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These skilled skaters show the kids how it's done

An old-time pastime carries through a lifetime for a couple who have spent 25 years competing together on the roller rink.

By SHAWNTAYE HOPKINS
Published June 26, 2005

INVERNESS - The roller rink brings to mind middle-schoolers who race in circles, play tag and jive to pop music.

Few can imagine a bunch of 40-somethings hunched over, whizzing past each other.

Now add dancing to the skating and about 30 years of age for the skaters. Some might call that crazy.

But John and Sharon Wadsworth say most kids these days know little about roller skating.

At a recent statewide roller dance competition, the couple - he's 71, she's 68 - glided in unison to the 1950s tune Mr. Sandman.

They matched. He stood tall in a white tux and turquoise cummerbund as he guided her across the rink. She wore a turquoise, skirted one-piece that sparkled with white crystals.

Right foot, left foot, right foot.

Picture ice skating, but on wheels.

He missed a step in the Double Cross Waltz and the couple finished a bit out of sync.

The Wadsworths have participated in roller dance competitions since they met on a rink 25 years ago in Pennsylvania.

They are among 25 or so skate club members who practice for artistic or speed skating competitions at the Roller Barn in Inverness. Participants vary in age, from 2 on up.

Sharon Wadsworth waved the remote control after watching a tape of the most recent competition. She was in her living room, which is decorated with trophies, medals and plaques from roller competitions.

She screeched.

"We would've got second, but he messed up."

The couple placed third in the team skate competition for the veteran's division - 55 and older - at the Florida State Games in Lantana.

Earlier that day, John Wadsworth placed first in the same division for solo dance.

John Wadsworth said his wife has always been a better skater with fancier footwork. He refuses to compete against her in the solo competition, which is open to men and women.

Sharon Wadsworth didn't argue, not only saying that she skates better, but that she wears knee and elbow pads only when skating with her husband.

It was 1980. John Wadsworth visited a rink in Canonsburg, Pa., near his hometown of Charleroi. He skated for fun.

Sharon, who lived in Uniontown, soon approached with a few pointers.

Neither had ever competed.

Sharon Wadsworth was advancing through various levels of a skill test. She had tired of skating in circles and wanted a challenge. She wanted to skate backward, learn cross-behinds and turns.

Both were searching for a pastime.

After the two completed an achievement test, their coach asked if they'd like to compete.

Slightly hesitant, they agreed.

But there was a catch.

"Now, you got to learn how to skate," the coach said.

Perplexed, John and Sharon wondered exactly what they had been doing for three months.

But competitive skaters were much more advanced.

The first competition almost didn't happen. When Sharon saw the crowd, she grew shy and nervous.

She refused to join the other skaters for the first warmup lap around the rink, so John Wadsworth began removing his cufflinks and tie.

But, still unsure, she decided to try the second warmup.

On the rink, people cheered.

"They're clapping for us," she said.

"Well, we're good," John Wadsworth said.

They placed second in a division for skaters ages 35 and older.

The next competition required traveling and an overnight hotel stay. John Wadsworth refused to stay in a hotel with a woman not his wife. The couple had young children from previous marriages and zero-tolerance for premarital "hanky panky."

So, John Wadsworth proposed.

The couple wed six weeks later just outside the city where the competition was held. They were married on a Friday. The competition began Saturday. They took their turn to skate on Sunday.

Remembering the first competition, John Wadsworth says they were only beginners and not really that talented. But Sharon Wadsworth hasn't been as nervous since.

In 1988, the couple placed 11th of 28 groups at a national competition of the U.S. Amateur Roller Skating Association.

They waltz, tango, cha-cha and polka.

Skating teaches kids self-esteem, Sharon Wadsworth said. They can set goals and be proud of their accomplishments.

But the couple sees artistic skating fading these days. They have expressed to skating organization officials a need for the sport to be included in the Olympics.

As an Olympic sport, roller skating would flourish, John Wadsworth said. But he believes a lack of structure within roller skating organizations has caused the sport to be overlooked.

Children who succeed at world roller competitions would have something to aspire to next, Sharon Wadsworth said. And she believes those kids who skate in circles might begin to take the sport seriously.

"We love the sport, and we want to see it grow," John Wadsworth said.

The retirees came to Florida permanently in 1999 after living in West Virginia, where they created and coached at a skating academy.

John Wadsworth is retired from a power plant in Pennsylvania, where he worked in electronics. He now writes religious books and operates a religious Web site.

He took roller skating lessons while in the military.

Sharon Wadsworth, a retired skate coach, makes men's and women's skating outfits for herself, husband and other members of the skate club. A spare bedroom in her home is cluttered with crushed velvet, spandex and polyester in vibrant colors and prints.

She lines most women's skating outfits with crystals.

John Wadsworth admits he's a klutz when dancing without skates. But he's confident and suave on the rink.

During Wednesday's skate club practice, 88-year-old Theda Harold of Ocala sat quietly at a table watching skaters on the rink and listening to members share stories about the club with a reporter.

Finally, interrupting the conversation in progress, she pointed toward the rink and spoke softly, but clearly.

"You know, I started this," she said.

Harold's daughter, Cynthia Noland, 67, and grandson, Jerry Peterson, 49, are coaches with the skate club, which started in 1997.

Noland of Ocala has competed in roller skate competitions since she was 14. She got her first pair of skates from her grandmother on her 13th birthday. When she married in the early 1950s, her parents bartered their fishing resort in Indiana for a skating rink.

Harold's three daughters, including Noland, learned to skate. Noland taught her children, including Peterson, who has coached since the 1970s.

Like she said, Harold started it.

Harold skated on sidewalks as a child. But these days her skates are reserved for special occasions like her 89th birthday in July, for which she plans to revisit the skating floor at the Roller Barn.

The skate club consists of two groups: The Citrus Rollers, for artistic skating; and Rolling Thunder, for speed skating. Speed skaters also learn artistic skating, which includes dance, figure skating, freestyle and creative solo.

Lessons start at $2 each.

The skate clubs, which are nonprofit organizations, meet from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Sundays, from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and 6 to 9 a.m. on Saturdays.

The Roller Barn is at 1740 U.S. 41 N.

On Wednesday, Peterson of Ocala stood alongside a talkative 4-year-old who appeared to roll mostly effortlessly on his skates. Peterson also recalls teaching an 81-year-old woman to skate backward.

"It's something that all ages can do," he said. "You can start from a young age all the way up, and continue."

[Last modified June 26, 2005, 00:33:18]