Here's a recap from this past weekend's skating competition.
On Saturday all the teams in the competition had a chance to practice at the Giant Center. The Giant Center is located in Hershey, PA and it's the home of the Hershey Bears (a top affiliate of the Washington Capitals). It's a pretty nice sized venue and it was pretty cool being on the ice there. Those professional arenas are nice and warm. Our home practice ice at Twin Ponds is freezing cold (yes, I know that sounds obvious when ice is involved, but it makes a huge difference). Here's a pic of my cousin and friend watching the OJ team practice:
After practice, Roy and I volunteered at the admissions table and sold tickets, programs, and pins. Roy is good at bantering with strangers, especially the ladies, so it was fun. He's also great with little kids and we had Hershey's Kisses on the table for everyone. After volunteering we went home and I had to take a nap. Later on we went out with some friends at the Federal Taphouse in downtown Harrisburg. Future post on that place to come...
On Sunday, we took my nieces to breakfast with Roy's dad because it was his birthday. Afterwards we drove to the Giant Center in time for our next volunteer shift at the team registration desk. Our teams skated later that afternoon. Here is video of our intermediate team:
Here is a video of the adult team:
I wish I had a video of the OJ team but sometimes when you are recording you miss out on actually enjoying the performance. I decided to just enjoy their skate this time. They did great as usual!
I had a really great time at RSI and because it was our home club's event, it was cool getting to see all the behind the scenes operations and being able to be a part of the event in a more personal way. It was much more work than just showing up and skating, but definitely worth it. Roy ended up working overtime and was in charge of opening the rink gate for skaters to exit ice. His parents came to watch us skate as well and they loved it! Roy and I got separate phone calls from his mom to tell us that she had a blast and wanted to make sure we let her know when the next local event is. She is so cute.
As for our skate, the adult team did really well! All the teams did. But I was especially determined to redeem myself from my jell-o legs performance at Easterns. I'm sure getting my first competition out of the way helped a lot but I think it also helped having a larger locker room and kind of having the home ice advantage - even though we don't regularly skate at the Giant Center at all. In Lake Placid, we had a makeshift locker room with curtains on all sides and it was cramped. We couldn't play music or walk around or anything. And I guess after getting last place, you know you can't do any worse! We ended up in 2nd and it was so gratifying. It was like we came in 1st because the 1st place team was a shoo-in (they took 1st at Easterns out of 13 teams). Yay! I've never been in a sport where you get judged and then you get ranked like figure skating. Less than 3 minutes to show what you got and then you have to wait to see if it was enough. No second half, no 4th quarter, no 9th inning. You don't get a chance to see how your competition skates either because you are in your locker room mostly and can't see anything. Jessica's prediction was 3rd but I guess Roy brought more $$ this time =)
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