High School and Collegiate Team Skating Competitions

[Sylvia]

He [Jason Brown] was his HS "team captain" at the inaugural HS competition on Monday. Got lost on the way to the rink, ran in threw his skates on, got a 30 second warm up for the jumps segment AND......


hit the boards on the landing of his jump combo.

Was he OK, and did his team win?

He was fine (just a little embarassed). I believe they did win the "A" group of the competition.

Could you start a thread topic about high school skating teams? I didn't even know there was such a thing!

I'll start things off...

Here's information on how they are run in Michigan (maybe the longest-running series, starting in 1999): http://mihs.sk8stuff.com/

Turns out the high school competition in which Jason Brown participated on March 12 was Illinois' inaugural high school team competition -- see the announcement: http://skatingcouncilofillinois.org/...ompetition.pdf

The 2012 Ohio High School Team Figure Skating Competition was held on February 11-12, 2012 -- more info: http://www.shakerfsc.org/hs-competition

The New England region has a very active high school program as well - here's an announcement for a competition on May 6 in Dedham, MA: http://neicc.org/download/2012%20HS%...nouncement.pdf

Informational links via USFS:

High School Skating Clubs and Teams (brochure): http://www.usfsa.org/Content/HighSch...bsandTeams.pdf

"How to start a High School Program": http://www.usfsa.org/Content/Setting...2010-2011_.pdf

[mskater93]

Thanks for doing this, Sylvia. Yes, SVSC has been trying to work with the Michigan Series organizers, but still ran into some snags with a couple of the area HS. Michigan clubs/skaters/high schools worked with the MHSA so that it is now recognized as a state championship. The skaters in Michigan get varsity letters for participating on the HS team at most of the schools who participate. It has been a great way to involve figure skaters in the HS athletic programs and make them feel more a part of their HS as opposed to ignored.

I believe Colorado also is or has been kicking off something similar as is Wisconsin.

[dorispulaski]

I find this so encouraging, as well as the increased popularity of synchro! The more figure skating grows a base of local team sports, the more popular I believe it will be. Especially, if things grow to the point that colleges include the sport and offer scholarships to top skaters, similar to the way that top gymnasts go to college after their competitive days, often times.

How about the LA area? Does anyone know whether something is being organized there?

[mskater93]

The Illinois comp was a very simple one: Jumps divided by group A, B, and C, Spins divided by group A, B, and C, Moves divided by A, B, and C, and a "survivor" competition divided by A, B, and C. Unfortunately, all the skaters fell into category A (unrestricted level) and B (no higher than Intermediate FS/Novice MIF test) and there were no C (no higher than Prejuvenile FS/Juvenile MIF). :(

It could end up being very encouraging and providing scholie money to skaters! There IS a college competition format starting to gain in popularity as well, but as of yet, it's all club sport related. Here's the link for collegiate: http://www.usfsa.org/Programs.asp?id=45

[dorispulaski]

That's awesome news!

Is there any person that is the head organizer of this sport, who would know all about everything?

[Sylvia]

Is there any person that is the head organizer of this sport, who would know all about everything?

What do you mean?

Doris, can you change my original thread title to include collegiate team competitions? Something like: "High School and Collegiate Team Competitions"... I wonder if there are similar programs outside the United States?

[mskater93]

Is there any person that is the head organizer of this sport, who would know all about everything?

I would guess whichever committee chair that is responsible for programs at USFS would know.

[dorispulaski]

No problem.

And I just started a thread in International Competitions for the World Jr Synchro championships, which start tomorrow.

US Figure Skating has a find a High School Team page:

http://www.usfsa.org/Programs.asp?id=67

They have info on how to start a program.

Only 3 events came up

From last year:

March 26, 2011
2011 Detroit High School Skating Finals in Ann Arbor Ice Cube, 2121 Oak Valley Drive, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103

One event just over
2/11/2012
2012 Ohio High School Team Figure Skating Championship in Thornton Park Ice Arena, 3011 Warrensville Ctr. Road, Shaker Heights, Ohio 44122


and this one yet to come
May 6, 2012
2012 New England High School Figure Skating Club Competition in Boch Ice, 1105 East Street, Dedham, Massachusetts 02026

The USFS contacts for the high school program are:

Figure Skating Programs Manager
Brenda Glidewell
p: 719.635.5200
f: 719.635.9548


National Vice Chair, School Programs
Dorothy Tank

Their email are given on the linked page.

[gkelly]

Glidewell? With a name like that she's destined to skate!

[Sylvia]

Article titled "Highland Park [Jason Brown's school] wins Illinois High School Figure Skating Competition": http://highlandpark.suntimes.com/spo...mpetition.html

Includes a photo gallery: http://highlandpark.suntimes.com/pho...story=11326971

One event just over
2/11/2012
2012 Ohio High School Team Figure Skating Championship in Thornton Park Ice Arena, 3011 Warrensville Ctr. Road, Shaker Heights, Ohio 44122

I posted this link to the event/results page for this Ohio HS competition earlier: http://www.shakerfsc.org/hs-competition

Thanks for modifying the thread title, Doris!

ETA: USFS' Intercollegiate Team Skating information page: http://www.usfsa.org/Programs.asp?id=89
Upcoming events:
[Eastern] March 17-18, 2012 University of Delaware Intercollegiate Competition University of Delaware Newark, Del.
April 21-22, 2012 U.S. Intercollegiate Championships Colorado College Colorado Springs, Colo.

[dorispulaski]

The Jason Brown's HS meet article had a couple of interesting facts we haven't posted so far:

Duke. Michigan State. Indiana. Syracuse.

Sounds like a pretty good Final Four for your NCAA March Madness college basketball bracket.

But those schools have something else in common besides being hotbeds for college hoops.

They all have figure-skating teams.

All told, there are about five dozen collegiate figure-skating programs, and U.S. Figure Skating actually holds a collegiate national championship in the sport, although it crowns individual champions and not team champs.

and

Krentz noted that in Michigan, there are 60 schools competing in their state championships

[Sylvia]

But the bolded part of the article below is wrong since there is an annual Intercollegiate Team Championships (to be held this year in April in Colorado Springs, as I posted above):

All told, there are about five dozen collegiate figure-skating programs, and U.S. Figure Skating actually holds a collegiate national championship in the sport, although it crowns individual champions and not team champs.

ETA link to last year's Intercollegiate Team Championships event/results page -- University of Delaware won, followed by Dartmouth College and Boston University: http://www.usfsa.org/event_details.asp?id=44951
Past U.S. National and international competitors that participated include Laney Diggs (UC Berkeley), David Leenen (Boston U.), Maria Sperduto and Victoria Rackohn (both Dartmouth), as well as past National men's competitors Schuyler Eldridge and Christopher Fernandes; I also recognize many skaters' names from Regional/Sectional competitions.

March 2011 press release about the 2011 Intercollegiate Team Championships hosted by the University of Michigan: http://www.usfsa.org/Story.asp?id=45864

This competition is the culmination of the Intercollegiate Competition Series, in which colleges participated in three conference events in their respective sections (Eastern, Midwestern and Pacific Coast) throughout the year, earning team points for each skater's placement in an individual event. The teams that collected the most points throughout the season qualified to compete at the U.S. Intercollegiate Team Championships. Approximately 30 colleges entered the series, with the top three from each section qualifying.
...
Intercollegiate team skating began in 1996. Colleges can have any number of athletes on their teams but are limited to a maximum of 35 starts per competition. No more than five athletes per college may enter a senior-level event, and no more than three from a college may enter any other particular event. The restriction on entries encourages teams to strategize to earn the maximum points with their athletes.

Boston University has won each of the last two U.S. Intercollegiate championships. Prior to that, Dartmouth College was the dominant program, winning the title every year from 2004-08.

[iskaterkay]

Hi, I'm a longtime lurker of the GS forums, but I thought I'd jump in on this one! I live in the metro Detroit area and actually stopped skating just before high school because of cost, though my high school did have a figure skating team. I picked up skating again when I got to college and found the open collegiate synchronized skating team. Since then, the team has evolved into an intercollegiate freestyle team. Though Oakland University is not super competitive yet due to the program being so new, I am excited to see where this will go. We receive a lot of support from the school, which gives about $6,000 a year to the team. That pretty much covers ice bills, along with some other things. OU is located just 20 minutes away from the Detroit Skating Club.

[dorispulaski]

iskaterkay, Welcome to posting at Golden Skate! We hope you will keep posting!

We'd like to hear more about the college programs. A lot of our members are younger skaters, and there isn't a lot of discussion about college programs-I'm glad you're telling them about them!

[macy]

Thanks for doing this, Sylvia. Yes, SVSC has been trying to work with the Michigan Series organizers, but still ran into some snags with a couple of the area HS. Michigan clubs/skaters/high schools worked with the MHSA so that it is now recognized as a state championship. The skaters in Michigan get varsity letters for participating on the HS team at most of the schools who participate. It has been a great way to involve figure skaters in the HS athletic programs and make them feel more a part of their HS as opposed to ignored.

I believe Colorado also is or has been kicking off something similar as is Wisconsin.

oh if only that were the case at every high school in MI. my high school didn't consider skating a sport and didn't recognize it, so no varsity letter for me. my school only had about five skaters when i was there and we were the odd ones out. my high school team didn't even have anything to do with my school.

but on the contrary HS teams are super fun. it's very laid back and a great time for bonding with your friends.