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Synchronized Skating
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2007-2008 Season Recap
Our season began with the start of the school year in September with a series of welcome skates. New skaters joined returning skaters for an on ice introduction to the University of Wisconsin Figure Skating Club. For freestyle oriented skaters, the welcome skates were the first of freestyle sessions which the club hosted every other Sunday afternoon. Those interested in the synchronized skating team had the opportunity to learn and practice team skating exercises led by captains Andrea Litzow and Claire Marcus.
Mid September we had synchronized skating team try-outs with our coaches Jill Herbst and Carrie McGree. The number of skaters at try-outs was phenomenal, and by the end, we had a team of 26 girls. Since our team purpose is to encourage the participation and enjoyment of college students in skating, our team came up with a system to rotate skaters. All skaters who met the test requirements were able to skate in at least one competition.
We began skating as a team, practicing every Sunday and Tuesday night and Thursday morning. Our first goal as a team was to choreograph our program. Before the start of the school year, returning skaters had selected a theme: Superheroes. The final cut of our music featured themes from Wonder Woman, Batman, Spiderman, Transformers, and Superman. These characters and their fight against the villains and forces of evil served as inspiration for our program choreography.
Our program was ready for our first competition of the season, the Kalamazoo Synchronized Skating Kick-Off Classic. We drove vans to Kalamazoo, and after arriving at the rink, we began to prepare for our performance. Our preparations involved a routine that we use for every competition including doing hair, make-up, and off ice warm-ups to our favorite Wisconsin songs. When the time came, we took the ice dressed in our new practice dresses. We skated well during our first performance of the season, where we placed second. We also had a judge's critique and received many comments on how we could improve.
Back in Madison, we made a few changes to our program and worked on perfecting all of our elements. We had only two weeks to prepare for our next competition, the Dr. Richard Porter Synchronized Classic in Ann Arbor. The Tuesday before we competed, we invited our friends to watch our practice and gave a mini exhibition. Saturday, the day before we competed, we drove to Ann Arbor where we practiced and prepared for our performance Sunday morning. Dressed for the first time in our sparkly red Wonder Woman dresses with superhero belts and gauntlets, we soared onto the ice dramatically improving our performance since Kalamazoo. We ended up placing seventh, and we returned home ready to put in more hard work and practice.
After returning to Madison, we spent the final two weeks of our semester working on our program. We took a break from skating spending a week focusing on final exams, before heading separate ways for Winter break. Though we weren't skating as a team, most of us continued skating throughout the break to stay in shape when we returned in January. We were back practicing together during the week before school started. In preparation for Midwestern Sectionals, we made significant changes to our program during our most intense practices of the season.
On Thursday, January 31st, following an early morning practice in Madison, we took a long bus ride to Nashville, Tennessee for Midwesterns. We spent Friday gearing up for our competition with practices both on and off the ice. We also did some sightseeing in downtown Nashville and visited the Musicians Hall of Fame. Saturday we were focused on our skating, beginning with our official on ice practice. Back at the hotel, we had off ice practice and had a special visit from Robin and Robin, two superheroes who came to wish us luck in our skating. We arrived at the rink excited to skate. In our dressing trailer we transformed into Wonder Women. We were the first team to perform, and we skated the best program of our competition season earning a score of 73.67. After all the teams in our division had skated, we ended up in seventh place.
Midwesterns was the last competition of our season, but we weren't finished skating or performing. We performed an exhibition at the Beaver Dam Synchronized Skating Competition. We also were invited to perform between games at the Madison Gay Hockey League Championships. To conclude our skating season, we hosted an exhibition at the Shell, featuring solo performances and small group numbers, as well as the synchro team program.
This season wasn't only about our work on the ice, but off the ice we also engaged in team building and social activities. We attended an ALPS course which included a high ropes course as well as games and challenges which helped us cooperate, work as a team, and get to know each other better. Throughout the season, we had a variety of social events including a skate taping party, a spaghetti dinner, a holiday party, and a formal dance.
We also participated in several fundraising activities. We worked with Per Mar as ticket takers and ushers at Wisconsin football, hockey, and basketball games. Other fundraisers included selling Wisconsin Synchronized Skating T-shirts and sending donation letters.
All in all, this year we put in a lot of effort, and we made significant improvements from the beginning of the season growing both individually and as a team.
