Boston Bureau

New Sport Captures Cape Skaters

SK8  GR8  (translates into Skate Great!)
Cape skaters love this special sport called SYNCHRO

  Here are the Bourne shaters in costumes on the ice. See them in SYNCHRO at the bottom.

                        By Libby Hughes, Boston Bureau for Cape Cod Today

The newest fad, the newest passion, and the newest sport is Synchronized Ice Skating or SYNCHRO as it is nicknamed. This sport is sanctioned by the U.S. Figure Skating Association. The Bourne Skating Club's synchro team is called "Icing on the Cape" while the Lower Cape Figure Skating Club has a synchro team named "The Starletts." The Nantucket Skating Club's synchro team is titled the "Island Waves." All synchro teams swing up and down the east coast competing. Team spirit counts high in all competitions.

The Bourne Skating Club

Coach Cheri Rigby

The Lower Cape's "Starettes."

The Nantucket "Island Waves."

History of sport

Well, Synchro is not that new. The sport emerged out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the 1970s and became a global obsession. The world champions today are from Finland, Sweden, and Canada. The top championship team in the United States hails from a Boston suburb--Lexington, Massachusetts. They are called the Haydenettes, composed of high school and college students, who practice many hours a week, and travel all over the world in competitions and making star appearances in ice shows. Girls in their tweens and teens aspire to audition for a place in the Haydenettes. They are known for their precision, costumes, and spectacular choreography. One of their three coaches is from Finland. Synchro lovers long to make this an Olympic sport.

Busloads of teams

This past weekend sleek, shiny buses came from Maine down to Virginia to compete in one of the most prestigious locations in Morristown, New Jersey, at the Mennen Skating Arena for the "2009 Eastern Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships." Some winning teams will qualify for the Nationals in Portland, Maine, in early March to enter International and World Championships.

Anyway, the buses disgorged gaggles of girls (and a few brave boys), wearing matching team uniforms in red and black or blue and black. Their hairdos were either in bouncing ponytails or sophisticated chignons. Excitement was running high. Their rolling bags were retrieved from the storage area of the buses. These are not your ordinary airport traveling bags. They are shorter and square, containing skates, snacks, costumes, and hair equipment. They are pink and blue and multi-colored. There are sparklers on the wheels and flashing lights on the blade covers. There are pins from every place where they have competed, and they trade pins with other teams the way baseball cards were traded.

Expensive Sport

This is an expensive sport. Figure skates can cost from $400 to $1,000. Other equipment and costumes are costly. The mothers are constantly fundraising to pay for road trips and hotels. The only place where the skates can be professionally sharpened is in Dennis, Massachusetts, at the Tony Kent Arena.

Getting to New Jersey

The mothers for the Bourne Skating Club volunteered their SUVs and off they drove from the Cape to Morristown. A mother with spongy chalk wrote SK8 GR8 on the back windows with a drawing of one white skate and the name of the team "Icing on the Cape." On the side windows were written, "Synchro Rocks!"

Hunger

After practices, the teammates were always hungry. The mothers came prepared with yogurt, bagels and cream cheese, sticks of cheese, and water. "Icing on the Cape" had two practices on Thursday afternoon against 12 of the 25 teams competing in the Pre-juvenile Group A category before their competition on Friday afternoon, January 30. The cheering section for the Bourne group was slender with a few fathers, moms, and a grandmother. But there were posters and loud cheering when the twelve "Icing on the Cape" skaters appeared. There was one boy, Stephen Murray, who had been with the group since Kindergarten days and didn't mind being the only boy. He was one of the team.

Star Time for "Icing on the Cape"

They had two minutes or so to skate their routine before seven judges on Friday afternoon. Maurice Chevalier sang "Be our Guest"  as their skating song. One little pint-sized skater had plenty of spirit and never admitted to being tired! The girls wore sky-blue flouncy costumes, trimmed in white lace with a yellow bow at the back. The boy wore a powder blue bell hop suit with a double row of gold buttons. His black hair was plastered down and he looked like a young Louis Jordan. Sadly, they placed seventh. If they had been sixth, they would have skated at the finals on Saturday. They didn't seem to mind and were satisfied with their performance.

Other competitors

Other teams skated to the Beatles, Elvis, Boogie Woogie, and a host of songs. "Over the Rainbow" was unrecognizable to a rock and roll beat. The team names ranged from the "Team Reflections," the" Saint Sensations," the "Shimmers" (who placed first), the "Pittsfield Pinwheels," the "Synchroettes," "Chill and Grace," and other intriguing names. Costumes were turquoise and pink, orange and yellow, canary yellow, sparkling copper, plain black, pink and black or pink with black polka dot skirts.

Team members from the Bourne Club in the Pre-juvenile team come from Falmouth, Sandwich, Sagamore, Plymouth, and as far away as Duxbury. They are Caroline Duffy, Kali Flaherty, Caroline Horwood, Amanda Jones, Gracie Kennedy, Theresa McMahon, Stephen Murray, Cassy Pagliarani, Emily Sholi, Gabrielle Utti, Emily Walton, and Allie Way. Cheri Rigby is the main coach, assisted by Kiva Leibowitz--a former Lexette from Lexington and now a student at Wheelock College. Catherine Walton is president of the BSC. Nancy Horwood is the team manager, who is in charge of all schedules and planning for the season. The manager and mothers are indispensable to the coaches.

The Morristown competition marked the end of the season for the Bourne Skating team. Since August, the team has met every Sunday night for three hours of practice with their coaches. Although not mandatory, the coaches expect the team members to practice two to three hours in their nearby skating rinks with a coach to hone their skills in between each Sunday night.

Tears of Goodbye

As the competition at Morristown drew to a close, there were tears of joy and sadness--sadness about not seeing their teammates until the next season.

And there you have a taste of Synchronized Skating.

  Here's another photo of the Bourne skaters in a performance.