For the five seniors on the Riverside Figure Skating Club, this weekend will put them through a roller coaster of emotions as they perform with the team for the last time in the 50th Golden Jubilee in Riverside Arena.  The shows will feature a variety of songs and they will take place at 4 p.m. Sat urday and 2 p.m. Sunday. “I’m nervous but excited,” Mishayla Ferguson said. “The hardest part is being nervous. You just have to smile and push through.” Ferguson will be joined in the show by fellow Austin seniors Payton Nelson, Kaylee Butts and Anita Rao, along with Hayfield senior Montana Scott. Scott has been making the trip from Hayfield to Austin for skating sessions since she was a third grader. She knows that it will be an emotional weekend as she takes to the ice for the last time. “It’s going to be a little sad to say goodbye. I don’t go to school in Austin and this will be my last hoo-rah with them,” Scott said. “We’re a very tight group. It’s so nice to come here. We all enjoy skating and it’s different from other school sports. Everyone gets to be included and do what they want to do.” The RFSC will be celebrating 50 years this weekend and the skaters will be rallying around coach Chris Amy, who has been on the job for 46 years. Many of the skaters see Amy as a second mother who helps them push through tough times on the ice, and at home. “It’s really nice to learn from Chris and all of her life experience. It’s been amazing,” Nelson said. “She’s not only a coach, but she’s a mentor. She’s helped me through some of the most difficult times in my life. She’s a really amazing person.” Rao said that skating is a unique sport because skaters work together for a decade in many cases. She said the senior bond grows stronger each year. “A lot of us have done this together since elementary school and it’s kind of a big moment that we’re ending this chapter of our life together,” Rao said. “We’ve built a family and a trust relationship with one another. Coach Chris has been a big support to every one of us and she always pushes us to be the best version of ourselves, on and off the ice.” Butts has relished her time with RFSC and she’s embraced the connections she has built. “We’re friends and we’re a family. We support each other and we cheer each other on, whether it’s a good skate or a bad skate,” Butts said. “I fell in love with the sport at a very young age and seeing the young ones fall in love with it too and seeing them excel is a moment that I will cherish forever.” This year’s team has more seniors than any of the recent years and it also has a total of 60 skaters who will take the ice this weekend. Amy said she’s always enjoyed performance weekends, especially because it highlights the seniors. “Our seniors are doing fantastic. It’s always exciting for them, but they get a little sad too when it’s the last time,” she said. “I’m teaching kids of kids that used to teach now. For the kids, this is their biggest event of the year. They look forward to this all year, because it’s such a big production with spotlights and music. To me, it’s about just seeing the joy in the kid’s faces when they’re out there performing. That keeps me coming back.” The post Riverside Figure Skating Club will mark its 50th anniversary with annual show this weekend appeared first on Austin Daily Herald. ...read more read less