Riley Gowen, 13, has competed at U.S. Excel Nationals and loves working with friends on duets and group numbers in programs.
Skating to Excellence
How a Skating Academy Has Caught Fire on Ice in Lakeland
By RJ Walters
Photography by Dan Austin
When David Aretz was 11 years old, the young New Jersey boy had a problem to solve. He had newspapers to deliver, but all of the roads had turned to ice as the effects of a massive winter storm.
His parents couldn’t drive the route safely, and his go-to transportation method of a bike was out of the question, so his mom posed a question: “Why don’t you just go get a pair of ice skates?”
“So I put on some skates, and I just went for it,” the now 44-year-old Lakelander recalls. “I delivered newspapers down the street, just ice skating back and forth, and it was a really fun time.”
For youngsters and young adults growing up in Central Florida, there are no icy roads, and that generation might give you a puzzled look if you ask them what a newspaper is—but thanks to the expertise and efforts of Aretz and his running (or in this case, skating) mate Madison Bedwell, the Skating to Excellence Academy at Lakeland Ice Arena provides a space to experience the joy of figure skating, and just maybe, find the success that Aretz and Bedwell achieved in the sport.
Aretz’s memorable paper route story was a catalyst to him getting back into skating after years of enjoying it on and off recreationally. He ended up going full throttle into the pairs skating scene and trained countless hours with high-level coaches. He gradually made his way up the ranks, enjoyed several stints training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and earned a spot in the 2002 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. He eventually moved to Italy to train with a new partner, but in time he lost his long-time love for the sport and called it quits.
“It just wasn’t a thing I wanted to do anymore, so I came home and threw my skates in the trash,” Aretz says. “I was over it.”
He started working at a restaurant, when one day a friend encouraged him to find other ways to use his skating prowess. So he auditioned for Disney on Ice, and for the next two and half years he skated across the globe, donning magical outfits like Maleficent, Prince Eric and more
David Aretz and Madison Bedwell are the architects of Skating to Excellence Academy which trains figure skating to all ages and abilities at Lakeland Ice Arena.
If David’s skating origin story is cool, Madison’s is hot. She grew up in California, and around the age of six her family moved to Arizona. They decided one day to go ice skating, in part to combat the unrelenting heat, and Madison felt right at home on the ice.
By the age of 10, living back in California, she started taking private lessons, and she hit the competitive skating circuit for the next half decade or so.
When she went off to college she started coaching at a local rink and the now mother of three hasn’t stopped since, other than to prioritize her role as a mom on several occasions.
So how did David and Madison’s careers and lives intertwine to the point that the Northeastern native and skating enthusiast from out West officially brought figure skating to Lakeland in August 2023?
Following a series of mounting health challenges for herself and two of her children, Madison and her husband relocated from Texas to Florida, closer to his parents. They chose Winter Garden, in part because there were plans for an ice rink to be built in the charming Orange County community. But those plans never came to fruition. In 2017, Madison answered a call from the Ice Factory in Kissimmee, where she took over a couple of Learn to Skate classes, a U.S. Figure Skating sanctioned training program.
Early the next year, David came on staff, bringing with him high-level experience coaching at Palm Beach Skate Zone and the Scott Rakow Youth Center in Miami Beach.
They started working closely together, and as Aretz states, they make a dynamic duo because of their different strengths.
“She’s really good with the little ones, and I’m a little bit better with the older ones who are a bit more advanced,” he says.
Skating to Excellence Academy
Open Skate, Beginners Classes, Private Lessons and More!
at Lakeland Ice Arena
3395 W. Memorial Blvd., Lakeland
863-608-7335
Aretz and Bedwell decided one summer to run a little “mini camp” in Kissimmee and had great success, but it wasn’t quite what leadership was looking for long term, so Madison and David started to keep their eyes open to other opportunities in the close-knit Florida skating community.
David remembers having an initial conversation with Paul Granville, the founder of Lakeland Ice Arena who saw the potential of the abandoned old bowling alley and ultimately opened the doors in 2019.
Granville said he was open to bringing figure skating to Lakeland, if David and Madison could figure out a way to work within the confines of the existing schedule of ice time.
“People were coming and asking for skating lessons, and he was like, ‘We don’t have that here,’” Bedwell says. “And he didn’t like turning them away.”
So, with 12 skaters, all who learned under the tutelage of the duo at the Ice Factory, Lakeland’s first figure skating program launched—as Skating to Excellence.
“We ended up with that name because no matter what level you are, you’re trying to achieve something better than what you have—you’re always skating to excellence,” Aretz says, noting that it’s also about treating teammates and competitors with respect.
Bedwell said they often remind their athletes that it’s healthy to always be competing against yourself, not just the other people on the ice.
“We care more about them progressing than about what place they get. They can always jump higher, be tighter, and their spins can always be more centered or crisp.”
Anyone can hop right into skating through the 8- or 16-course Learn to Skate programs, which has blossomed to more than 70 individuals recently. Classes start at around $25 per session, including skate and helmet rental. Athletes can then transition to private lessons and can join the competitive ranks if and when they are ready.
Earlier this month, four skaters from Skating to Excellence competed at Excel Nationals in the Boston Area, including Bedwell’s 12-year-old daughter, Palmer.
Bedwell said the first year in Lakeland hasn’t been easy because of the time and effort required to establish a healthy culture and learn how to make the tough decisions necessary as leaders of a growing program, but she is extremely proud of the athletes who call it home.
“It’s really exciting to see how with such a young program everyone is kind of doing it together,” she says. “They’re all excited for each other…and they all clap for one another—it’s just really cool to watch.”
One thing that makes Skating to Excellence unique is its integration of traditional figure skating techniques with some of the power and speed training more common to hockey.
Lakeland Ice Arena has built its reputation as a hockey training hotbed, and is a home to the Florida Southern College hockey teams, the Jr. Mocs, adult leagues, recreational skating and more.
“Overall the skating is the same, but what’s interesting is you watch a hockey player, and they just wanna go fast,” Aretz says. “A figure skater is more like, OK, I need an edge to get there and they’re slower to start, while hockey players tend to go too fast without any edge work. Bringing hockey and the edge work together is pretty cool to watch.”
He mentioned that several parents recently have easily identified which hockey players have trained with David and Madison and which ones have not.
Whether it’s hockey or figure skating, Aretz and Bedwell understand in a very personal manner the desire to become the best athlete possible, but they encourage newbies and beginners to have healthy and realistic expectations if they decide to lace up skates.
“I feel like you should come into skating wanting to learn how to skate, not because you want to go to the Olympics or you want to win the Stanley Cup. You need to love the sport and want to be part of the ice,” he says. “Don’t think if you fall it’s wrong, because falling is learning; if you stop falling, you stop learning.”
Don’t think if you fall it’s wrong, because falling is learning; if you stop falling, you stop learning.”
– David Aretz
