John Foss wrote:
>In the late 60’s or early 70’s they visited St. Helens school in Newberry,
>Ohio. This was the school where everybody rode a unicycle as part of the
>P.E. program.
I grew up (and still live) about 15 miles away from Newbury and I have vivid
memories of the St. Helen’s Unicycle Drill Team appearing every year in the
parade at my town’s annual festival back in the '60’s. For me, it was always the
highlight of the parade. I still remember how amazed I was to watch those kids
up on 6 and 8 ft giraffes tossing a football back and forth and weaving back and
forth between each other. And the stories of students being allowed to ride
unicycles in the halls of the school…well you can imagine how that sounded to
a 10 yr. old kid like me! Took me 30 years, but I finally achieved my dream of
learning to ride.
St. Helen School is still around, and as you enter the township of Newbury on
Kinsman Road you will see a sign proclaiming the home of the famous St. Helen
Unicycle Drill Team. But I am sad to say that the school dropped unicycling and
the drill team about 5 years ago because of the difficulty in finding a coach.
~ Rick Bissell