PDS figure skating team member Pria Louka during practice at the school’s rink on Feb. 19, 2014. (Photo by Mark Czajkowski.)
Caroline Okun, a member of the PDS figure skating team, performs a jump during practice on Feb. 10, 2014. (Photo by Mark Czajkowski.)
The tie between Princeton Day School and the Princeton Skating Club is the perfect example of a symbiotic relationship, one that dates back nearly 50 years.
In fact, several members of the current PDS figure skating squad, including new head coach Courtney Hodock, are affiliated with the club.
It goes far beyond people, though. The PSC, which was founded in 1933, helped fund the school’s first ice rink and its subsequent replacement, a facility that serves as the current home rink for both organizations.
The PSC started when Nina McAlpin and several of her friends met up at the Princeton University’s Hobart Baker Memorial Rink to practice skating. Interest grew so much that in 1935, the club adopted a constitution and became an official club under the United States Figure Skating Association.
One of the club’s most major contributions to the community was providing PDS with its first ice rink in 1967. When it needed to be replaced, the club helped the school raise money to eventually open the Lisa McGraw Rink in 1998. Club president Shaw Eng, whose daughter Elise has been skating for over ten years, said the rink is top-notch.
“Obviously my daughter has been skating for a long time,” he said. “We’ve visited lots and lots of rinks. This rink is one of the nicer ones that we go to.”
Noah Breen, a 30-year skating veteran who coaches with the PSC, said the rink is one of the best he’s ever skated on. He has toured professionally and competed locally, across the country and abroad in Europe, Central America and South America. The Philadelphia native and current Princeton resident even skated in competitions at the club in years past.
“I think the ice rinks themselves are very well-maintained,” he said. “The ice is pristine. There are so many rinks in this country where the ice is just terrible. When you’re trying to build up a competitive skater to the point where they’re going to be an Olympic-level skater, they need resources like this. [The PSC] actually has the resources to develop a skater from five years old all the way up to an Olympic level.”
The club is certainly home to Olympic-level skaters — Plainsboro’s Felicia Zhang competed at Sochi and is a PSC product — but amateur and recreational skaters make up a lot of the membership.
Marian Young and her husband, Brew, joined 30 years ago while looking for a new sport to try.
“I think it’s very good exercise without being too hard on your joints,” she said. “It’s good for your posture. It’s good for limbering up. It doesn’t hurt your joints so much like jogging. It’s a social thing. Jogging, you kind of do by yourself, but ice dancing, you kind of do with other people.”
Erickson and Okun get to enjoy that environment with both the PSC and the PDS team.
“I like that there is a range of levels throughout the team,” Okun said. “It’s nice that anyone can join and be welcomed, as well as be assisted in their attempts to learn the sport.”
Figure skating was established at PDS in 1998 and is an official varsity spring sport. This season, the team will have two-hour practice sessions on weekdays, including off-ice stretching and strengthening. Hodock will coach different disciplines, including freestyle, ice dancing, synchronized and pair skating. There will also be some exposure to power skating.
Though it does not compete against other schools in team events, the squad does host an annual team show to conclude each season. It cannot be a winter sport because ice time is limited with boys’ and girls’ hockey teams on campus. In the early years there actually was team competition amongst the schools, but there were too few programs to keep that going.
“That sort of died down a little bit,” said Hodock, a first-year coach who was announced as Charles Fetter’s replacement on Jan. 27. “The kids have continued individually and they do a show that they open up for all high school kids (from other schools as well) at end of April every year.
“The show is really nice because skating is an individual sport. It’s nice to have more of a team environment where kids can practice and showcase and show off and not have that sense that you’re going against everyone, and that everyone out there is your competition. You’re all working together.”
When it comes to the individual competitions, the skaters compete depending on their level and ability, and will either represent PDS or the club at which they skate. Everyone must be a member of U.S. Figure Skating in order to compete.
Area members who are part of the team include Lawrence resident Erickson and Princeton residents Okun, Evelyn Esteban and Pria Louka.
Hodock is still learning about most of her talent, but has known Okun since she was a young skater.
“I’ve seen her moving up through the ranks, eight major levels,” the coach said. “She’s a beautiful skater. She’s got this grace and strength. She started playing hockey, and that made her figure skating a lot stronger. “
Okun, a sophomore, arrived at PDS as a pre-schooler and during that first winter gym class took to the ice.
“I soon came to love the sport, starting with Princeton Skating Club group lessons and eventually private lessons as I began to get into it more,” said Okun, a novice level skater in her second year on the team. “For me, being a figure skater versus a hockey player was a given, although in middle school I also decided to take up ice hockey which I came to love as well. I have continued both figure skating and ice hockey in high school.”
Okun and Erickson are both long-time Princeton Skating Club members. Erickson, a junior at the intermediate level, began skating at age 9 and is in her third year on PDS.
“I started when my twin brother started playing ice hockey,” Erickson said. “My family joined the Princeton Skating Club so that we could all learn to skate together during the family sessions at the PDS rink.
“I had my choice of using hockey skates or figure skates. I loved the way the figure skaters twirled around the ice, so I wanted to do that too. I started taking group lessons with the skating club, then I took private lessons.”
Erickson also plays volleyball for the Panthers and has a heavy school workload, so her time is limited to skating with PDS and her friends.
Although they do not get to compete against other schools, both skaters enjoy the environment at PDS.
“I like being on the PDS team because it gives me extra practice time,” Okun said. “It’s also a nice experience to skate with fellow students.”
“I like that no matter what your skill level, there is a place for everyone on the team at PDS,” Erickson said. “I can go out on the ice and skate with my friends and not worry that I have to be an Olympic level skater.”
According to Hodock, they are exactly the feelings that the program is supposed to inspire.
“It’s a great opportunity for people to bond in a different level, in a less competitive environment and to really put their own show program on at the end,” the coach said. “It looks like a theatre on ice performance.
“It’s really a totally different experience from normal training and skating. It is about coming together as a group and a unit and putting forth this performance. The kids sort of do their own presentation. Last year they did Peter Pan. It’s a fun way to come together as a group and be creative.”
Like any team, of course, there are growing pains along the way. But because the team goal is to get ready for the show, more experienced skaters are helping the newbies. The coach said she doesn’t see that too often in figure skating.
“They’re actually super patient,” Hodock said. “I’ve gone to a lot of practices the last year or so, and the higher level kids are great advisors, always out helping the students that might not necessarily be at same level. There’s a lot of mentoring that goes on.
“That doesn’t happen at a normal session. You’re kind of focused on yourself and what you have to do, and you’re not worried about helping people.”
That aspect is something that the veterans find enjoyable. Erickson recalls her growing pains and understands what newcomers are going through.
“I remember when I first started out,” she said. “For the longest time I would skate right next to the boards so I could grab on in case I felt like I was going to fall.”
It is Hodock’s job to nurture the environment, and she certainly seems qualified with a long list of skating achievements. Hodock has over 30 years of skating experience, 18 in coaching and 14 in competitive skating in freestyle and ice dancing.
A Princeton native and Stuart Country Day School graduate, the coach began with the Princeton Skating Club at age 2, did her first show at age 4 and began competing at age 6.
Hodock competed internationally and skated throughout high school before going off to Villanova to skate and play lacrosse. She was a U.S. Figure Skating double gold medalist in ice dancing and moves in the field.
After graduation, she began teaching to continue skating, and has been working with the Princeton Skating Club since 1999. She also works for The Lawrenceville School as Director of Alumni Relations and The Lawrenceville Fund.
This is her first time coaching in such a unique situation. The roster contained 15 skaters, including several boys, at mid-February, although Hodock said that number could change.
One of Hodock’s goals is to get the team to start competing against other schools, but for now she is happy laying the groundwork for future skaters.
“My role will be to help sort of funnel their creativity and help with the show they put on, and to try to make sure they’re improving their skills throughout the season,” she said. “Then we have the show, usually the last Saturday of April.”
The Princeton Skating Club is hosting the Skate Princeton Basic Skills Competition on April 12. It is open to Snowplow Sam through Basic 8, Freeskate 1-6 and Beginner through Preliminary levels and is sanctioned by U.S. Figure Skating. To register, visit princetonskatingclub.org. Deadline is March 14 at midnight.
“The show is a good opportunity to wrap up the season and show off the new skills each skater has learned this year,” Okun said. “I love how the show includes multiple schools because it’s nice seeing some of my outside skating friends, while skating with my friends from school.”
“The show is a lot of fun because there isn’t a lot of tension or pressure,” Erickson said. “I perform a routine with the team members in my grade and then with the whole group.
“The routines use everyone’s skill levels. So beginners will be doing simple moves during the routine, and at the same time the more experienced skaters will be doing more complicated moves. It makes everyone feel like they are a part of the team.”
It’s a team that does not have the traditional competition of other varsity squads.
But the members are all striving toward the same goal—to put on a great show. And in the end, that really is what a team is all about.
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