Photo courtesy of Heather Hubel-Coleman Kevin Felien lifts Joelle Haala in a doubles performance for the Little Crow team.

NEW LONDON — After a skilled performance at the National Show Ski Association’s 2021 Midwest Regionals in Aberdeen, South Dakota, the Little Crow Ski Team is gearing up for the ultimate show: the national championships.

Little Crow, a waterski team out of New London, turned in a dominant grand total score of 1,617.67 at regionals, which took place from July 23-25. The team will now participate in the 2021 Indmar Marine Engines 46th Annual Division 1 National Show Ski Championships in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Little Crow is currently slated to perform as a team on Saturday, Aug. 14, but will also have some skiers in individual championship action a day earlier on Aug. 13.

With more than 65 members putting together or performing in shows for Little Crow, the team also features local skiers Ashley Schaefer of New Ulm (Ron and Ruth Schaefer), Jacob and Joelle Haala of Sleepy Eye (Jay and JoDee Haala) and Tucker Haala of Sleepy Eye (Scott and Holly Haala).

The Little Crow team has had a busy and succesful summer getting to this point. Andrew Welter, Little Crow co-show director with Cameron Hedman and member of the Little Crow Ski Club for 15 years, said that the team has multiple practices in New London every week and puts on shows every Friday in the summer.

“[We practice] on Crow River in New London, and the river is dammed off, so there’s zero current or anything like that,” Welter said. “But we have a developmental team that practices on Monday night. And then we have full team practices Tuesday and Thursday, and then a show every Friday.”

In addition to finishing first overall at regionals, Little Crow also took first in the Jump (214), Pyramid (205) and Sound Crew Total (563). They finished second in the Barefoot (248), High Individual Club Act (248) and Tow Boat Driving (382).

Also at regionals, Joelle Haala and Kevin Felien finished third in Strap Doubles with a score of 9.27. Several other members of the Little Crow team had podium finishes as well.

Welter said that Little Crow was one of the bigger teams that showed up for the regional tournament, but the overall showing and risks the team took helped lead to a first-place overall finish.

“We were probably one of the bigger teams at the tournament,” Welter said. “We put on a lot of high-difficult pyramid acts. The team overall, we did very well. We had a couple falls, but our difficulty in our show definitely pushed us to winning. … This year has been kind of crazy. We had a lot of different ski members step up into new roles. It was really a lot of fun to watch. Pyramids, stuff like that, a bunch of people working on their individual stuff like swiveling, and helping the show out and they’re able to compete at the tournament individually as well.”

Practices for the national championships begin on Thursday, Aug. 12, and individual competition kicks off at 8 a.m. the following morning. Representing Little Crow in the individual part of the competition will be Jay Donner, Jaden Zylstra, Nate Thein, Cameron Hedman, Jared Swenson, Lucas Swenson, Payton Madison and Dillon Hedman in the Jump event. Thein, Zylstra and Lucas Swenson will also compete in the Freestyle Jump in individuals, while Emma Madison competes in the Swivel event and alongside Ellie Donner in the Swivel Pairs Exhibition. Also competing on Friday for Little Crow will be Felien and Joelle Haala in the Strap Doubles event.

On Saturday, Little Crow will be scored in Barefoot Pyramids, Opening Pyramid, Jump 1, Ballet, Variety Act, Middle Pyramid, Back Barefoot Line, Big Act, Jump 2, Stars Act, Barefoot Circles and Final Pyramid. Welter said the team will also be scored on Comedy as an act.

Each team has 20 minutes for set up and a maximum of one hour for their show.

Welter said that a reasonable and attainable goal he has for the team at nationals is a top-five finish.

The nationals are hosted by the Rock Aqua Jays in RAJ Stadium at Traxler Park and is presented by Visit Central Florida. Streaming options for the nationals are expected to be available on usawaterski.org in the coming week.

If interested in checking out a show before nationals, Little Crow will have another show this Friday in New London. Tickets can be purchased at littlecrow.com/tickets.