The Cathcart Unicyclists practice Friday, May 17 in the gym of Cathcart Elementary School. Everybody rides and practices, and the group of elementary to high schoolers performs in parades.
Jim Scolman
SNOHOMISH — “Line up on the baseline,” coach Sheila Mitchell says. “We’re going down to the end and back.”
Listening outside the gym at Cathcart Elementary School, Mitchell could be instructing a basketball team.
Instead, she’s speaking to more than a dozen young students zipping around the gymnasium on unicycles.
Some riders practice mounting and dismounting. Others hold hands as they circle the floor.
A quartet of older girls try routines on “giraffes” — six-feet tall unicycles — in the center of the gym.
Welcome to weekly practice for the Cathcart Unicycle Club.
Now in its 29th year, the club includes students from fourth grade through high school. Cyclists ride at events such as parades and high school halftimes. Today they are preparing for a May 31 performance at the school carnival.
“It’s a good way to stay active,” said Brenna Klassen, a junior at Glacier Peak High School. “The performances are always really fun.”
Many of the unicyclists are following in the footsteps of older siblings.
Others, such as Avery Uptain, saw the squad practicing and wanted to join.
“I love trying new things,” the sixth grader said. “It’s very, very hard. I practiced in my garage for a long time. I fell so many times, bruised my shins, knees.”
Uptain has now reached skill level two on a 1-to-10 scale designated by the Unicycling Society of America. It includes riding a figure-eight in a 3-meter circle and doing left and right 90-degree turns.
The club has had riders as high as skill level seven, coach Mitchell said.
After they ride the length of the gym, Mitchell instructs the cyclists to split into two groups on opposite sides of the floor.
Partners wheel into the middle of the gym, lock arms and do a “do-si-do weave” before returning to their line, like square dancing on wheels.
A couple of riders fall off. “Why don’t we try that one again?” Mitchell said.
Then they break, practicing individually, while Mitchell huddles with fellow coaches to strategize.
The squad has five coaches, all of whom got involved through their children. Only one can ride a unicycle.
“This doesn’t require any previous experience,” Mitchell said. “We learn as we go.”
Older cyclists help coach, too. All Cathcart alumni are welcome to remain with the club through middle school and high school.
“Young kids are always lots of fun. They get so excited,” Klassen, the GP junior, said.
Sixth grader Nolan Halbert is in his first year with the club.
“I really like it,” he said. “I like anything with wheels — four wheels, three wheels, two wheels.”
Halbert joined at the urging of classmates Logan Swafforn and Nolan Ryan, both second-year riders.
Girls outnumber boys in the club by about three to one. It used to be more equal, said coach Kellie May, who is in her 13th year with the program.
May got drawn in by her daughter, who aged out in 2020. May stayed because of need.
“We don’t have any coaches,” she said. “We all have full-time jobs. We’re trying to get parents to volunteer.”
The club has had as many as 60 participants. This year there are 25.
“This is the 29th year,” May said. “I’d hate for it to not be here.”
Once the coaches finish huddling, practice ends with the whole group practicing a pinwheel routine -- riders swirling around a circle of four giraffe cyclists in the middle of the gym.
Several riders fall; others turn too wide and break linked hands.
There is only one more practice before the next performance, but coach May isn’t worried.
“I’m in awe every time I see them ride,” she said. “They nail it every time.”
The unicyclists demonstrate a “Cinderella” move where one rides between the arms of two others.
