on next years South Central Region's Competition Schedule courtesy of the recent coaching conference held in Houston last month:
Oct- 98 Holloween Invitational,-- Skate Electric, Austin, TX.
Nov- 98 Thanksgiving Invitational,-- The Forum, Grand Prairie, TX.
Jan- 99 Superbowl Invitational,-- Skateland, Hurst, TX.
Feb- 99 Valentine Invitational,-- Skate Country, Waco, TX.
Mar- 99 Spring Invitational,-- All Star, Plano, TX.
Apr- 99 Easter Invitational,-- Carvel, San Antonio, TX.
May- 99 Pre-Regionals,-- ???????????????????
June-99 South Centrals Regionals,-- Waco Civic Center, Waco, TX.
Aug -99 Nationals,-- War Memorial Auditorium, Syracuse, NY.
Boy, if thats not a full slate, I don't know what is! That's a Competition a month, not counting all of you brave souls that venture to one or more out of region Competitions each year, as well. I guess we better start saving our pennies soon. The dates are not finalized yet, but you should have a pretty good idea of when they will occur based on previous years. As soon as the dates are finalized, we'll have them for ya. On another note, it seems that we are coming down 'the home stretch' of the season already. There is only about 110 days to go until this year's Regionals, wow, time flies! We at Big Wheel are really working hard for the flury of Competitions before Regionals starting this weekend with The Spring Fling at Katy Texas.
With some new events added for fun, like the Merry Mix-up and the Tri-Athelon, The Spring Fling promises to be a blast. Well, We'll tell ya all about it next month, till then......
February 1998-- Words can not express how proud we at Big Wheel are, of our Arts Club. After winning 19 awards last weekend at the Hurst Meet, we were bearly nosed out of winning the High Point Trophy by our sister club, Interskate of Texas. I'll just bet Bubba is smiling form ear to ear up there!!! Way to go Girls!!!! On that note, we would like to thank, Bob, Annelle, and Nelly Anderson of
Hurst Skateland for throwing their usual excellent meet. We enjoyed ourselves very much. Bob even came up with a way to make more money at future meets. He told me that he may start letting the parents in for free, but charge them a dollar every time they leave the rink for whatever reason. Said "he'd make more money that way" (and he's probably right) I think he was kidding, but i'm not sure!!!. We would also like to thank the 'big kids' from The forum, for helping out with the judging at the meet. They could have very easily competed and walked off with a 'slew' of trophies, but chose to volunteer their time instead. Thanks to, Matt, Mel, Misty, Laura, Justin, Barbe, Tiffany,
Kristen, Tonia, Bonnie, Coach Kelly, Coach Debbie, Coach Jerry and all the others who i forgot.
January 1998 --With the Holiday Season now almost behind us, it's time to look at the brand new year in front of us. How long will it be before we ease off of our New Years Resolutions?, hopefully not, but only time will tell. Sadly, we have said goodbye to The Skate Connection here in Arlington, just recently. Opened in the 1940's, the owner just could not keep up the needed repairs with the decreased skating revenues of the 90's. The rink will be missed! Sara Taggi and Victoria Dick, will be representing Big Wheel at The Las Vegas Invitational, in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 16-20, Then Sara and Victoria have to come back and skate the always tough Superbowl Invitational here in Hurst with the rest of our club, just 4 days after they return from Vegas, January 24th & 25th(better eat your Wheaties, ladies). Yours truly, our exalted Web Master, will be adding several new pages to this homepage this month, so come back often and see what I've been up to. I know you will like the additions. On a final note, those of you that know me, know i'm not much on commercial endorsements, especially unsolicited ones, but i have to make an exception here. For several years now, a small group of volunteers working for America On Line
headed up by a fellow skater, Jeanne Noxon (aka skatelady@aol.com) have created a wonderful section in aol's sports area for skating called 'artskate', where skaters from all disciplines can find many enjoyable areas to visit. Just to mention a few things.. there is a free magazine, newsletter, pictures and bio's of skaters all over the country, weekly on line chats, numerous bulletin boards and on and on. it is a must see if you subscribe to aol, and worth buying a subsciption if you don't, it's that good. directions to artskate: from the beginning page of aol, click the 'go to' drop down box, then click on keyword, type in artskate and then hit enter. wahla, your there. enjoy it , its well worth your time. Till next month....
December 1997-- Well, its that time of the year again, the holiday season is upon us. Jack Frost is nippin at your nose and Christmas and Chanuka are just around the corner. Our skaters did very well at the recent Thanksgiving Invitational (see separate link) and will be practicing even harder for our 2 upcoming meets in January. On that note, we would like to congratulate our rinks Elementary Singles Skater, Victoria Dick, for the recent rousing performance of her 'Fiddler On The Roof' Singles Routine. Although she got 4th out of 14, we think she did better than 4th, more importantly, she served notice on this Region, SHE'S BACK. We have another new skater at Big Wheel. Katie Carpenter comes to us from The Forum. She competes in the Standard--Juvenile Division, she mostly does Singles but we are hoping to talk her into getting back into Solo Dance, as well. Welcome Katie!!! Just a reminder, our Sister Rink, Interskate of Texas is putting on its annual Christmas Show on Sunday, December 21st., with a special guest appearence by Jason Cohan, World Class Singles and Pairs Skater. Its a great show and will only set you back $5.00 for a ticket. Call Interskate for more details 972-221-4666.
NOVEMBER 1997--
With the school year's second six week period ending 10/31, that can only mean 2 things---report cards come home on 11/7 and 1/3 of this year's school year is gone already!!!
Our skaters are practicing hard for the up coming Thanksgiving Invitational to be held at The Forum Skating Rink over Thanksgiving Weekend. Those of you who have been around for a while know that this is the first year that The Forum has hosted this event, but Walt, Kelly, Debbie and company always put on a great meet, so we are all looking forward to going.
Kelly Gilmore has recently joined our club. Kelly brings with her 10+ years of competative skating experience. This addition makes Big Wheel a very strong contender in Sophomore Ladies Singles this season. Welcome Kelly, glad to have ya here!!!!
Finally, all Big Wheel Skaters will wear a small black arm band with
the gold letters BH inscribed, at this years competitions, in honor of our clubs founder, the late Floyd Morgan Hamilton ll, known to most of us as Coach Bubba Hamilton. Some others in this Region, who have skated for Coach Hamilton in the past, will also be wearing the arm band. Coach Hamilton passed away on September 3, of this year. Any way, the-the-the-the-thats all for now folks, talk to ya next month.