At 16, Connie Kapak is a typical teenager with a boyfriend.
That’s where the normality stops as Kapak begins year two in the Oval High Performance Programs in Calgary.
The Vernon speed skating phenom left for full-time training in Calgary last summer and helped Team Alberta pocket a bronze medal in the 3,000-metre short track race at the Canada Winter Games in Prince George.
Coaching changes were recently made by national officials. Kapak was mainly guided by Aaron Clarke last year and will get to know her new coaches as Stage 2 daily dryland sessions go from 2-6 p.m. until June 15. They get Sundays off.
“My first season, I improved a lot,” said Kapak, who at 13, won all six Can Am International Junior World Cup short track races as the second youngest of 207 skaters from around the world.
“We had really great coaches in Calgary and I met my season goal at going to the Canada Winter Games and I actually came out with a bronze so I exceeded my expectations there. I got personal bests in every distance and I got accepted into the training level that I wanted for next season (Stage 2).”
Kapak and teammates will jumpstart the 2015-16 competitive season with a meet Aug. 29 in Calgary. They are in Richmond from Nov. 20-22, head to Sherbrooke Dec. 18-20 and then attend the Canadian Junior Championships, Jan. 18-20, in Fredricton.
There are 10 skaters in the Stage 2 training group, including Matthew Daly, 19, of the Ontario development team, and Winnipeg’s Christian Liebzeit, 18, last year’s Canadian age class champion.
Kapak, whose father, Pete Kapak accompanied her to Calgary, is excited about the new coaching group.
“It doesn’t really matter that much to me. It’s nice to have the same coach, but at the same time, all the coaches that we’ve had sub in have been really nice and taught me a lot of different things and different opinions and coaching styles. There’s just more to learn.”
Kapak went to Sir Winston Churchill Secondary last year, but is switching to Bishop Carroll this fall, a self-directed school where she can better balance books and training.
A junior, Kapak made strides her first year at the Oval and expects more improvement.
“You don’t want to move your feet faster, you just want your technique to be stronger and that’ll actually be that helps you move faster. After you get your technique, you can put more pressure on the ice and that’s actually how you get speed other than just moving your feet faster.”
The 5-foot-5 Kapak says her endurance improved so she notices she can last longer in races.
She will skate at a week-long training camp next month at Kananaskis and then take some time off at the family cabin near Kamloops.
She’s high on the comraderie shown by her fellow skaters.
“We have such a strong team on and off the ice that you just feel you have so much support. Even if you have a race together and one beats the other, once you get off the ice, you don’t talk about that. You actually go and talk to your coach together about what you could have done better.”
While in Vernon a few months ago, Kapak visited her old school at VSS, spending the day with good friend Tasia Thomas and visiting with teachers Mike Allen and Cliff Acob, who fully endorsed her skating career when she was in Grades 8-9.
