Well, the skating season is officially OVER!
This will be a little boring for most people, but I want to write this for my own memory, so feel free to skip this post...if you do read it, I'll understand if you don't make it to the end :)
First, I have to go back to March 20th, when five of my skaters attended a test day in Stirling.
I want to make sure that I mention this test day because it was Alyssa's FIRST test day! She tried her Dutch Waltz and Canasta - unfortunately she made a little mistake when doing her Canasta (she started to do a progressive instead of a swing roll), which resulted in a retry. Poor Alyssa is such a hard worker, and isn't used to failure, so she was pretty heartbroken with a 'fail'. I'm always sad for my girls when they have to retry tests, but it's part of testing, so it was a good lesson for her.
Leah tried her Swing and Willow - it was the third time she tried the Swing, so we were all relieved to see a 'pass' on that test sheet!!! Unfortunately she'll have to retry her Willow, hopefully not two more times though ;)
The other three girls, Jillian, Britteny and Kate all tried the Ten Fox - Jillian will have to retry, but the other two are moving onto the Fourteenstep!
To be honest, I was disappointed with the overall results from this test day - only four out of seven tests passed - the girls all did their best, I guess we just had a tough judge?
Now, I had submitted four other tests to the Stirling test day, but they didn't get in due to scheduling problems. So, after returning from Florida, I was back on the ice for a test night in Tweed.
The results were a little better at this test night - Jillian passed her Preliminary FreeSkate, Leah passed her Junior Bronze FreeSkate and Britteny passed the elements portion of her Junior Bronze FreeSkate (she only tried half).
Britteny also tried her Junior Bronze Skills (for the second time), and unfortunately has to retry them again. She tried them back in December and failed, and she was so nervous to try them again, I think she actually skated them worse this time.
And, finally, we had our year end Awards Banquet on Thursday, April 7th.
A picture of me with seven of the eight kids I coach (the eighth skater couldn't make it)....
Left to right: Keegan, Ella, Britteny, me, Alyssa, Leah, Jillian and Hannah. Kate is missing.
Three of my skaters won awards: Ella won for Pre-Junior Proficiency, Kate won for Sr. Achievement and Britteny won for Sportsmanship!
The skaters vote for the Sportsmanship award, and it's the second year in a row that one of my skaters has won - makes me a very proud coach!
Here are some of the award winners...
Front Row, Left to Right: Jamie, Leigha, Mykelti and Sydney
Back Row, Left to Right: Kara, Madison, Ella and Britteny
Normally I would have a post or two about the year-end carnival too, but it happened while we were in Florida, so I didn't actually get to see the show. I was still involved in the preparations before going away, I just missed the big day itself...which was kinda nice because I always find that day VERY stressful.
So, I've put the skates away...for now! I have at least one skater interested in doing some summer skating, so if the schedule allows it, we'll be back on the ice in July or August! Until then, I'll be enjoying the time away from the arena...but missing my girls (and my one boy)!
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