Beaverton Competition

Last weekend I traveled to Beaverton for the last skating competition of the season. Where is Beaverton you ask? Good question, I had no idea either. But, it's near Orillia - which is about three hours from Belleville. So, it was a long way to go for a competition, but I made a bit of a mistake earlier this season, so we had no other choice. A club nearby (as in 40 minutes away) usually has a competition in early March, so I was planning on taking my skaters there - however, they weren't hosting the competition this year, and by the time I realized that, I had missed the registration deadline for the only other competition in our area. The girls are used to going to two competitions a year, so the options for our second one were either Beaverton or Ottawa - I figured when the parents heard our options, they would decide one would be good enough, instead, they all wanted to go to Beaverton...so, we did.

I drove up on the Friday night because I had to be there for 8:15am. The drive was fine, better then I expected it to be - on the way out the door, I grabbed a few old CD's, and it was kinda fun to listen to old favourites from my university days. I spent the night at a local hotel, and discovered that I don't sleep well when at a hotel without Curt. I think every little noise woke me up, and it was cold without him in the same bed.

The actual competition went really well though, and my skaters all did really well and I was a very proud coach!

Hannah, who struggled at the competition in January, did very well with her solo, and ended up placing fourth. She really liked the ribbon that she won, it was multi-coloured and she thought it was perfect, she even thought it was better then a medal. Unfortunately, she had a hard time with her elements, and placed last in that event. I have a really hard time deciding where to register Hannah for competitions, and I felt really bad for her as she was doing her elements - it was obvious that the other girls were much stronger, and that she wasn't going to do well. She knew it too, and was in tears by the time she came off the ice - it broke my heart. But, she's a good kid, and after a little reassurance from me that she would do better in that stage next year, I think she was feeling better.

Little Ella did amazing, again! She won her first medal back in January at Shining Waters, and she must have liked how that felt, because she did it again in Beaverton - and this time, she won medals in both events. And, not just any medal, but gold medals! She was so happy with herself, and enjoyed being up on the podium - so much so, that she spent a few extra seconds up there making sure everyone got pictures of her.


Love this girl!


Ella and I, after her two medals!

Alyssa also did really well, again, and took home two medals. This girl always does well at competitions, and she deserves too, she's a hard worker. This time, she took home gold in her elements and bronze in her solo. Her mom told me that she was a little disappointed with the bronze, but she denied it - and she better not have been. I'm usually pretty quick to set my kids straight if they're too hard on themselves.

And Naomi, another skater who didn't do very well at the competition in January. She's actually struggled all season, and hasn't been making a lot of progress. Her mom and I had discussions about her not coming back to skating next year. So, going into this competition, I did something I would never usually do. Naomi is right on the fence in terms of what stage she should compete at; usually, when I have skaters like that, I bump them to the higher level, and that's what I did with her in January, but then she didn't do well. So, this time, I decided to bump her down, but only because I didn't think she would be coming back, and I wanted her to end on a good note. And that she did - she ended up first in her elements and third in her solo! She was so excited, and so was her mom. And, now they're talking about skating next year?!? Ooops, that kinda kicked me in the butt...it could be hard to explain to them next year that I'm not going to hold her back just so she wins medals, that is NOT my style.

Oh, and one of my Quinte skaters made the trip to Beaverton, too. Unfortunately, Kailtin didn't have a very good day - she finished last and second last in her two events. She didn't skate her best solo though, and she knew that; she actually got a little confused and lost her spot at one point - you see it all the time, but none of my skaters have done that before, it was stressful. She had to do some tough elements too, things we hadn't worked on prior to preparing for the competition (I only starting giving Kaitlin lessons in November, and only give her one lesson a week).

And, to finish the day off, I got to drive home in a snow storm, and the three hour trip turned into four hours! Luckily, I left at the same time as one of my Tweed families, and they made sure to keep me close, which I appreciated! Even though I was still driving alone, it was good to have someone I knew in a vehicle right in front of me.

So, competitions have wrapped up for the season, and now it's on to carnival preparation. We started practices for that this week, and although it's a busy time, I'm already excited for the big day!