By Jessica Geller, sports editor
Senior Maddie Grogan skated off the ice to the sound of applause and tambourines from the Northeastern University Figure Skating Club (NUFSC). Embraced by her teammates, they decorated Grogan with an oversized gold medal, cut out of construction paper.
“Do you want to experience gold?” is the NUFSC slogan that Head Coach Monica Stubbolo came up with several years ago when she was a Northeastern student and a NUFSC member.
“Competitions are a little bit stressful but we try to gear it more around fun and just going out there and performing,” Stubbolo said. “Everyone’s on the team because they love to skate so we try to keep the atmosphere very fun and upbeat so people don’t get stressed out.”
NUFSC has 20 active members and is about 20 years old, said junior club president Courtney Byer. She has worked to turn the group into a community. Byer organizes weekly meetings with a different focus each week, including strength and conditioning classes, team dinners and going to see Disney on Ice.
“[When I joined freshman year, NUFSC] was even smaller and there wasn’t a very unified commitment to the team,” Byer said. “We didn’t really do things outside of skating. Then, it was just a team. Now we are friends and a team.”
NUFSC is part of the Eastern Collegiate Conference, governed by the U.S. Figure Skating Collegiate Program Committee. The first of three Eastern competitions was at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Feb. 7 and 8, with 23 area schools competing. NUFSC brought seven girls to compete, in addition to several cheering-section members.
Leading up to the MIT Intercollegiate Competition, Stubbolo estimates that NUFSC had nine practice sessions at Matthews Arena. In comparison to the big skating schools – University of Delaware, Dartmouth University and Boston University – NUFSC is at a disadvantage in terms of facility access, Byer said.
“That’s why it’s really hard for us – we don’t get much ice time,” she said. “When you compare us to schools with really developed skating teams, like the big teams who have enough people, they have multiple ice sessions during the day and full-time coaches paid for by the school. We are all student-run. Coming [to MIT] was all done by us.”
On Saturday morning, sophomore Rachel Quinn and third-year Leigh Ann Canepa participated in the preliminary free-skate events. Canepa placed third, followed by Quinn in fourth place. Both women had not competed since high school and were surprised by their results.
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect,” Quinn said. “It was nerve wracking but it was a lot of fun too. You work so hard and being able to share what you’ve worked hard on is really glorifying.”
The top-five finishers in each event earn points towards the team total. Quinn and Canepa contributed five points total.
Grogan has been skating for 19 years. She placed ninth in the senior short program on Saturday.
“I’ve never gotten nervous before a competition, ever,” Grogan said. “I don’t know why but this time around I got really nervous because my [roommates, parents and boyfriend] were here. With all of our teammates, it’s just a lot of fun. It’s not usually a competitive thing.”
Freshman Michaela Tobin and Byer competed in the intermediate free skate, placing fifth and seventh, respectively. Freshman Caitlin Kwan placed seventh in the junior free skate.
The Liberty University Intercollegiate Competition in Virginia is next, but NUFSC will not travel down the coast due to the costly expenses.
NUFSC will compete in mid-March at the University of Delaware Intercollegiate Competition, hoping to have more members who joined this semester participate, Byer said.
“We’ve really tried to reach out to new members because it can be intimidating for them to just show up at a new rink and join a team,” Byer said. “Our Facebook page has really helped with [communication and outreach].”
The three competitions lead up to the U.S. Intercollegiate Team Figure Skating Championships at the University of California Berkeley on April 10-12. Byer knows that NUFSC does not have enough members to compete at the national competition.
All NUFSC members recognize that there is a need to grow the club and tell Northeastern students that competing on the club level is not like what competitive skaters are familiar with.
“I think people are hesitant to compete at first because they are used to the high-stress, head-case competitions,” Stubbolo said. “We clap if you fall, we clap when you stand up. We hug you no matter what you do.”
Photo by Jessica Geller
