This post is part of my final project for class - it is a web version of a hard news story I wrote.
Being prepared and having a routine are the keys to success for a Colorado Springs coach and her students.
Nine teams of skaters from Colorado Springs are preparing for the 2009 US Figure Skating Championships to be held January 18th – 25th in Cleveland. It’s the job of Dalilah Sappenfield, the 2008 Professional Skater’s Association Coach of the Year, to prepare the pairs for the competition.
Make it Routine
The preparation begins long before many of the teams even qualify for the ational championships. The skaters spend months practicing their programs at the World Arena Ice Hall in Colorado Springs. Sappenfield said that her job is to push them during practice until their programs are so natural the movements are routine.
“By the time we get to Nationals my kids know what they are doing,” said Sappenfield. “If they don’t know then I haven’t done my job right.”
A Sign of Success
Based on past results, Sappenfield is doing her job right. Two of the nine teams going to Cleveland are current national champions. Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker will try to defend their championship pairs title. Brynn Carman and Chris Knierim captured the novice level pairs title last year. They will try to do the same as juniors this year. Last year’s junior pairs champion Jessica Rose Paetsch will compete at the senior level with her new partner, Drew Meekins.
Britney Chase and Andrew Speroff placed second at novice last year. Chase, 15, said that she is excited to be returning to the national championships. Last year Chase and her partner had only been skating together for five months.
“We took four pairs tests in two weeks in order to qualify for sectionals just before the deadline last year,” said Chase. “Then a few months later we were at Nationals and we came in second. It all happened so fast.”
Looking To the Future
After such early success, expectations are high for Chase and Speroff who will compete at the junior level in Cleveland. Chase said she knows she that there is a lot of pressure, but she doesn’t have to be nervous if she’s prepared and sticks to the routine. Then, Nationals is just another competition.
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