Lake Minnetonka Skating Club celebrates 50 years
Celebrating 50 years at Lake Minnetonka Skating Club
The Lake Minnetonka Skating Club is celebrating 50 years open. FOX 9's Leah Beno has the story.
MINNETONKA, Minn. (FOX 9) - For the Lake Minnetonka Figure Skating Club, the annual spring performance always gives skaters a chance to show off their sharpest skills. This year, celebrating five decades since the club started, is part recital, part reunion.
"It's like I transported back into time," says Gretchen Austin. Austin started skating at the club when she was three and now is part of the longtime coaching staff. "I look on the other side and some of my old skating friends are getting skates on. So to be on the ice with everybody during this experience has been mind-blowing."
Who makes it possible?
What we know:
Although the one person who has been lacing up at the Lake Minnetonka Ice Arena the longest is the skate school director and head coach, Carol Timm, coaching since 1974 when the club started.
"I was never going to teach skating. I was going to be a math teacher, but I just never left. I stayed here instead," says Timm.
As a United States gold medalist herself, Timm has spent the last 50 years coaching skaters that have won state titles, gone on to sectionals and nationals. She also coached Jill Trenary, who was in the 1980 Olympics. Thousands of skaters follow her guidance on and off the ice.
60 alumni returning to skate
What they're saying:
"I love Carol," says Amy Sundell, who started skating with the club in 1976. "She's been the director for decades and decades and I still skate, and I see her every week, and she's just such a large part of the community here."
Timm’s legacy is a large part of the reason 60 alumni skaters returned this year for the biggest spring show yet. A homecoming for skaters from as far away as Los Angeles who didn't want to miss an opportunity to relive their youth.
"This has been a real trip," says Amanda Griffel. "We've been practicing this alumni number and just hearing my old coach on the microphone, and we're doing the same moves, and sometimes I'm just like, ‘what year is it?’"
For many skaters, still loving this lifelong sport, this was a unique chance to feel like a kid again.
"This is home, yeah, absolutely. So many memories here," says Austin.
Dig deeper:
More information about the club can be found here.