Norwood Attracts World's Skating Elite For Celebration On Ice

NORWOOD, MA - Some of figure skating's international stars will be shining brightly Saturday afternoon as the Skating Club of Boston hosts "A Celebration on Ice."

The family-friendly show is part of a year-long celebration of Norwood's 150th anniversary of incorporation as a town. Tickets are $15 at the door, with the money going toward sponsoring future Norwood 150 events. It will be held from 6-8:30 p.m. with the gates opening at 4 p.m., and masks will be required.

"We're proud to be a part of Norwood, and we appreciate that we have been received so well here," said Doug Zeghibe, the Skating Club of Boston's executive director. "This is going to be our home for the next 100 years."

He added that, even though the facility has been open since September 2020, this is the first major event at this location.

"We feel like we are still introducing ourselves to the community," Zeghibe said. "We wanted to make this a low-cost event to welcome the town to the Skating Club of Boston."

The Skating Club of Boston is one of only three Olympic-class training facilities in the country. It features three rinks, including one that is exclusively dedicated to the Norwood Mustangs, the Norwood High School hockey program.

"We are unique in that we are primarily a figure skating facility," Zeghibe said.

"Celebration on Ice" will feature several world-class competitors, including Maxim Naumov, Jimmy Ma, Gabriella Rizzo, and pairs duos Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov and Emily Chan and Spenser Howe. Also featured will be the 28-time U.S champion Haydenettes.

Click this YouTube link to see a performance by Lu and Mitrofanov

Ma and the Haydenettes recently were featured on "Chronicle" on WCVB-TV. Naumov is a Norwood resident whose parents are Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, the 1994 World Champions in pairs for Russia.

Ernie Paciorkowski, vice chair of the Planning Board and member of the Norwood 150th committee, Paciorkowski said he attended the recent grand opening celebration featuring renowned Olympian Scott Hamilton, where he said Hamilton made a comment about the caliber of the complex.

"[Hamilton] said that the Boston Skating Club here in Norwood could be the finest skating figure skating facility in the world," according to Paciorkowski. "Here it is, right here in our backyard.

"You're going to see Olympic caliber skaters that you're really gonna see on TV unless you go to an event like this," Paciorkowski continued. "To see the athleticism, the skill and the grace is just unbelievable."

In addition, members of the Norwood High School Class of 1972 hockey team will be honored for winning the state championship. Also, the Norwood Nuggets feeder program will be celebrating its 60th anniversary.

Zeghibe said former Norwood Town Manager John Carroll was instrumental in bringing the complex to Norwood.

"We had been looking for land along the 128 corridor," he said, noting that it moved from its previous home in Brighton. "We had looked at a lot of towns, but John understood who we were and what we wanted to do.

"No other town understood that we weren't just trying to build a hockey rink," Zeghibe continued. "John literally called us weekly."

The Board of Selectmen and other town departments also were very helpful in bringing that complex to Norwood, he continued.

"We made one of the rinks the home of the Norwood Mustangs of our own volition," Zeghibe explained, noting that the history of the program is displayed along the rink's wall.

Paciorkowski said he and subcommittee co-chair Gerry Miller originally approached Zeghibe for a financial donation toward Norwood 150 events.

"We never expected anything like this," he said.

"We offered it because we agreed with everything that Norwood 150 was trying to do," Zeghibe added. "And I think we have turned Ernie and Gerry into figure skating fans in the process."

For more information, go to the Skating Club of Boston website. To learn about Norwood 150, go here.