One wheel is cooler than two

By JACKIE BORCHARDT - Star-Tribune staff writer

Kelly Walsh High School had a lot going on Monday night — track meet, National Honor Society, unicycling club.

In the cafeteria, the orchestra performed for the honor society induction. On the track, some of the state’s best athletes pushed their bodies to the limit. In the school’s main hallway, students combined athleticism, brainpower and prowess to balance atop one wheel.

The idea for a unicycle club began when Principal Brad Diller and others saw unicyclists at a parade in Sioux Falls last year. Diller thought students could learn to ride the unicycles and, eventually, ride them during basketball and football halftime events.

Diller thought the club might be an activity for students who didn’t play sports or join clubs.

Junior Alrik Eighmy was the first to sign up. He already had a few years of unicycling under his belt. His mom used to do it, and one day, he found her beat-up unicycle in the garage and tried it.

He fell. A lot.

“It’s like the first time riding a bike — it was hard but it works out,” Eighmy said.

So, why join?

“’Cause the chicks dig it,” Eighmy said.

“If the chicks dug it, they’d be here,” Diller said.

The club is open to all students, but the female cyclists had other commitments during Monday night’s “practice.”

Many of the students in the club participate in track, band, theater, cross country, skiing, National Honor Society and other activities.

Unicycling is different.

“It’s something no one’s really done,” said junior Connor Holder.

Practices began in the gym, where the unicyclists could swerve between the bleachers and the railing for balance. Now the kids cruise through the hallways and make turns.

Sophomore Zach Custard pushed off the green pole and pedaled through the main hallway, past the cafeteria and the food science labs to the special education department and back.

A new record, he announced.

Out of breath, Custard slurped Dr. Pepper out of a Taco John’s cup.

“My body’s like pulsing,” Custard said.

“Coach” Bryan Aivazian, an instructional facilitator at Kelly Walsh, congratulated Custard. Aivazian said the club adds one more opportunity for students to connect with the school outside of the classroom. Connections keep kids in school, he said, and it shouldn’t matter what it is — jousting, juggling or unicycling.

“They all know each other, but they wouldn’t necessarily hang out together,” he said.

Aivazian is mostly hands-off with the students. He brought crutches and ski poles to use for support and shouts tips such as, “Keep your upper body still!”

Aivazian never unicycled before leading the club.

“What do they say? ‘Those who can’t do, teach?’” Aivazian said, chuckling.

But the students don’t seem to need Aivazian’s help much, at least not with the hardest part of unicycling: overcoming the fear of failure.

They don’t have it.

“When we learned to ride a bike, we were really young and stupid,” Aivazian said. “This is kind of like that.”

Read more: http://trib.com/news/local/casper/article_52a35e2e-3f1b-55f7-b21e-bcd9d8bbb3ea.html