Svfsc Club December 7-09

The Sun Valley Figure Skating Club Newsletter December 2009 Upcoming Events & Calendar Notes             

Dec. 8, 2009: Annual SVFSC meeting, 5:30 p.m., home of Kathy Crossen. Dec. 13, 2009: Annual Holiday party for junior skaters, 3-5 p.m. SV Bowling Alley (see article below). Dec. 14 – 19, 2009: US Junior Nationals, Strongsville, OH. Dec. 24, 2009: Sun Valley Company’s Christmas Eve ice show. Jan. 12, 2010: Entry deadline for the SV Winter Games and February 21st test session (see article below). Jan. 14 – 24, 2010: US National Championships, Spokane, WA. Jan. 27 – Feb. 3, 2010: Indoor rink closed due to a convention. Feb. 5 – April 18, 2010: Session #2, Skate with Us - Friday afternoons. Feb. 12 – 28, 2010: Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver, Canada. Feb. 20, 2010: Sun Valley Winter Games (see announcement info below). Feb. 21, 2010: USFS Test Session (deadline for test app. is Jan. 12th). April 17, 2010: Spring Show (Tentative). July 22 – 25, 2010: SV Summer Championships.

SVFSC History: Can You Guess?

Here’s a fun “blast from the past” photo. Look closely as most of these people are familiar faces around the rink. To find out who they are, go to the end of this newsletter!

Winter Games Announcement Online The Sun Valley Winter Games announcement is now online at the club website. The competition includes events for all levels, Basic Skills through Senior. It is scheduled for February 20, 2010. Note that entries are due January 12th! There will also be a USFS test session on Sunday, February 21st. Test applications can be found on our website and are also due on Jan. 12th.

Skaters Achieve Success in Ogden, UT Eight Sun Valley skaters braved Utah’s first snowstorm of the season to travel to the Wasatch Freedom Classic figure skating competition and test session November 13 and 14. The annual Freedom Classic in Ogden offers Freeskate, Artistic, Showcase and Interpretive events for Basic Skills through Preliminary level skaters. Every Sun Valley Figure Skating Club competitor returned home a medalist: Aurora Wilkinson (Freeskate and Showcase), Arizona Semones (Freeskate), Travis Flynt (Artistic), Sheldon Gentling (Artistic), Anastasia DeLance (Freeskate), Tatum Fuller (Freeskate) and Adrielle MacDonald (Showcase). In addition, Isabella Bourret, a Hemingway fourth grader, and Sheldon Gentling, a Community School first grader, passed their USFS Preliminary Moves In The Field test. The skaters were accompanied by their coach and choreographer, Darlin Baker.

Congratulations to all of the competitors and to Isabella & Sheldon! For more information including specific results, please see the December 4th article in the Mountain Express.

Great Job, Shayna! SVFSC skater Shayna Moellenburg finished 10th in Novice Ladies at the Nov. 17-22 Pacific Coast Sectional Championships at Jackson Hole, Wyo. It is interesting to note that the top four skaters were from California and had an arsenal of triple jumps. Shayna, who is coached by Lisa-Marie Allen and Gia Guddat, skated a clean short program and then finished in 10th place after her long. We are all proud of her hard work and training - she earned the rank of 10th-best Novice Ladies skater in the Pacific Coast Section.

You’re Invited: Dec. 13th SVFSC Holiday Party The Sun Valley Figure Skating Club Newsletter – December 2009

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SVFSC Junior members are invited to attend the Club’s annual Holiday Party, Sunday, December 13, 2009, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Sun Valley Bowling Alley. Bowling and pizza will be provided. If you wish to participate in the gift exchange, please bring a wrapped $5.00 gift. Adult supervision will be provided. Please pick up children promptly at 5pm! Questions, call: 208-622-8020.

Parents Corner Moving From Basic Skills into the USFS Testing Structure By Holly Wheeler This month we will focus on those skaters completing the Basic Skills program and moving into the regular US Figure Skating testing structure. Just when you thought you had mastered the system…a new one takes its place! The information here will focus on how the regular US Figure Skating testing and competitive system works once the skater has completed the Basic Skills tests. When moving beyond Basic Skills, your child will be required to take the test at a regular US Figure skating testing session. Your coach will no longer be in charge of administering the test out of the booklets. The skater will take the ice and go through the specific moves for the test and a panel of 1-3 judges will evaluate your child’s required elements and render a pass or retry decision. The judges, many of whom were skaters themselves, or parents of skaters, have many years experience in judging skaters. Most understand the nerves of a first time tester and try to make the skater feel at ease as they go through the testing process. After the test is complete, you will receive a copy of the judge’s sheets for your records. Each judge will score the skater and mark a pass or retry on the sheet. For a one-judge panel it is simply a pass or retry mark. If a 3-judge panel is used, two of the three judges must mark the test as a pass. The first test your child will take is the Pre Preliminary Moves in the Field test. These Moves tests are designed to help the skater learn all of the basic edges, positions, a variety of turns, patterning on the ice, power, and speed and body core strength. These tests are associated with each competitive level in skating. After passing the Moves test your child then can take the Freeskating (freestyle jumps and spins and program to music) portion of the test. So from here on out as skaters advance up the ladder, the process is: Take the Moves test, then take the Freeskate test. All of the tests are specified in the US Figure Skating rulebook. The levels are: Pre Preliminary, Preliminary, Pre Juvenile, Juvenile, Intermediate, Novice, Junior and the The Sun Valley Figure Skating Club Newsletter – December 2009

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final Senior test. It is a good idea to have a copy of the rulebook and to update it when you renew your yearly membership. Remember that the Moves test for each specific level must be passed before the Freeskating test for each level can be taken. Be sure to understand that the Freeskating level determines your child’s competitive level. Although some skaters may pass an additional Moves test beyond their Freeskating level, they are still only able to compete at the level of the Freeskating test passed. So even if you have passed Preliminary Moves (Test # 2 of the 8 moves tests) and still have not passed the Pre-Preliminary Freeskating test, you are a Nontest level competitor. The entire testing structure is a building block for your child’s progression in skating. Generally speaking, skaters will work one Moves test above their Freeskating level so that as the competitive year progresses and they wish to move up to the next level they will be ready to take the Freeskate test. Be sure to understand that the overall goal is to have a well balance skater. Spending equal amounts of practice and lesson time on both the Moves and the Freeskating at the earlier levels will help to lay a good foundation for the later tests and competitions. Coming next month: Moving on to the competition skating and have well-balanced Freeskating programs.

Skating News & Travels Andrzej Dostatni Calls 2010 Skate America in Lake Placid As mentioned in the September 2009 SVFSC newsletter, Andrzej Dostatni (pictured at left working the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics) is an ice dance technical specialist for the International Skating Union. He was getting married when the article was published, so we were unable to confirm his assignments for the 2009 – 2010 competitive season. Here is an update: Andrzej, who is the six-time national champion of Poland, winner of a bronze medal at Skate Canada and longtime ice dancer and artistic director of the summertime Sun Valley Ice Shows (through the 2001 season) recently called Skate America in Lake Placid and the Junior Grand Prix in Poland. He is also scheduled to work the 2010 Junior World Championships, March 8 - 14, 2010 at the De Uithof in The Hague, Netherlands. To better understand the International Judging System (IJS) and the role our three technical specialists (Lisa-Marie Allen, Judy Blumberg and Andrzej Dostatni) serve, check out the informative article on page 48 of the November issue of SKATING magazine. It can also be found online in the archive section of the USFS website. Haley Gans: Skiing Tragedy Hits Close to Home

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Many of SVFSC skaters may remember Haley and her pug Sushi, pictured at left. Haley, 14, died in a tragic skiing accident at the Breckenridge Ski Resort on Friday, November 20th. She hit a tree and died while skiing down her last run. By all accounts, she was an excellent skier. She was wearing a helmet. Haley initially came to Sun Valley to work with Gia Guddat on choreography and to introduce Sushi to Gia's pug Yoda. Haley was unable to hear and Sushi acted as her “hearing” service dog. Sushi and Yoda became instant dog friends and would sit together and watch Haley and Gia on the ice. "I am very grateful for the time that I was able to spend with Haley,” said Gia, “She was very gifted creatively and we had a lot of fun on the ice making up programs. The remarkable thing about Haley was that even though she could hardly hear the music, she could feel the music and interpret it better than anyone. Haley never let her disability get in the way of skating, making friends or having fun." The Sun Valley FSC wishes to express their heartfelt sympathy to Haley’s family. She was a member of the Broadmoor Skating Club where plans are being made to honor her life.

Board News and Business Annual Meeting & Election All club members are invited to attend the annual SVFSC meeting on December 8th at 5:30 p.m., at the Elkhorn home of Kathy Crossen (203 Blue Bell St., Sun Valley). The agenda will include an annual update on Club business, the treasurer’s report, and annual elections. By now you should have received an elections packet from Lisa Broderick, chairperson for the 2009 Nominating Committee. The packet outlined the three committee-recommended nominees: Peggy Baker, Brad Cleveland and Rod Harten; Bios are online and were included in the November issue of the SVFSC newsletter.

Congratulations! Brianna Rego’s Polonium Work Gets Published Congratulations to Brianna Rego, a SVFSC skater turned Stanford academic who is a stellar role model for younger kids. Brianna recently had a paper on polonium in tobacco published in “Isis,” a peer-reviewed journal for the History of Science Society. Her work on polonium is part of her The Sun Valley Figure Skating Club Newsletter – December 2009

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dissertation for her Ph.D. in History of Science at Stanford, where she is also working on a M.S. degree in Geology. Brianna is a 2002 graduate of The Community School. As a Sun Valley skater, she attained three gold medals: Moves, Dance & Free Dance. She passed her Senior Moves when she was 13 or 14 and then her Gold Dances a year later. She is especially proud of passing her Senior Free Dance test because she passed it in 2006, the summer after she graduated from Oberlin College, when she had not been training hours every day! Brianna competed in ice dance at the Intermediate and Novice level and represented the SVFSC at Sectionals and Junior Nationals. She was also the Regional Solo Dance champion two years in a row. Now in her fourth year of the Ph.D. program at Stanford, academics keep Brianna pretty busy, but she loves coming home to Sun Valley and skating in the ice show every summer. She skated in the summer show in high school and then again every summer since she has graduated from college. “I appreciate so many of the lessons I learned from skating and the performance aspect has helped me feel confident in my new life of writing and public speaking,” Brianna shared in an email, “Skating teaches you to fail and succeed on a public stage and this translates to fearlessness, confidence, determination and an ability to take risks. When you get off the ice, everybody who saw you knows how well you skated, so there’s no hiding from your weaknesses and there’s no downplaying your strengths. Skating teaches you to be honest with yourself and to be proud of yourself. If you fail a test, you try again the next month. If you fall, you still finish with a smile. And skating is about setting goals that work for you, one step at a time…And at the end of each program, no matter how well you skated, you still take a graceful bow. Skating is about grace: grace under pressure, graceful losing, graceful winning. And that’s a great lesson to carry through life. Plus, skating is FUN!” Congratulations, Brianna, and thank you for being such an inspiration to our younger skaters!!

SVFSC History: Can You Guess? Think you know the people in the photo at the top of the newsletter? Here they are, clockwise from the left: Nick Maricich, Karen Hold, Steven Cousins, Darlin (only 14 years old!) and her partner D.J. Gray, Scott Hamilton, Linda Fratianne and Scott Irvine! Thank you to Darlin for submitting this “blast from the past!” If you have any old skating photos that would be fun to have published in this newsletter, please submit in .jpg form to [email protected].

More Information The Sun Valley Figure Skating Club Newsletter – December 2009

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More information can be found on the Sun Valley Figure Skating website. Questions about the club can be emailed to: [email protected]. Newsletter submissions are due on the last day of the month to be included in the next month’s edition. Suggestions are greatly appreciated! Please send comments and submissions to: [email protected].

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