The Comox Valley Skating Club will kick off their fall/winter season with a three-day Future Stars Training Camp featuring two-time Canadian championship silver medallist (2009 and 2010) and 2010 Olympic team member Vaughn Chipeur.
“This is a very exciting event that is drawing skaters from many areas of the Island,” said CVSC coach Greg Ladret. The Sept. 7-9 session at the Comox Valley Sports Centre includes both on-ice and dryland training. Enrolment is limited to 20.
New to the CVSC schedule this season is a Syncro Skating class for anyone 14 and over. “We hope this will provide an opportunity to many skaters who felt that they had done what they wanted to with their free skating and are looking for a new avenue in their skating. In time we would like to see this develop into a team,” Ladret said.
“We are also very excited to be welcoming some new out-of-town members. Many saw skater Dustin Lucas in his other passion, musical theatre, while performing (with brother Conor) in the CYMC production of Les Mesirables.”
Ladret noted skaters spread their wings again this summer with several members taking advantage of being out of school to train in other locations. Jade Paganelli spent three weeks in Ontario including a week at the Mariposa Seminar in Barrie at the end of June, and was invited to the Prospect Team Assessment Camp in Vancouver Aug. 20.
In July, Peyton Meiers, Shayna Usipuik, Rachelle Beauchamp, Kaya Leslie and Jade Paganelli trained in Parksville, while Meghan Taylor spent her summer training in Vancouver.
In late July, CVSC began a three-and-a-half-week summer training camp, with the above mentioned skaters along with several other club members joined by out-of-town skaters Hailey Dickson Grieves from Campbell River, Emma Cullen from Fernie (who will both be joining the local club to train with coaches Dawn and Greg this season) and from Prince Edward Island Grace and Jessica Godfrey, younger sisters of former CVSC skater and student of Dawn Ladret, Aaron Van Cleve, who represented Germany at the 2012 ISU World Figure Skating Championships.
With the help of coaching friends Leslee and Larry Rushton from Parksville, Dawn looked after the training here while Greg spent the summer working in New York, returning to a position he had held there from 2001-2008. Summer training wrapped up with several members competing at the BC Summer Skate Competition at Burnaby 8 Rinks.
For information on skating go to comoxvalleyskatingclub.ca, or send an e-mail to greg@skatingcoach.ca.
– Comox Valley Skating Club
