Coach Dalilah Sappenfield

[Glory]

Coach Dalilah Sappenfied

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Congratulations to Coach Dalilah (De) Sappenfield on a tremendous season with her Colorado/Broadmoor Pair teams.

Senior National Pairs Champions - Keauna McLaughlin/Rockne Brubaker (AWESOME)

Senior Pairs Competitors- CaitIin Yankowskas/John Coughlin-6th place, Amber Wehrle/Nick Kole, Meeran Trombley/Larry Ibarra

Junior Pairs Champions- Jessica Rose Paetsch/Jon Nuss
Junior Pairs Competitors-Lisa Moore/Justin Gaumond, Claire Davis/Nathan Miller

Novice Pairs Champions- Brynn Carman/Christopher Knierim
Novice Pairs Silver Medalists-Brittany Chase/Andrew Speroff

Intermediate Bronze Medalists-Haven Denny/Brandon Frazier

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[Tonichelle]

kwanfan1212 calls her group the 'factory'

 

[dorispulaski]

Sappenfield is to US Pairs as Shpilband is to US Dance, and I have exactly the same mixed feeling about these coaches. Too much power, too much sameness of choreography, but some beautiful training techniques.

 

[Tonichelle]

that's been the talk of the week with our group as well, Doris....

 

[olddad]

And some survive her factory and some don't. Her student's parents post regularly on the boards. One started this thread. If anything negative is out there she(coach) will have them do rebuttal,. Just watch. There is a mixed bag of tricks from this coach, and some female skaters have paid the price. She is a great ,in a class by herself,technician, and the boys do love to hang out at her house. Once you have the boys,you have the power.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Who is Dalilah Sappenfield? to have produced

3 gold medal Pair winners at the 2008 US Nationals.

Keanu/Rockne - Seniors
Paetsch/Nuss - Juniors
Carman/Knerin - Novice.

What a record for any one Coach!!! Anyone know about her?

Joe

 

[Kwanford Wife]

I have no clue... but thank God for her... Maybe, just maybe, the US will stop being an international joke when it comes to pairs... sure, every blue moon we get a team to truly root for, but three... at all three levels? And they're all good?!?Are you serious? How cool is this???

I don't care if she had issues with Sampson, I hope her relationship with US pairs skating continues...

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Sappenfield is to US Pairs as Shpilband is to US Dance, and I have exactly the same mixed feeling about these coaches. Too much power, too much sameness of choreography, but some beautiful training techniques.

Doris - But what about her background (and Spilband, for that matter). Was she a prominent skater in another era? Has she had skaters in previous Nationals?
Anything else?

Joe

 

[dorispulaski]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Shpilband

Shpilband was a world junior champion in 1983 with his partner, Tatiana Gladkova. He currently uses Marina Zoueva, who was the choreographer for Gordeeva & Grinkov, as his house choreographer. Zoueva made it Worlds and Europeans with her partner Vitman (5th at worlds in 1977).

Sappenfield --I don't remember hearing of her skating on the national level. About.com has a biography which sounds like it came from an interview with Sappenfield, and they don't say where and at what level she competed:

http://figureskating.about.com/od/topskatingcoaches/p/dalilah.htm

The most interesting thing is:

Sappenfield came from a family with an acrobatic background. Her family is the famous Medels, a flying trapeze circus family. By using a trampoline, her father taught her how to jump on the ice the way that the circus performers jump in the air.

Sappenfield has been coaching for some time, but her pairs have been more prominent since the twists were upgraded in value in 2006/2007 season. Her pairs have the best twists. My guess is it's the trampoline & gymnastic background, plus the availability of ambitious Broadmoor girls who are tiny and who aren't managing to learn their 3Lz in CO. And of ambitious Broadmoor boys who are too big to do a 3A.

It isn't necessary to be a great skater to be a great coach. Carlo Fassi never placed all that well at worlds for Italy, but he had many, many top level skaters.

 

[Cal Girl]

"Broadmoor boys who are too big to do a 3A."

Have you seen the size of some of these men doing pairs. It is no wonder they have to be paired with young teen girls!

 

[dorispulaski]

Well, it was more polite than saying they are too untalented or such to do a 3A. It's not the size, it's the lack of a 3A and the presence of ambition that does the trick.

It amazes me when there's a tall guy who can pull those big jumps off. There are a few.

Skater tall, like skater fat, is not tall or fat for the general population.

I'd estimate that a "tall" guy is 5'8" or 5'9" by skating standards.

 

[Tonichelle]

aren't most of the "big name" single male skaters around 5'8? That might be average...

Evan Lysacek and Brian Boitano and Robin Cousins... are the ones that come to mind as being overly tall for singles skaters...