America has long been fond of quad-wheeled roller skates. From being worn in “skating marathons” around city streets in the 1930s, to later serving as footwear for waitresses in diners across the country in the 1950s. However, roller skates were a pastime long before that: a photo from 1917 was found of a young woman roller skating past suffragists protesting President Woodrow Wilson’s White House.

The country was ready when inline skates arrived in the 1980s, a modernized style with two to five wheels arranged in a single line. By the early ‘90s almost every neighborhood in North America had a pair of rollerblades. By 2000, 22 million Americans were wearing rollerblades at least once a year. In contrast, only about 17 million Americans claimed they played baseball that same year. 

At BHS, we have our own little crew of rollerblading teachers, and it all started with art teacher Becky Weaver. She loved blading in high school and in college. She attended college in Indianola, Iowa, and frequently bladed a great paved trail there. However, sometime after college she lost her blades.

“Last Spring I thought it would be really fun to get back into and, luckily, convinced Sunny Allen and Autumn Weiss to join me,” Weaver said. “We bought rollerblades and protective gear and gave it a go.”

English teacher Sunny Allen also enjoyed the idea of blading. 

“Roller Derby always looked so fun and I wanted to try it, but was never brave enough,” Allen confessed. “When Mz. Weaver asked if anyone wanted to try rollerblading, I was the first to say yes. I was also the first to fall…hard.”

A teacher at Osage and a friend of Weaver’s, Colleen Stucky, is also a part of their crew.

“Becky Weaver– what a lady,” Stucky exclaimed. “She had me come to Lawrence to try out blading and it was great.”

Weiss, a counselor at BHS, agreed when Weaver and Allen started blading and invited her to join them. All of them claim to really enjoy rollerblading, besides the occasional stick or big hill. They say it’s a great way to relieve stress and is always a good exercise. 

Allen says they usually blade the paved trails in Lawrence. Back in October they all took a trip to Iowa and bladed the High Trestle Trail, which is 25 miles long. Weaver is great at looking for new trails for them to blade on and enjoys planning trips around them. 

“We’ve been looking at trails in Minnesota,” Allen said. “In September they close the highway down for a marathon, which I think sounds fun. I also want to take my blades to Utah when I visit family this summer. There’s a long, paved, fairly flat trail that I’ve walked, ran and biked and now I’d like to blade it.”

They each have their own goals for how they want to improve their blading.

“My goal is to just get better all around,” Weiss stated.

“I’m more about learning how to stop or turn than speed,” Allen explained. “However, if we want to do the marathon, I need to improve my mile time.”

Their blading crew goes for distance over speed, considering the painful road rash going too fast could result in. They all trust each other and are an unbeatable team when it comes to friendship.

“They are the best,” Weiss said. “They push me to go harder and further than I believe I can and then cheer me on to help me get there. We poke fun at ourselves and each other, but we definitely have each other’s back. I wouldn’t do it without them.”

“Oh man, I am so glad to have this rollerblading crew,” Stucky said. “Being from out of town, it is nice to have a group to meet up with and just have fun.”

“It’s pretty much the best blading crew ever,” Allen said. “We support and encourage each other with inside jokes, pep talks and a little tough love. It feels good to know they’ve got my back, once they’ve stopped laughing.”

This rollerblading crew manages to teach class after class of students from Monday to Friday, and still have the energy to go blading when they get the time.