After a busy season, the Carleton University Figure Skating Competitive Club looks forward to another year on the ice this upcoming September, according to head coach Laura Kilpatrick.
“It was a really good season, and we had the biggest turnout this year since the team started,” Kilpatrick said. “Even though we only had two competitions this year, lots of skaters had their best seasons.”
Kilpatrick took the position of head coach last season after being assistant coach for the team for the past couple of years.
“I like being able to see people improve throughout the year,” she said. “Also, because I was on a varsity team myself, I know how hard it is to balance everything, so it’s really nice to see everyone put the effort in and put the time in.”
The Carleton figure skating club is going into its 14th competitive year. The club, which was founded in 2002 by a Carleton student, is open to competitive level as well as recreational level skating.
Last year the team had a total of 26 participants, which included both competitive and recreational level skaters. Those who skate at the competitive level attend three main competitions a year on average, the most prestigious being the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) annual competition.
Sofija Mrdja, a member of the school’s competitive club and skater representative for the team, is going into her third year. She said she felt good about the past year but hopes to take what the team learned this past season and improve on it next year.
“I think this year the team bonded really well together,” Mrdja said. “We had a lot of new members, so overall we’re really happy with how well the team all got along. We improved on our synchro from last year, and I think overall there were a lot more medals won at OUAs this year.”
The team is considered a club and therefore does not get varsity recognition and funding. The team gets the majority of its money through fundraising events.
“It’s hard because a lot of the teams we’re competing against are varsity teams, so then they get more treatment, and they sort of have a leg-up coming into competitions,” Mrdja said.
Despite the lack of funding, last season marked the biggest fundraising year to date for the team. They held two bake sales, an off-campus comedy night, and raffled hockey tickets.
The team also holds two shows a year for the community on their home ice—a Christmas show and an end-of-season show.
“It’s really fun when we put on little shows like that because a lot of people don’t know that there’s a skating team,” Mrdja said.
