Kicking Off 2013 with Miami Skating

Hello again and happy new year from Sennett and Linnea! 

This past weekend teams from across the country crowded into Fraser, Michigan for the Junior World Qualifier and Mid-America competitions. In anticipation for these competitions Miami University's Varsity teams had been vigorously preparing over the two weeks prior to the completion from 2-7 hours day per day.  Everyone put in 100% effort and were very excited to be back together again; despite the fact that our winter breaks were cut two weeks short. We went into the weekend feeling excited and ready to show off our hard work.

On Friday the junior team competed the short program. The night before we all gathered in one of the hotel rooms in order to go through and talk about each part of our program to get us mentally prepared for the next day. We talked through element by element discussing things to think about; from key words or phrases, to our favorite parts of the program. The next day, we had a lot of energy and excitement going into the event. We really tired to focus on getting into character the second we left the locker room so we could be as animated as possible in our performance. We got off the ice still feeling the rush from the program and were even more excited to take the ice the next day. 

Saturday was the free skate event. As we were getting ready for competition, doing our hair and makeup we used the extra time we had to finish the music video we had started making over break.  Following living out our Hollywood dreams; we all gathered with our coaches and staff to review the video of our official practice.  We discussed key points of the program and got ourselves mentally prepared for competition.  We then loaded the bus to the rink and preformed our usual competition rituals on the way, including dancing and singing to our favorite songs.  As soon as we got off the bus we were in competition mode and headed to the warm up area.  We completed our competition warm up and ran through our programs and felt ready to take the ice.  We loved every second of our performance and felt very "glamorous" throughout the whole program! We were very happy with our skate and proud that all of our hard work over break had paid off. 

On Saturday night after the junior long competition was finished, the collegiate official practice session took place.  The five Miami junior/collegiate cross skaters gathered our things, had a quick dinner and headed to the warm up area to join our teammates.    We had a good official practice in which we skated a full run through then only a few sections the second time around.  Our official practice ice ended at 11:00pm on Saturday night, so we headed right back to our hotel to get a good nights sleep before the next day’s competition.  Sunday morning we woke up, packed our things and the collegiate team got into character for our “rocker chick” program.  With poofs in our hair and the usual amounts of competition makeup on we loaded the bus to head over to the rink.  Before leaving the bus we had a short team meeting.  We put our game faces on and prepared to enter the competition arena.  Before doing so however we all got out of our seats and let out our extra energy by rocking the bus!  Entering the locker room we were all very excited.  We got ourselves ready to skate and once we were set to go we let out the excess nerves by singing the Miami fight song.  Collegiate skated very well and we were very happy with the results!  We had a ton of fun skating the program and really embodied the theme of the program! 

We all cannot wait to continue our progress and work hard heading into our next competition which for the Collegiate and Junior teams will be the Midwestern/pacific sectional championships in Kalamazoo Michigan, and for the Senior team their international appointment in Goteborg, Sweden!

Best of luck to all the teams competing next weekend!

Love and Honor,

Linnea and Sennett

Cup of Berlin - Part 2

Greetings once again from the Cup of Berlin, 

The competition has now ended and the teams are all preparing to head home. California Gold had a very successful week in Germany and grew in leaps and bounds as a team. We finished in 8th place, moving up one placement from our short program, and the Hockettes junior team took 6th overall! 

CalGold and Hockette skaters proudly represent the US of A at opening ceremonies.

Neither of our skates this weekend were perfectly clean, but as our team leader Jeanette Davey pointed out, there will be very few times in your life when you will have that perfect skate. At competition, most teams make some kind of error, and she said that what matters to her, is how a team reacts and recovers. After the fall in our long program, the team rose to the occasion,  not allowing the mistake to shake us. A renewed sense of calm came over us as we decided silently and unanimously to finish stronger than we had started. 

CalGold waits for our scores after the long program 

This lesson about recovery not only helped us to move up a spot in placement at Cup of Berlin, it also helped to prepare my team for the next few weeks of training before U.S Synchronized Skating Championships. The team is ready to head back to Los Angeles to hone the technical calls that alluded us this weekend and improve our components. However, we are not heading back before we take a little more time to see Berlin! We can't stop ourselves from practicing, even as we travel the city!

CalGold does our lifts in front of the German Reichstag (parliament building) 

You'll be hearing from me again soon! 

Emmy 

World Junior Team Selection Recap from Skyliners!

January has arrived and our competitive season is now in full swing! This weekend marked our first event of 2013, the World Junior Team Selection competition in Fraser, Michigan. We flew in Wednesday evening and I must say it was quite warm for all the times I have visited Michigan in the winter: a surprising high of 50 degrees! It was hard to believe it was January. On Thursday our team was able to relax a little in the morning before our practice at the University of Michigan. At the rink we got our feet back under us after traveling Wednesday and had a great practice. I definitely felt confident and excited to compete after we skated. Afterward we headed to Olive Garden for a team dinner to celebrate our teammate’s Sweet 16. We all enjoyed the unlimited salad and breadsticks and back at the hotel we had birthday cookies. To finish the day, we did a little team bonding by watching some funny youtube videos with our coaches and team moms. Everyone got in a lot of good laughs before heading to bed.

Friday night we competed our short. Before skating, we loosened up by singing our ritual songs, “Defying Gravity” and “The Call”, dancing to “Sexy and I Know It”, and my personal favorite, singing “God Bless the USA” to get in the spirit. Our short program performance felt amazing. I always feel so elegant in our lavender dresses and our inspiring music reminds me why I love to skate. We skated clean and earned our highest score. The kiss and cry was exhilarating as we jumped, hugged and screamed after hearing the scores. We were incredibly proud of our performance and pumped for the free skate.

Saturday we got up very early for a quick unofficial practice. Because the rink was so cold we decided to wear pants under our dresses. For official practice that morning, we decided we liked the new look and made a fashion statement by wearing the pants with dresses. Official practice went well and we got to relax at the hotel before competing. That night we were excited and ready to compete; we enjoyed singing songs and doing the YMCA before stepping on the ice. Although we did not have our ideal long program skate and had a few technical mistakes, it is always fun to perform our West Side Story program. After anxiously awaiting results in the locker room, we were overjoyed when we were told to put our skates on to greet our fellow Junior World Team members on the ice. Congratulations to the Lexettes on their great performances! After posing for pictures, we were given our worlds jackets, which was an awesome surprise. We are honored to be representing the USA in Finland with the Lexettes in March. As of now we are working hard and getting excited for the French Cup which is just 2 weeks away!

Well that’s all to report for now, until next time!

Dana 

Cup of Berlin: Part 1

Hallo von Berlin!! 

California Gold spent our second day in Berlin practicing and touring and are very excited to compete our short program tomorrow. Hockettes junior are here with us, which is particularly exciting for me as I skated with the Hockettes for ten years before I came to Cal Gold. I love seeing my old coaches and former teammates and our teams have been getting along beautifully. 

CalGold and Hockettes meet up in the hotel

CalGold Captains Brittany and Emmy on a Berlin street corner 

We got a chance to see some of historical Berlin today, including the Brandenburg gates. We also spent time purchasing fine German chocolate and learning about life in East Berlin behind the iron curtain. 

California Gold in front of one of Berlin's beautiful cathedrals

California Gold's pregnant coaches in front of the Brandenburg Gate

Looking forward to the next few days. Go Team USA! 

Mit Lieber, 

Emmy 

Happy New Year and "all that jazz"!

Wasn’t it just yesterday that we started the new school year and the skating season began? And now here we are in January, with two competitions already under our belt for the 2012-2013 season.

After a successful weekend for Miami at the Dr. Porter Classic, with a first place finish for the senior team, we headed back to school to wind down the semester and finish strong on our final exams. Mid-December, the Miami skaters headed to their hometowns across the country for a relaxing 2-week break from school. This was definitely much needed, as balancing 18 credits with skating season in full swing is not an easy task. I enjoyed spending time in Michigan with my family, catching up with friends, and of course skating some sessions back at my old stomping grounds at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

After the New Year, my teammates and I returned to campus fired up to begin training for our next event. We had a lot of fun enjoying an empty campus to ourselves, with no classes…or lines at Starbucks! But most of our days were spent inside the rink, energized through long practices due to the excitement in seeing and feeling our programs grow.

This past weekend, all three Miami teams competed at the Mid-America Classic and World Junior Team Selection Competition in Fraser, MI. We were extremely amped to show off our polished programs to everyone. The senior team finished second in the short program and edged out the competition by a slim margin to win the long program on Sunday. We were also able to cheer on our Junior and Collegiate teammates and see some awesome skating throughout the weekend. It was a definitely a golden weekend for Miami. Our coaches even let us watch our favorite movie, Pitch Perfect, on the bus ride home for a second time that trip (we had already watched it on the trip up). I think they enjoyed it, too ;)

Back in the beautiful Oxford, OH, the new semester has begun and campus is once again bustling. It won’t be long though until we head out to our next event in Gothenburg, Sweden at the end of the month. Until then…we’re back to the grind! Go Miami!

Love and Honor,

Ashleigh 

Latest Scoop on the Crystallettes

The Crystallettes have had quite an eventful summer and fall! With school starting back up and the competition season kicking into gear, we have not had much time for anything except school, skating, and sleep. Over the summer, the Crystallettes trained hard on skating skills, matching movements, and breaking down each element. In September, the choreographing began. This year, we skate to “That Man” for our short program and we are taking on the roles of vampires in the free skate. Both programs are very different from one another, however, incredible to skate. It truly allows us to show off our dual personalities and have fun with the elements and creativity invested into each program. Personally, the long program is my favorite. Our coaches did a wonderful job choreographing this long program. There is always something going on in the program and it seems like the creativity never ends. The program is intense and exciting and is very theatrical. I love getting into the character of this program with my team. During our video sessions we watch our practices and see how truly amazing our programs are and the potential they have to be incredible.

The Kalamazoo Kick Off Competition was successful for the Crystallettes. We may not have skated our short program to the best of our ability, but we came out with the gold and were proud of what we accomplished. We knew we were going to have to clean up our programs quickly because the Porter Competition was right around the corner. As a coach of the Crystallette Preliminary and Intermediate team, I had quite a successful weekend. My preliminary team had a good skate with one minor fall and ended up placing third. Since Porter, my co-coach and myself have made changes to this program to challenge our skaters and improve our program to try to do better at the next competition. The intermediate team I coach skated much better at Dr. Porter than they did at the Kalamazoo Kick Off and ended up placing sixth. My co-coach and I are very proud of the improvements that they have made and the amount of hard work and dedication our skaters have put in. They improved their score by eight points at Porter. Since Porter, my co-coach and I have made necessary changes to the program based off of the feedback we received from the judges and technical panel. We are hoping to continue this positive climb to the top.

As a skater on the Crystallettes senior team, we had great official practices at Porter. We skated a solid short program with a few minor mistakes and ended up in second place. As soon as we found out we were in second place after the short program, we put it in the back of our minds to focus on our long program. This would be our first time competing the long program and we wanted our program to be intense and have an effect on the audience. We attacked the long program with everything we had; we had nothing to lose. We ended up with silver in the long program event and placed second place overall. Our coaches went and spoke with the judges and technical specialists concerning our programs to see what we can do to make our programs better. Since Porter, we have made many changes to both programs and are working very hard to keep improving our scores at the Frasier Competition in a couple of weeks.

Besides our hard work and dedication to our programs, the Crystallettes have also had many team outings to encourage team unity. We had a skater from Finland come practice with us over the summer and fall to see if she would be interested in skating with us the next season. Her name was Reeta, and she was a joy to have around. She was very sweet, caring, and had a very positive attitude at our practices, even if she did not understand a drill we were working on. It was fun to listen to her talk because she had the cutest accent! We had fun discussing the differences in our languages in between our on ice and off ice sessions. It was so sad to see her go just a few weeks ago. We got her a cake and wished her the best before she went back home for Christmas. We miss her dearly and hope to see her next year!

The Crystallettes celebrated Christmas by having a secret Santa gift exchange. We bought our secret skater three gifts and gave them two of their gifts throughout the week. Then, at the end of the week, we had our Christmas party where we had a wonderful feast and exchanged our last gift while guessing who our secret Santa was. It was truly amusing and it is always fun to have team gatherings because it brings us closer together and allows us to open up to one another and strengthen our relationships. Our coaches also got us a very memorable gift; they got all of us team USA mittens and t-shirts for the 2013 Worlds Championships in Boston. Needless to say, we were all very surprised and thrilled about these gifts. We have already made both items a part of our travel outfits for the upcoming competitions!

Our team has worked extremely hard over the past few weeks and is going to continue to push even harder with Frasier right around the corner. We are excited to show off the changes that we have made to our programs and eager to cheer on our other teams as well. Good luck to all of the teams competing at Fraser! The Crystallettes will see you there! 

Catching up with the Haydenettes

This fall the Haydenettes have been very busy with school, practices, exhibitions, and the first competitions of the season. 

Our first event this Fall was An Evening with Champions at Harvard University in September.  The Haydenettes have been performing in this show for many years.  The event supports Cancer research by donating all of its proceeds to the Jimmy Fund. We skated our short program.  Although it was very early in the season, our skate was clean and we got great feedback from members of the audience afterward.  One of the most fun parts of this event was getting to warm up with many amazing skaters including Kimmie Meissner, Emily Hughes, Jeremy Abbott, and Ryan Bradley!

October was filled with lots and lots of practicing and team bonding.  The Haydenettes and Lexettes participated in the Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Boston.  Although it was a rainy day, the walk was successful.  Afterward, both teams went out to brunch together.  It was a fun way for us to spend time with the Lexettes.  Later in the month we had been scheduled to perform at the opening of Citi Pond and Bryant Park but were unable to do so because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy.  We were all upset by the devastation the storm caused. 

In November we had our annual Haydenettes Thanksgiving at our teammates’ house.  There was an amazing spread of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and all the other regular Thanksgiving foods, followed by divine desserts.  We celebrated like a true family.  After we finished eating, we watched Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights as a team because it is the theme of our long program this season.  The next weekend we competed in our first competition of the season, the Boston Synchro Classic.  This was a great event for us because we received a lot of feedback from the Judges and Technical Panel on our programs.  With help from them, Saga decided it would be best for us to make a change to our short program music.  Finally, at the end of the month we were able to perform at the Bryant Park Christmas Tree Lighting.  There is something very special about skating in the heart of all the tall buildings and bright lights, just a few blocks away from Broadway.  It is especially fun for the Haydenettes that have never been to New York City before. 

December has been jam-packed with skating and studying for finals! We competed at the Cape Cod Classic earlier this month.  This was the debut of our new short program themed “Addicted to the Thrill.”  It is still very new to us, but we had a good skate.  It was very fun to perform.  We are all excited about this new music! During the long program competition we had a bobble in one of the group lifts, but other than that it was a great skate.  Many of the Haydenettes who grew up on the east coast have been competing at this competition since they were very young, so we all enjoy going and seeing the little skaters that we used to be.  It is humbling and reminds us how far we have come.  We kicked off our break from skating with the Hayden Holiday Show at our home rink. 

 Now, finals are finally over and we are enjoying our Holiday break.  While we are all home relaxing with family and friends, Saga is in Finland, getting married!!! This is a very special time in her life, and we are lucky to be able to experience it with her.  Saga has witnessed most of us experience great changes in our lives including graduating from high school, moving away from home, attending college, or starting to work.  Now, we get to watch a huge milestone in her life.  We can not wait to get back on the ice with her next week to practice, and most importantly, hear about the wedding!!!!

Happy Holidays!!!

Tessa and Audrey