2024-2025 Newsletter #5

April 2025

A note from the President: 

Hi Everyone, a lot has been happening in the background. So much planning goes into every season to bring well rounded programs to you, our members! This newsletter contains a summary of past, present, and future activities!

If you are not a club member, we welcome you to our website and newsletters. If you wish to receive all club communications regarding competition and club updates, consider becoming an associate member. It does not interfere with your current club affiliation and gives you access to our most current information and critiques sessions. The cost is only $60.

2025 Competitions and Events:

For series information with key dates: Click Here

For competition dates and locations: Click Here

ISU World Junior Championships 2025

We are so excited to have had two dance teams entered in this elite event. Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski placed second and Hana Maria Aboian and Daniil Veselukhin placed seventh. Both teams are relatively new partnerships and we couldn’t be more proud! Congratulations to both.

Winter Skate occurred on Feb 9, 2025, and was highly successful! Many adults took advantage of the critique session in preparation for their upcoming season and we had two high school teams compete in the maneuver’s events. The Bay Area Skating Team and the PCS team enjoyed the in-person competition and a good time was had by all!

Adult Nationals

AN was held in St, Louis Park, Minnesota from April 3-6. It was, as always, a filled with high energy, love and support filled event. Adult skating is similar to collegiate skating in that the focus is on community and support of your fellow skaters with a little competition thrown in. The smallest waltz jump can earn a standing ovation because we know the work and dedication that goes into it. There are events for levels from bronze through masters with age ranges from 21 to death (as we jokingly call it)! If you are an adult interested, please contact me at president@peninsulaskatingclub.org. I am a showcase skater going strong at 69 so it’s never too late and you are never too old.

Spring Jubilee is scheduled for May 9-10, 2025, and will offer Excel, Aspire, Showcase, and Well-Balanced Freestyle events. We will not be offering solo or partnered dance events. All showcase and Compete USA events are entered via Entryeeze with all others in EMS. We scheduled the competition on Friday and Saturday to avoid Mother’s Day and we’ve been made aware that some AP finals happen on Friday. We are doing our best to mitigate any conflicts. We will be running two rinks on each day.

Silicon Valley Open (SVO) is scheduled for August 8-10, 2025, and is an approved NQS series singles event. In addition to NQS, we will be offering well balanced events but we will not open registration for those events until we have an idea of how many NQS entries we have.

Excel and NQS Critique Sessions were held In March and April, giving our skaters an opportunity to skate their program in front of judges and have in-depth conversations with judges and technical specialists. These sessions give skaters and coaches valuable insight into maximizing scores and enhancing performances. It was a lot of fun, too! We owe a huge thank you to Beth Bottos for running the music and announcing for both sessions.

Annual General Meeting and Picnic: June 14, 2025

Save the date – June 14 – for our annual fun filled picnic and award ceremony. Come play with your fellow club members, vote in your board members, participate in the awards ceremony, and have some pizza! We’ll gather in our usual spot in Kelley Park at the Twin Oaks picnic area with more information to come.

Scholarships:

We are excited to announce that the club is establishing an annual scholarship program for graduating seniors. Two scholarships in the amount of $500 each will be awarded to one high school senior and one college senior. These awards are to help Peninsula club members continue their figure skating life and skating community contributions after graduation. Contributions come in many forms including but not limited to collegiate and standard track skating, becoming an official, serving as club board members, coaching, creating and supporting new teams (synchro, high school, etc). We are grateful to adult skater and longtime club member, Grace Cheng for starting the fund and bringing this idea to the board.

Requirements:

1. 3 year full home club membership including current year

2. Minimum 3.0 GPA (based on a 4.0 scale) or 90% (based on 100% scale) during the last two years

3. Graduating high school senior or graduating college senior

The application form for the 2024-2025 season can be found on our website HERE and is to be submitted by May 25 to president@peninsulaskatingclub.org. Results will be announced mid-June with the awards being held at the General Meeting and Picnic scheduled for June 14. The form must be submitted as the Word document and as an attachment to your email. No drop boxes or google drives, please. Label the file in this format:

“2025 Scholarship Application_Skater’s Name”

Workshop led by Olympians Polina Edmunds and Max Aaron: June 22, 2025

We have a date – June 22! Candy was wonderful and diligent in finding us ice time. I continue to be in discussions with Polina, Max, and rink management to bring a power packed, fun filled clinic in the San Jose arena from 9am – 3pm. Stay posted – I will share as more information becomes available. Potentials sessions include:

On-ice:

• Skating skills clinic

• Jump clinic

• Spin clinic

• Performance/Choreography clinic

Off-ice:

• Conditioning clinic (running and jumping)

• Flexibility clinic

• Dance class clinic

• Speech/Q+A (all skaters, parents, and coaches welcome to sit in)

• IJS seminar with national and international judges and technical specialists

High School Team:

The High School Team is growing by leaps and bounds under the guidance of team manager Liz McGlauflin, captain, Joanna Lee and vice-captain, Ethan Yan. Last year, we had nine members and this year, we have 15! You may recall how successful the team was last year this year, we came in 6th out of 45 teams! In comparison, our teams were much smaller so, well done!! If you are of high school age and are interested in participating in virtual and live events, contact Liz McGlauflin at secretary@peninsulaskatingclub.org.

Team Members:

Peninsula SC High School High Team A and B, first place

Peninsula SC High School Intermediate Team A, fourth place

Peninsula SC High School Intermediate Team B, second place

Peninsula SC High School Low Team, fifth place