Supporting Our Fellow Skaters

This weekend, our synchronized skating competition season comes to an end at ISI Nationals in St. Peters. It has been a great year and I look forward to a fun and successful weekend. It will be sad to see our skaters performing a fantastic set of programs for the last time in competition.

Since the competition is being held in our own backyard, the St. Louis skating community has a great chance to demonstrate that we are a vibrant, supportive skating community. We have the opportunity to show clubs from all over the country how well our teams skate and how well we can support one another. To do so, we are asking that our skaters and families cheer for all the teams from the St. Louis area.

We talk a lot about good sportsmanship. We can demonstrate it in a myriad of ways from simply saying “nice skate” to refraining from criticizing an opponent’s performance, music, or costumes. While we may not mean any harm, criticism can sting skaters, parents and coaches. I hope we can all keep that in mind throughout the weekend.

In the end, Knute Rockne was right when he said, “One person practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it.”

Let’s have a great weekend.