Homewood-Flossmoor Ice Arena
777 Kedzie AvenueI wasn’t planning on going to a figure skating competition last week, but life happens sometimes.
My aunt passed away a little over a month ago. We had the funeral right away but she elected to be cremated this buried. They obviously couldn’t get that ready over night so we would have to come back for the final memorial service.
It’s hard to get a large group of people together these days. Everyone’s kids seem to have some kind of sports every week…including mine.
My mom originally proposed a date in May but that didn’t work for her sister. She then asked me what day would work in April. We were free most weekends in April so I told her to pick.
She happened to pick the weekend L and J were already planning on being in the area for a figure skating competition. L was only skating Thursday and Friday so doing the service on Saturday wasn’t an issue.
I decided to just take Friday off since I had to get to Chicago somehow anyway.
We didn’t want to have two cars in Illinois and train tickets were more expensive than we thought it would be…plus a train wouldn’t have gotten us close to Flossmoor. I ended up renting a car Friday morning for B and to make the drive. I could just drop the car off there and join J for the rest of the weekend.
The competition L was competing in last week was the annual Ladybug Competition put on by the Glenwood Figure Skating Club.
The competition is held at the Homewood-Flossmoor Ice Arena on Kedzie Avenue south of 183rd Street in the Chicago suburb of Flossmoor. The ice rink is right next to Homewood-Flossmoor High School, but the arena is owned and operated by the Homewood-Flossmoor Parks Department. The two villages are separate municipalities but they seem to do everything together.
The first thing you notice about this place is parking is going to be an issue. They host this large competition here but there’s nowhere near enough parking. There are huge parking lots right next door at the high school….but you can’t park there until school is out. Instead, they tell you to park across the street at the Park District owned golf course. That’s not a bad option….until you realize Kedzie Avenue is five lanes across and 40 mph…and we all know no one is actually doing 40 mph on a road that wide. The golf course isn’t a safe or viable option that they should be encouraging. We got lucky enough that we were there early enough in the morning that we got a spot and when we went for lunch after returning the rental, there was one spot open that I got lucky enough and got. J took her chance parking at the high school but she saw other cars that had red stickers on them warning them not to park there again or they’d be towed.
The arena is much smaller than I think any other competition we go to. The lobby area is tiny and really only has room for a couple of vendors. There is no seating in the lobby other than some benches along the wall near the entrance. Those all have signs specifically marking them for adults/seniors. Skaters weren’t allowed to sit there. That sounds good….BUUUUUUTTTTT..at least in our club, it’s not uncommon for one parent/coach to do hair/makeup for several skaters. There’s no place to do any of that because adults aren’t allowed in the locker rooms. On Thursday, J took a group of skaters back to her car in the parking lot and they all did their make up in her backseat. We also saw coaches standing next to garbage cans and using them as makeshift tables to get their hair and makeup done before skating.
One place the Homewood-Flossmoor Ice Arena did stick out was the snacks and concession area. They had a couple of well stocked vending machines in the lobby with Pepsi (which made both me and my dad happy…screw Coke). There was also a big selection of chips and candy. It wasn’t super expensive either. Pops were about the same price as you’d get them from a gas station. Same for the chips and candy.
There was also a concession stand which was open the whole time we were there. They had pretty typical concession stand type food but it’s a big step up from just having the vending machines. Prices here were also very reasonable.
To the rink(s). There are apparently two rinks at the complex but only one of them is big enough to be used for the competition. That’s the Main Arena which you see as soon as you walk in the main entry doors.
The Main Arena rink is an NHL sized 200′ x 85′ ice surface. It’s used for figure skating, hockey tournaments, and high school hockey. Both Homewood-Flossmoor and Lincoln Way High School had logos on the ice so I assume both schools use it.
There is only seating on one side of the rink but there’s a lot of it. There are 1200 seats that stretch from one end of the ice to the other. The bleachers are metal which makes them a little bit colder. J warned me that H-F Ice Arena was one of the colder rinks we go to. It’s warmer than the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube in East Lansing though. I was good in a sweatshirt all day. My parents needed a few more layers but it’s not the coldest rink we sit at (seriously, East Lansing wins that one).
There is apparently a second sheet of ice that I never saw. It’s not used for competition because it’s a “Studio Rink” and the ice surface is only 90′ x 40′. Way too small for competition but it’s used for little kid hockey lessons and birthday parties.
L had a pretty good day. She made huge strives in her pattern dance and some slight improvements in her combined dance. My parents didn’t get to see her combined dance when they came up to East Lansing so I was happy they got to see it this time. Flossmoor is the closest competition we go to to them so I was happy this year, they were able to get to it.
Homewood-Flossmoor isn’t a bad ice arena. It’s got some things that I know annoy some of the parents in our club. The parking is really bad and the idea of parking and trying to cross five lanes of traffic is not ideal. The lobby space leaves a lot to be desired. For instance, there were five hours between L’s dances on Friday. Are we expected to sit in the cold arena all day? It wasn’t warm enough to go outside.
L likes skating there though. We’re told this is usually one of the highest scoring Solo Dance Competitions so our club always makes sure we go there. A couple of years ago it was held at the Ice Valley Centre in Kankakee while this arena was being renovated. That was before we got in to dance but some of the other parents have said they preferred that arena but hated the area (there’s not much around it). I’d love for it to go back there because I grew up in the Kankakee area. I know the area well and have skated at that arena myself with my nieces.
Now that we’re on our second year of Solo Dance with L, we know how to prepare for each competition. All of them have their flaws and things we like and don’t like. We’ll just keep grinding the way and make the best of each weekend. As long as Ladybug is at Homewood-Flossmoor Ice Arena, we will keep coming back.
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