- Joined
- Aug 23, 2003
I don’t think that the issue was that W&P were allowed to “grow on their own” but rather that they debuted at Canadians in 2007, won the bronze medal then and went off to Jr. Worlds where they finished third and then to Sr. Worlds where they barely made it out of qualifying and finished 20th overall. They moved up to senior the next season, having been together for only a few months and it took them time to come together as a team. They finished well back in the pack at their GP events and 17th overall at Worlds in 2008. W&P skated on the GP circuit for two full seasons before finally winning a bronze medal in 2009 at Skate Canada and I strongly believe it was the boost of skating in Kitchener that did it for them because I’d never seen them skate that well.
I don’t think it’s reasonable to compare Skate Canada’s development plan for a team that’s been together for 10 years and has succeeded at every level they’ve competed at with one which has only been together for a few months with very mixed results.
I fell in love with Andrew Poje when he just up from Novice and skating NAC’s with his former partner. I remember sitting at Canadians in 2006 watching Andrew drag poor Alice Graham around the ice and one of our group said “If we take up a collection, could we buy Andrew Poje a better partner?”. It just made us sad to see a boy who was that good, trying to skate with someone who was incapable of keeping up with him. Everyone was thrilled when he teamed up with Kaitlyn, but I think that bronze medal at Jr. Worlds raised expectations for this team going into seniors that they were in no way ready to fulfill.
I’m very happy that G&P can’t go anywhere until next fall. I really think that they need this time for work out the “new”, build trust and confidence in one another, and to put the miles in to allow this team to gel. Piper seems to be working very hard to raise the level of her skating.
I do agree that there has been a lot of hype around this team which is never a good thing, unless of course, they come out next season and get the kind of scores internationally that they’ve been getting at home, or at least something close to it.
I don’t think it’s reasonable to compare Skate Canada’s development plan for a team that’s been together for 10 years and has succeeded at every level they’ve competed at with one which has only been together for a few months with very mixed results.
I fell in love with Andrew Poje when he just up from Novice and skating NAC’s with his former partner. I remember sitting at Canadians in 2006 watching Andrew drag poor Alice Graham around the ice and one of our group said “If we take up a collection, could we buy Andrew Poje a better partner?”. It just made us sad to see a boy who was that good, trying to skate with someone who was incapable of keeping up with him. Everyone was thrilled when he teamed up with Kaitlyn, but I think that bronze medal at Jr. Worlds raised expectations for this team going into seniors that they were in no way ready to fulfill.
I’m very happy that G&P can’t go anywhere until next fall. I really think that they need this time for work out the “new”, build trust and confidence in one another, and to put the miles in to allow this team to gel. Piper seems to be working very hard to raise the level of her skating.
I do agree that there has been a lot of hype around this team which is never a good thing, unless of course, they come out next season and get the kind of scores internationally that they’ve been getting at home, or at least something close to it.