The Rossland Figure Skating Club finished off its season with a special awards ceremony Friday night.
President Teri Mack looked back fondly on a year that could have involved no skating at all, as the club began the season without a coach.
Mack said that when the old coach retired due to health reasons they didn’t have many choices, as figure skating coaches are rare in the area.
Coach Sabrina Hinson had been in the area for about six years, Mack said.
“I emailed her because she is the regional coach representative and asked if she knew of anyone who would help the club out. She sent the email out to every coach in the region.”
Hinson assured Mack that if no coach could be found, she would step in.
“We are honoured to have her,” she said about Hinson.
Meanwhile their ice time was also cut from four days to one day a week, which also didn’t help the situation.
Mack said that some of the skaters went to Trail or Castlegar to get extra coaching time.
This is the first year that they’ve finished off the season with a dessert party where medals and trophies were handed out.
Mack, who’s been involved with the club for seven years, said she feels it’s given the girls a great motivater for the end of the season.
Hinson agreed that the season has been a great one.
“We had to cram everything into one day, but it worked out really well and all the skaters achieved a lot this year,” Hinson said.
“A lot of skaters joined so it was good to be able to continue to have a skating program in this community for the kids. There is a real shortage of coaches in this area.
Hinson attributed that to it being difficult to attain the coach certification.
“It’s a lot of work to become a coach,” she explained. “You have to be a certain level skater yourself before you can take the coaching courses. They’re in Vancouver, they cost a lot of money and there’s a lot of work afterwards with it. A lot of people don’t want to put the time, effort and money into it.”
She said her favourite part of being a coach is meeting a lot of new people and seeing the kids achieve things they didn’t think was possible.