SW Figure Skating Club prepares for annual Ice Show this weekend

Photo by Samantha Davis. The Southwest Figure Skating Club rehearses its coaches routine Wednesday night at Red Baron Arena for its annual Ice Show on Saturday.
MARSHALL — The Southwest Figure Skating Club will be taking the ice at the Red Baron Arena with a variety of routines through a country theme for its 29th annual Ice Show on Saturday.
The show, titled “Skating Through Music City,” will consist of six solos and several group routines to follow along with a mix of current and traditional country music hits.
“It (the show this year) just has a little bit more variety. We have little kids, we have our advanced skaters, we’ve got the community, we’ve got guests coming in and we have the coaches doing something fun,” Skating director and coach Jodi Schreurs said. “We’ve also never done a country theme before, so it’s really fun to do something different.”
The six soloists will be from five members of the club, and figure skater guest from Madison, S.D., Abigail Ingham.
Ingham will be performing to “Austin” by Dasha, and comes from the Sioux Falls Figure Skating Club. She has been skating for 11 years, and has already collected a plethora of achievements in her early career at 15 years old.
Ingham is a two-time gold medalist with the United States Figuring Skating organization, for skating skills and solo-free dance. She also competes at the gold level for the Ice Sports Industry and the pre-silver level for U.S. Figure Skating.
“We always do a guest skater every year, like from the cities, and this is the first time we’ve got one from Sioux Falls,” Schreurs said. “It’s always fun for the kids to see somebody that gets to spend a lot of time on the ice.”
Ingham made the trip to Marshall Wednesday night for the club’s final practice before the show. She will be performing a modern solo on Saturday.
When it comes to being a first-time guest skater, Igham said she’s looking forward to “watching everybody else.”
SW Figure Skating Club has welcomed over 200 skaters since it first began in 1996. This year’s lone senior Lily Wiese will be taking the ice for a final time on Saturday during her high school career.
Wiese is a senior at Russell-Tyler-Ruthton and has been with the club for 13 years, and first started skating at 5 years old.
Prior to the club’s exhibition performance in January, Weise began reflecting on her senior season. She said she’s enjoyed working and helping coach the younger skaters, and her favorite part of the sport is spirals, spins and perfecting her footwork.
“We have different groups. There’s the preschool kids, which are so cute. We actually have two boys and two girls this year,” Schreurs said about Saturday’s show in addition to the solo and group routines. “Then, we’re doing a coach’s number, and we’ve never done that before … We’re doing it to “I Had Some Help” from Post Malone and Morgan Wallen.”
There will be a family and friends segment during the show as well, and overall over 40 participants. The club has been practicing their routines since the middle of January.
“We also do trivia during the show, because a lot of custom changes have to happen,” Schreurs said. “We also use the (big) screen. It’s really cool, because it’s almost like following a movie … We have a spotlight crew that comes and they set it up, from South Dakota.”
The Ice Show will take place at 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Red Baron Arena. Tickets can be bought at the door, and are $10 for adults, $5 for kids 10 years old and younger, while 3-year-olds and under are free.