Pleasant Prairie Rec Plex

• 9900 Terwall Terrace
• Pleasant Prairie, WI 53158
• (262) 947-0437
• Website

L is in her second season competing in figure skating and the first season competing in Solo Dance. The dance portion has brought us to some new places this year. Competing only in free skate last year, we didn’t always go to every competition. There are a lot of competitions our coach only does dance.

Dance is score on the International Judging System (IJS) and has a national component to it. There is a National Solo Dance final held in September and if the skaters can be in the top 6 of their region (ours is the Midwest), you qualify for Nationals.

Needless to say, taking advantage of every opportunity you can to get in front of the judges is necessary.

Most of our club headed to Wisconsin last weekend for the Southport Summer Classic. L’s coach decided to stay the whole weekend so her non-dance skaters could also participate in free skate. Since we were there anyway, we stayed the weekend so L could do her dance, free skate and compulsory.

I’m gonna start by saying, I’ve driven through this area around Kenosha several times and it’s always a “drive through” type of place on our way to Milwaukee or Green Bay. I’ve never spent any time in the area until last weekend and I was shocked.

The competition was held in Pleasant Prairie at the Rec Plex. This massive recreation center is on Terwall Terrace off Lakeview Parkway not too far from I-94/41. The rec center sits on Lake Andrea and is so big, it has it’s own Wikipedia page. It’s hard to get a hold of just how big this place is (302,000 square feet) in a town of only about 22,000 people.

The first thing we had to figure out was where we were going. J left the hotel first with L and the Extra Kid we had this weekend to get them to the rink early for practice. I was coming a little bit later with my parents and Starbucks for everyone.

When you enter off Lakeview Parkway, the first entrance you come to is gated and for members only. This is the original portion of the Rec Plex that has the sport courts and gym. J was confused at first but kept driving eventually finding the ice rink a little further up the road. It has it’s own entrance and it’s own parking lot on the north side of the complex.

This rink is going to be one of the nicer ones we’ve been in.

When you walk in the door, there’s a large lobby with a set of stairs. Both of the rinks are accessible from entry level if you’re heading to the ice surface. Spectators have to go upstairs to get to the seating areas. There’s a place for picking up rental skates during open skate hours and a locker area that the skaters took over leading in to the larger of the two rinks.

The bigger of the two rinks is Blue Rink. This rink has a large seating area and is the main rink for hockey and larger events. A lot of free skate events were done on this rink during the competition. The rink has bathrooms and table seating along the wide concourse behind the bleacher area.

Like I’m noticing at a lot of other rinks, this rink also has banners highlight figure skating achievements. Banners along the wall celebrate the club’s Gold Medalists.

The smaller rink is Green Rink and it’s where we spent most of the weekend. The seating area in this rink is much smaller and sits above the ice surface. The rink’s seating is only accessible through Blue Rink. You have to go in to Blue Rink and then through a set of doors to get in to Green Rink. The seating area is smaller but the ice surface is still an NHL size rink. The surprising thing was how warm both rinks were. We usually bring multiple coats, sweatshirts, blankets, etc. to keep everyone warm. It was comfortable to sit in both rinks with just a t-shirt on. It was kind of nuts actually

I was a little bummed when we first got there because all I could find was vending machines for snacks. They did have Pepsi, so that was a plus and it was cheaper than the gas station.

Later in the day, a concession stand did open up near the main entrance. The girls loved the Boba tea options and made several trips over the three days.

I was never hungry while we were at the rink which was a bummer. They had some really good looking chicken strip meals. We would always hit up a Kwik Trip for our quick meals because we pre-purchased fundraising gift cards. I kept wanting to force myself to order the chicken but I was never hungry enough to even think about it. But, like I said, we did make several Boba trips so it was nice to have it there.

That’s just the inside of the Rec Plex.

Saturday afternoon, J and L’s coach decided to go for a walk around the lake. There’s a 2 1/2 mile path that goes all the way around. I knew I couldn’t keep up with their pace so I let them go, put on a podcast, and took my time walking around to see the rest of the park.

I feel like I’m doing a Stefan bit when I say, this place has everything.

There are softball fields which had several games going on.

There’s a beach.

A beer garden

And even an onsite daycare.

The Pleasant Prairie Rec Plex is an impressive facility. We didn’t even get to see the field house, the track, the fitness center, the Olympic size swimming pool or anything else in the building as we were pretty limited to just the rink.

The Southport Summer Classic just became a must on our schedule. It was the first year a lot of our skaters had been there and despite the construction traffic around O’Hare on the way there, this was a great weekend made better by this great facility.