Love for Log Rolling Began Early, Now a Profession

Log rolling classes will be starting for the first time at the Minneapolis Uptown YWCA this week and, for me, it's a bit of a homecoming. My name is Judy Scheer Hoeschler and I’m a seven-time world champion log roller. I learned the sport as a child in 1969 and was hooked for life. I was enrolled in the first full-time log rolling school for children and the classes were held at Lumberjack Bowl, a 3,000-seat log rolling arena in Hayward, Wisconsin. My teacher was influential in teaching her female students to take risks while competing, something that I have used in many aspects of my life.

I began teaching others to log roll while I was still in high school, and saw firsthand the positive impact that learning to spin atop a floating log could have on children and adults. It was fun, challenging and addictive. When I married my high school sweetheart and moved to La Crosse, WI, I walked into the YWCA and offered to start a log rolling program. Luckily for me (and the future of log rolling), the enthusiastic Aquatics Director was undaunted by bringing a 500-pound lathe-turned western red cedar log down a flight of stairs and into her pool. She was a tipping point in the right direction.The La Crosse YWCA was the incubator for me to develop a model log rolling program for aquatic facilities. Over the years, with the cooperation and assistance of a great staff, we proved that log rolling lessons could safely take place in the pool, right alongside other aquatic classes. Hundreds of people learned to log roll, including my own four children. We hosted tournaments and slowly began to grow the sport as an indoor, winter activity. My involvement with the YWCA deepened when I joined the Board of Directors in the 1980s. I served with some of the most dynamic women in the community and learned the "ins and outs" of nonprofit organizations.

My husband, Jay, and I recently moved to Minneapolis to work on our family business, Key Log Rolling®. Under the leadership of our daughter, Abby Hoeschler, we are manufacturing the sport's first synthetic, portable rolling product, with a mission to give more people access to the great sport of log rolling. I'm very excited to be a member of the Uptown YWCA and looking forward to building a new community of log rollers. My baby grandson will learn to log roll at the YW, just like his mom did. Every time I walk in the door at the Uptown Y, I have a very positive feeling. It's like coming home again!

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