Ski Sharks perform first summer show

Shawano bringing circus to water
By: 
Morgan Rode
Sports Editor

The Shawano Ski Sharks performed their first show of the summer on June 7 at Smalley Park on the Wolf River, debuting their new theme “Ski Sharks Save the Circus.”

A solid crowd was on hand to watch the team’s first show, which was put together by Jack, Ryan and Sam Strachan.

The brothers’ show is all about taking a circus and putting it on the water. As the theme implies, the skiers are doing their best to keep the circus going by entertaining and getting more fans in the seats.

“This year, (fans) can expect a lot more of an actual show — you can see all of our props here,” said Ryan Strachan. “Still the good skiing on the water but we’re going to bring (the show) to the land more too, especially with the circus — we can do a lot of cool circus stuff like juggling, and I don’t know if we brought our unicycle, but eventually we’ll probably be riding that up and down the stage.

“We’ll interact with the crowd a little bit more because we’ll be up right by them doing all sorts of stuff.”

Dave Passehl, the president of the Ski Sharks, said “we expect to put on the highest quality product from day one.” While the timing of some aspects of the show were just a touch off in the first go round, the skiing on the water was top notch.

The team’s pyramids, barefoot skiers and jumpers wowed the crowd, while its ballet lines and swivelers impressed fans in a more laid back fashion. Passehl and Kate Behrend entertained people from the shoreline. The team even had a skier “shot out of a cannon” for one act.

“The No. 1 priority is always our home show,” said Passehl. “Our sponsors pay us to do what we do at our home show, not the tournament. The tournament is one time a year, right? So our No. 1 goal is to entertain here and to put on the best show we can here.”

While the team is all about its home fans, the team also will compete in Wisconsin’s state tournament near the end of July in Wisconsin Rapids. Shawano will compete in Division 2 after placing fourth in that division a year ago.

While the Ski Sharks typically only place behind much larger teams, they still have high expectations when it comes to the state competition, especially knowing they can finish better in Division 2, like they did in 2018 when they took first.

“We just got to ski a clean show. I mean, if we get everything on the board and we ski it through, we’ll probably do pretty good at state,” said Ryan Strachan. “As long as everyone is here at practice, working hard and right when we get to state, we’re ready and in good shape for state, I think we’ll do pretty well.”

The Ski Sharks will continue performing free shows every Wednesday between now and Aug. 16, with pre-show activity beginning at 5:30 p.m. and the show starting at 6 p.m.. The team will also perform on July 2 at 6 p.m. and July 8 at 3 p.m. in conjunction with Shawano Fest.

For more information on the Ski Sharks, their history and their 2023 show theme, visit www.skisharks.org.

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