Anyone’s a star at Everett’s rink

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Inside my head, I am Michelle Kwan. I am Sarah Hughes and Kristi Yamaguchi and Nancy Kerrigan. I am every graceful ice princess ever to skate to stardom, with the exception of the badly behaved Tonya Harding.

That’s inside my head. From the outside — and if you spied me Saturday at the Everett Events Center community rink you know this — I am no better than a passable skater.

In jeans, a sweater and brown rented skates, I made my way around the ice with the fair-to-middling crowd. I wiped out once, wounding nothing but my pride.

You get the picture. Whatever’s in my head, I am no Michelle Kwan.

Know what? It doesn’t matter that I can’t skate like a dream. What matters is, I can skate — in Everett.

"We’re so happy to have a rink in town," said Robin Ahmann of Marysville. I spotted Ahmann at a public skating session Tuesday. An awesome skater, she glides at three times the speed of everyone else on the ice.

"I grew up in upstate New York and Vermont. We had a rink in our backyard," said Ahmann, who was skating with her two children. She was once a competitive figure skater and part of an intramural hockey team.

While Ahmann and I don’t share skating skills (I wish), we do have in common a love of something we did as kids. When I skate, rusty though I am, it takes me back to the frozen Manito Pond in Spokane.

Skating in winter was as everyday an activity as riding bikes the rest of the year. It didn’t matter if my ankles hurt or my hands were numb from cold, I loved it.

On my first outing to the Everett Events Center’s community rink, I saw people of every age and ability getting the chance to love it too.

The NHL regulation 200-foot-by-85-foot ice sheet is adjacent to the main arena and conference center, with an entrance on Broadway. When the main rink is in use, the Everett Silvertips practice on the community ice. There are public sessions daily, with admission ranging from $3.50 to $7, including skate rental.

"It’s wonderful, cheaper than a movie," said 62-year-old Jerry Madary. The Everett man used to skate on a lake near his home in Peekskill, N.Y.

"I think it’s a great thing for Everett," said Dave Demars, who was skating Tuesday with his boys, 4-year-old Zachary and 8-year-old Nicholas. Zachary, Demars said, "is not quite so sure."

Ice rink manager Kyle Wintermute said Tuesday that 1,694 people came to skate in the past week. The rink is averaging around 200 people per session during the holidays.

"We’re seeing a lot of groups, Boys and Girls Clubs, the YMCA, church groups. A lot of people are looking for things to do for the holidays," said Wintermute, who’s also a figure skating teacher.

A new round of figure skating classes starts in January, there are speed skating sessions, and a would-be Wayne Gretzkey will find competitors at early morning and evening pickup hockey games.

"We see dads and kids and guys before work. People really have embraced it," Wintermute said.

"This is a great thing for the city," said Tracey Stark of Mukilteo, who skated Tuesday with sons Matthew, 4, and Ethan, 5.

The family recently moved from Colorado, and already Stark is involved in an adult hockey league and her boys play junior hockey.

On the radio this week I heard Joni Mitchell’s wistful holiday song "River," with its lyrics "Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on." It always makes me homesick, for the past and for the ice.

I can’t be a 12-year-old again, getting my stocking cap swiped by hockey-playing boys on Manito Pond. There’s no going back to the past, but I will be back on the ice.

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.