As a sport that mixes grace and pure athleticism, though, figure skating requires a lot of self-discipline, dedication and hard work.
“Most of these girls skate four or five days a week, so they are here almost every day, at the rink, teaching younger skaters if they are not practising for themselves,” says Shepherd.
“Even though this is an individual sport, our club also works as a team supporting, mentoring and helping each other out.”
Most of the club members move up to become figure-skaters from the CanSkate program, which is offered by the Stettler Figure Skating Club.
“We currently offer CanSkate, JumpStart and, StarSkate programs, and have also offered Parent & Tot and Adult Learn to Skate programs over the years,” said Shepherd.
“Our senior skaters assist in coaching junior skaters of the JumpStart program (a transition from CanSkate to full figure skating) and partner the younger skaters for their dance tests.”
“In some competitions, we enter team events where a group of four girls at similar levels each perform a skating element to be judged as a group. Our carnivals are filled with group numbers - the skaters really enjoy putting these numbers together.”
Once this weekend’s competition is over, all engines will be fired to complete preparations for this spring’s carnival to be staged at the end of March with head coach Cindy Savage at the helm.
Savage, who has been coaching since 1993, is being assisted by three other coaches, one of whom drives from Edmonton to train Stettler’s young skaters.
“In recent years we have put on major carnivals based on musicals like CATS and Starlight Express,” said Shepherd.
“This year’s carnival will be a compilation of numbers from carnivals held in the last 10 years plus some current solos from our senior skaters.”