OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — We’ve been following the Bluhawk development for years. Now, the sports park is open to thousands of athletes and visitors.
Many kids grow up with the idea of being a professional athlete, like 16-year-old Alexis Snyder, who dreamed of being a figure skater.
“It's a really neat dream to have, and I try to train as hard as I can every day,” Snyder said.
She spends at least five days a week at the rink, even doing virtual schoolwork in the AdventHealth Sports Park arcade.
“There's also a really nice, good lobby with nice lighting ... a very good place to do school,” Snyder said.
Snyder's coach, Sharon Brilliantine, said that kind of dedication takes a special athlete.
“It's quite a commitment if you really want to make it,” Brilliantine said. “Takes a lot of work and a lot of guts.”
Brilliantine coaches Alexis and many other young athletes with a new interest in the sport.
“We’re having a lot of new interests. We have like 500 kids in our Learn To Skate school,” Brilliantine said.
She gives some credit to the new rink at Bluhawk.
“We’ve seen a lot of the former skaters I haven’t seen for years now that we’re in here come back,” Brilliantine said.
Snyder's interest in figure skating goes back to when she was a little girl. Now, as a teenager who placed seventh in the Midwest last year, she hopes her next stop is nationals.
“I am training to try to make it to nationals next year,” said.
There’s beauty and resilience in the sport, especially after the Washington, D.C. plane crash took the lives of 28 members of the close-knit community.
“They learn it's kind of a community here,” Brilliantine said.
Well on her way to landing her last few senior-level skills, Snyder is using the foundations she's learned to look to the future.
“The feeling of flying across the ice is unlike any other,” she said. “I just want to try to skate as long as I can, and I want to try to do as well as I can at home. And then, just kind of see where skating takes me.”
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KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas. Share your story idea with Olivia.
