Emerson Club Looks For The Perfect Balance
Fifth-grader Alyssa Belko gets some help from another club member as she tries to find the right balance that will allow her to ride solo.
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Concentration, balance, perseverance, courage. These are just a few of the qualities you need to be a member of one of the more unique clubs in the Lakewood Schools: the Emerson Unicycle Club.
About 25 students meet each week after school to try to master this unusual skill. A visit to one of the practice sessions reveals that some have got it down pat while others are still snugly attached to the wall waiting for a spotter to help them along.
Coach Don Reis is joined by a number of parents and Emerson teacher/adviser Meg Fox to help the club members who are just starting out to get their “legs” under them. It seems it’s all about balance.
“I tell the kids your arms are your best balance and that they have to find their ‘happy speed,’” or the place where their body is comfortable atop the slender bike and falls into balance, said Reis. It can take a beginner at least a hundred times before they get it just right.
You can bet there is quite a bit of falling when someone first starts out. But the kids seem to take it all in stride.
“The first couple of times are scary because you don’t know how it will feel to fall, but once you fall a few times, it’s OK,” said one student new to the club this year.
The club has a long history that started at the former Taft Elementary School when teacher Colleen Feighan got the wheel rolling 15 years ago. When Feighan was ready to step down, it was only natural that Reis, who was an assistant with the club at the time and had two children at Taft, would take over. Reis was not only familiar with the club, but was a top-notch unicyclist who had performed across the Midwest and East Coast in parades and bowl games as part of the St. Helen’s Unicycle Drill Team that was based in Newbury Township, Ohio, when he was a kid. Reis knew he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to teach a sport he loved to eager young elementary students.
Feighan’s initial fund-raising efforts with the club helped stock it with the equipment, including four sky cycles (5-foot tall unicycles). Since then, donations from the Emerson PTO have helped the club manage to have a unicycle for everyone to practice with each week. Many club members learn to enjoy the activity so much that they end up asking parents for a unicycle of their very own to practice with at home. An average unicycle costs about $90, according to Reis.
After honing their skills all year long in their weekly hour-long practices, the club gets to showcase its members’ talent during the Fourth of July Parade, in which the club rides each year and has won past awards as “Best Cycle” in the parade.
At least one club member understands that what Emerson has in the unicycle club is something special: “It’s good to have the opportunity to ride a unicycle because most elementary schools don’t have one,” said fifth-grader Alyssa Belko. “I know it will be a lifelong skill.”