A look into the Ohio University Synchronized Skating Club Team

Bird Arena is home to a D1 and D2 hockey team, skating classes and other hockey leagues, but most don’t know that the arena also houses a synchronized skating team. The team, currently composed of 9 girls, practices year round for competitions and other performances. Anything from lifts, jumps and spins are performed in unison by the team, and most movements are performed in a link between each skater. Therefore, teamwork and communication is vital. 

They are self-run and mostly self-funded. Grace Shah, a junior studying health service administration and business, serves as the team’s coach and captain. They also hold fundraisers such as “50-50 raffle” at home hockey games, but receive most of their funding from their dues. Although, with the prolonged close of Bird Arena, the team did see some assistance from the university. 

“This year they gave us $3,000 which is more than they have ever given us, which we appreciate a lot, and it helped out a lot,” Shah said. 

When all teams were displaced because of the arena’s construction during the fall semester, most were sent to a rink in West Virginia for practices. 

“We were waking up at 3:30 to 4 every morning, and driving an hour and a half to West Virginia. The rink was 10 times colder, and it was just terrible… It really was a struggle not having Bird open,” said Joey Windover Noble, junior health service administration major.  

Balancing classes with these early morning call-times wasn’t easy, especially for the team’s freshmen, who had just begun their first college classes. 

“It was just hard to work around with your schedule, especially getting like three hours of sleep every night,” said first year hearing, speech and language sciences major, Zoe Brezina.

The rink reopened this January, which was later than previously expected due to construction delays.

“We’ve definitely been through a lot as a team, and right now we’re definitely figuring all of our stuff out. We just got Bird Arena back…Now that we’re here, we’re actually able to work, and we’re actually improving,” said Windover Noble.

A typical season is very busy for the synchronized skating team, according to Shah. 

“We start off with boot camp and try to work out our program. We spend two hours on the ice each day, and it’s really intense… We do three competitions hopefully, throughout the year, and multiple performances, whether it be the showcase performance or the hockey game performances,” said Shah. “We practice five times a week for an hour each time. We come back for winter break for a week to do an intersession where we skate for two hours each day for one week, and then we head off to competition. We really find that as our team bonding week, and that’s when a lot of us got really, really close, which I love when that happens.” 

The team is currently focused on their upcoming competition, Tri State Competition in Mentor, Ohio. Competitions are an exciting time for the team, but require a lot of commitment and teamwork. 

“We basically all hop in a car, drive up to the competition, stay in a hotel and watch some of the other teams before us. Then finally, they take us through a tunnel or a door, and we just somehow end up on the ice. It’s very fast, and it feels like an adrenaline rush. It feels like you’re just going out to practice, but then you get out there and there’s a bunch of people everywhere,” said Windover Noble when asked about the experience of competition.

“Usually I’m not that nervous or worried about competitions because I know at the end of the day we’re just going to do our best. Whatever happens, happens. We don’t go into competitions with the mindset that we’re gonna get first place. We just have a good time, and if we can beat someone, that’s wonderful, but that’s not our main priority,” said sophomore Lauren Gerbitz, who serves as treasurer for the team.  

The team’s most recent competition was at Synchro, Illinois. They came in fourth place. 

“The girls were really nervous for the last competition. Our goal was just to beat one team, and we did succeed at that last competition when we medaled. We all watched the video, and we were so very proud of how we did,” said Shah. 

Although the team is a close-knit group, they struggle with engagement from the university and Athens community. Most of the girls stated that they themselves didn’t know the team existed when coming to Ohio University. 

“I want [people] to know that we are a very hard working group. Even though we’re very hard working, we love to have fun and do what we love. We would like for our name to be known more, so we can get more skaters to come in because I know there’s a lot of seniors in high school who think they can’t make these upper level teams, but they don’t even know about us. So I would love for them just to know we exist, and we would love for them to come here,” said Shah. 

More information can be found @ohiosynchro on Instagram or by emailing [email protected].

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