There’s arguments, backstabbing and sabotage. But there’s also a sense of family, support and team spirit.
Such is the life of a water ski show team, and the storyline in this year’s Lake City Skiers show.
The Warsaw-based water ski show team is heading to national competition this weekend. Community members can catch one last free show Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Hidden Lake, Ind. 15S, behind Smith Tire, before the team heads to Illinois Friday.
The title of this year’s show is “The Lake City Reality Ski Show!”
Keaton Patrick, who has been a member of the ski team for the past 16-17 years, wrote this year’s show and is the show announcer.
“It’s making light of all the stuff that happens out here for the show director, what goes on,” said Patrick during an interview Sunday afternoon before the team’s 6:30 p.m. show.
The announcer in the show is the main character, Patrick said. He has to deal with a myriad of problems, including the old show director undermining him and all the water skiers taking their frustrations to her.
“He can’t go anywhere because he’s on stage,” Patrick said. “He decides to let the old show announcer take over and everything gets better. For the last act of the show, the announcer has to bring everyone together.
“There are different personalities out here, and there will be some bickering, but we think everyone can pull together as a team in the end,” hhe said.
This year’s show is Patrick’s second time for being a show announcer. The last time, Patrick and the sound crew won a award for best announcing and sound.
To get to nationals this weekend, Patrick said the team first competed at regionals at Rock Island, Ill., July 14-15. The Lake City Skiers are Indiana’s only competitive show ski team, according to Patrick.
“We got fifth,” Patrick said. “We would have placed first among teams our size, but the other teams that came in before us were Division I. We did have one of our better shows on the river.”
For the Division II Nationals in Rock Island, Patrick said the team probably will place somewhere in the middle of the pack, between fourth and sixth, out of eight teams scheduled to compete. But, during tournament time, anything is still possible.
“You got to do what you can do and be happy with it,” Patrick said.
There are several highlights in this year’s ski show, he said. Matt Gudeman flips on the air chair, there’s some good wakeboard tricks and the final pyramid is the ultimate form of teamwork and trust, he said.
On the team this year are about 17 new members.
“They’ve all been working hard to get themselves into the acts,” Patrick said. “They should do well. We have to use two boats to pull all the new members.”
Club President John Good said the Lake City Skiers is a young but energetic and confident team this year. “I feel pretty good,” he said.
“We went back to basics. It’s a rookie team, the same as any rookie team, but the enthusiasm is energetic. Lots of energy,” he said.
Three of the new members are Merle Miller, 17; Omar Hochstettler, 18; and Jerry Graber, 18. They all had similar reasons for joining this year.
“Just for something to do and I thought it looked like fun,” said Miller. “It’s more fun than I figured it to be.”
Hochstettler said he joined “for fun, just to have fun. I like the water.”
Learning to ski hasn’t been as difficult as he expected.
“Not too bad. Pretty simple once you got it figured out,” Hochstettler said.
Of the national competition, Graber said, “I’m looking forward to it. Go out and have fun.”
In time, Graber said he wants to learn to do barefooting, strap, doubles and everything else.
Lake City Skiers will compete at 10 a.m. Sunday at nationals.
“I think it will be pretty good if we get the details right,” Good said. “We can come home champions.”
As for the results of regionals, he said, “We were average as average could be. Nothing to blame it on, just the way the score fell.”
A big part of the LCS are the sponsors.
“We are just always thankful for the local support and the sponsors who support us every year,” Good said.
Patrick said the Lake City Skiers are always accepting new members. Interested people are invited to come out to practices at Hidden Lake Wednesday and Thursday, from about 5 to 7 p.m.
For more information about the water ski show team, visit the team’s website at www.lakecityskiers.org
For clips of Sunday’s performance, visit the Times-Union website at www.timesuniononline.com and check out the video section.
