2024-2025 Newsletter #4

A note from the President: 

Hi Everyone, we may have been relatively quiet since National Showcase but a lot has been happening in the background. So much planning goes into every season to bring well rounded programs to you, our members! This newsletter contains a summary of past, present, and future activities!

If you are not a club member, we welcome you to our website and newsletters. If you wish to receive all club communications regarding competition and club updates, consider becoming an associate member. It does not interfere with your current club affiliation and gives you access to our most current information. The cost is only $60.

2025 Competition Planning:

Winter Skate is scheduled for Feb 9, 2025. It is a critique session for adults preparing for their competition season as well as high school maneuvers events.

Spring Jubilee is scheduled for May 9-10, 2025 and will offer Excel, Aspire, Showcase, and Well-Balanced Freestyle events. We will not be offering solo or partnered dance events.

Silicon Valley Open (SVO) is scheduled for August 8-9, 2025 and will hopefully be an approved NQS series event. We’ve applied to be included in the series and are awaiting a response from the USFS.

Workshop led by Olympians Polina Edmunds and Max Aaron: (TBD)

I am in discussions with Polina, Max, and rink management to bring a power packed, fun filled six hour clinic to the San Jose facility. Even though we have six rinks, it is exceedingly difficult to find a six hour block but Candy is committed to finding time for us.  Stay posted – I will share as more information becomes available. Potentials sessions include:

On-ice:

-Skating skills clinic

-Jump clinic

-Spin clinic

-Performance/Choreography clinic

Off-ice:

-Conditioning clinic (running and jumping)

-Flexibility clinic

-Dance class clinic

-Speech/Q+A (all skaters, parents, and coaches welcome to sit in)

-IJS seminar with national and international judges and technical specialists

Webinars for College Application Strategies and More:

The USFS has had a series of webinars discussing optimizing skating experience in college application and skating after high school. You can find their recordings in Members Only under Skating Opportunities > High School > Overview > Educational Opportunities (bottom of the page).

High School Team:

The High School Team is growing by leaps and bounds under the guidance of captain, Joanna Lee and vice-captain, Ethan Yan. Last year, we had nine members and this year, we have 15! You may recall how successful the team was last year and we are looking forward to even more fun events this year. If you are of high school age and are interested in participating in virtual and live events, contact Liz McGlauflin at secretary@peninsulaskatingclub.org.

Holiday Show: (December)

Sixteen members of the high school team and the junior board have combined forces to create and perform a number to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” in this year’s big holiday show in the arena. The show is on Dec 15 at 2pm so be sure to attend this wonderful celebration!

RECAPS:

The 2024 Excel Series: (July)

The purpose of the Excel Series is to offer young athletes an exciting and competitive environment that motivates them to focus on strengthening their program components and advancing their technical skills each season. Excel is an opportunity for skaters who seek a different approach to performing from the highly competitive standard track.  Every year, we are excited to see significant growth in the Excel series. This year, we had 23 participants with five qualifying for the Excel National Finals.

National Finalists:

Participants:

2024 National Showcase: (August)

The National Showcase Competition is an annual non-qualifying competition held by U.S. Figure Skating that fuses artistic creativity with skating for single skaters, duets, ensembles of 3–7 and production numbers of 8–30 skaters of all levels, from no-test to adult. With the use of props, elaborate costumes and theatrical performance, showcase fuses figure skating with artistic creativity.

The Peninsula Skating Club, over six action packed days, proudly hosted the 2024 National Showcase, welcoming over 650 skaters with 1,500 starts. It was one of the biggest competitions in the history of Showcase and during registration, we watched the number of entries grow with amazement. Scheduling was a feat of its own with 99 events, 13 different types of practices, and 342 practice sessions.  We were delighted to have 27 club members participate with two of our skaters qualifying for the adult parade of champions. A special shout-out to Glenda Lindsey Olivera and Kathy Eppick (Kathy placed 12th out of 25 in the parade)! Congratulations to all of our participants:

The 2024 National Solo Dance Series: (September)

Solo dance offers athletes an exciting and competitive environment to participate and grow their ice dance skills without having to compete or train with a partner. Skaters can compete in the National Solo Dance Series, with the top finishers from each level earning the opportunity to compete at the National Solo Dance Final. We have a small but dedicated group of solo dancers who qualified for the National Solo Dance Finals. Congratulations!

2024 National Qualifying Series:

The NQS is the standard track that leads to qualifying for the US Figure Skating Nationals. It has become highly competitive with the skating standards increasing every year. This year, we saw outstanding performances and growth in maturity and strength from our NQS skaters. Congratulations to Arsen and Ethan for qualifying for junior men and Hana, Blake, Katerina, Dimitry, and Jeffrey for qualifying for dance.

Participants