Shawano eager to host national championships

Bringing event to Smalley Park was several year process
By: 
Morgan Rode
Sports Editor

Shawano is eager to host its first ever national championship, an event that took several years to prepare for and bring to the Shawano Ski Sharks show site.

The Division 2 Show Ski National Championships will be held Aug. 6-8 on the Wolf River, with fans scattered across Smalley Park to watch the action on the water.

The process of bringing a national championship to Shawano first began about 10 years ago, according to Brad Keuschel, a member of the Ski Sharks. Keuschel recalled telling team president Dave Passehl that one day he’d help bring nationals to Shawano.

The first step to getting their site to align with national guidelines was to move it. The Ski Sharks remained at Smalley Park but moved a couple blocks north to avoid the Wolf River Beach and create a bit more room between ski shows and the Green Bay Street bridge.

The next thing the site needed was to be able to hold at least 1,000 spectators at a single time and also have a place to park hundreds of cars. The Ski Sharks have both of those things, and with improved seating areas, a new pavilion and a city willing to host, the site was ready for a national championship.

The call making the dream of Shawano hosting a championship a reality came in November 2019. After several more months of prep, Smalley Park is now ready to showcase its site.

A curveball was thrown after the pandemic eliminated some of last year’s national championship — which typically only last two days — so Smalley Park was asked to host for an additional day. Shawano accepted and will now host “probably one of the largest Division 2 nationals in a long time,” said Keuschel.

“There’s a lot of excitement about it. It’ll be great when everybody gets here and we get to stand back and look at it,” said Keuschel.

Keuschel said they are tentatively expecting to bring in 1,500-2,000 visitors during the three-day event.

While competition on the water runs Friday through Sunday, the site will also see action Thursday as teams and individuals can practice. Tournament officials will meet at 6 p.m. that night.

The national championship will officially kick off at 8 a.m. Friday when individual competition begins.

There will be a swivel 180, swivel pairs 360, swivel pairs open, strap doubles intermediate, swivel 360 and freestyle jump intermediate exhibitions that day along with strap doubles, swivel and freestyle opens. Several Ski Shark members will be competing.

The duos of Carsten McHugh and Jessa Jochman and Kylie Wallace and Brad Keuschel will compete in the strap doubles open competition. Faith McHugh will take part in the swivel 360 exhibition before Carsten McHugh hits the water for the freestyle open.

Friday will be capped with a mandatory team meeting at 6 p.m. with the chief judge at the site’s pavilion. Paperwork check in will also be completed then.

Saturday will have five of the championship’s nine teams in action, with the Ski Sharks taking the water third. The Ski Broncs (Loves Park, Illinois), Shermalot (Nekoosa), Five Seasons (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) and the Badwater Ski-ters (Spread Eagle) round out the teams competing.

The other four teams will compete on Sunday. Silver Lake (Fenton, Michigan), Ski Sprites (Altoona), Plum Ski-ters (Sayner) and the Muskego Water Bugs (Muskego) are the teams in action.

Following Friday’s individual competitions and Sunday’s second day of team competitions, award ceremonies will follow.

“It’s a great atmosphere,” said Keuschel on what first-time water ski fans can expect to see over the three-day championships. “It’s one of the only sports where the other teams are constantly cheering each other on. The water ski community in general is one big family. There’s going to be hundreds of people here watching each other.”

Keuschel added that anyone who has taken in a Ski Sharks’ show and thought it was a big production should come check out some of the other teams in action, as there will be even bigger rosters in attendance.

When some of the larger teams are competing, Keuschel believes around 1,000 people could be looking on, so the usual seating areas, plus additional bleachers and the hills and any other areas with views of the water will also be covered.

After teams are done competing, a 30-minute break will be taken before the next team takes the water, at which time fans can check out some of the ski and food vendors that will be on site.

“We worked really, really hard to get to this point,” said Passehl. “The expectation was that we would be able to host tournaments here. We know what it does for the communities that it’s been in in the past and that’s really what we wanted to bring here. The investment that we have in Smalley Park is now going to really see what we did it for.

“Clearly our weekly shows are wonderful, there are huge crowds and we fill up Smalley Park and that’s great, too, but when we can bring 1,000 spectators in to Shawano on just a weekend, we’re pretty proud of that. So yeah, super excited and we’re looking forward to having all these teams from around several states showcased here and hopefully the community comes out and enjoys it.”

Keuschel added that the hope is to host as many national championships in the coming years as possible.

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