In typical Skyliners junior fashion, the team of crystal-clad athletes will showcase two carefully curated, character-centric programs at the ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships 2022 in Innsbruck, Austria, this weekend.
 
The team medaled at their previous two World Junior outings and is a regular contender at the event -- but head coach Josh Babb knows that this season has felt far from ordinary for the skaters.
 
"I think of this season as a two-year season," Babb said. "The struggles we had during the first full year of COVID continued -- but so has the team's resilience. There have been great moments, there have been challenging moments, but as a coach I've only seen them get stronger and closer."
 
And, like many teams, the tales of struggle are at the forefront of their programs' themes. Set to "Hallelujah" covered by Cinema Pop, their short reflects the athletes' intrapersonal reflection that took place over two unpredictable seasons.
 
"We interpret our short program as a story of suffering a pain, loss or difficulty in life, then working through to find not only yourself, but hope through the process," Alana DeVirgilio, 18, said.
 
"A theme that focuses on lifting each other up is relevant this year, especially with COVID," DREAM skater Yurika Sakai. 18, added.  "Everyone has faced a difficult two years now. And with this program, we want the audience to share the feelings of hope that we have gained."
 
The theme feels especially close to home for the skaters, as it was choreographed during the 2020-21 season. According to Babb, the extra time allowed for technical and artistic mastery.
 
"What I'm seeing is much more of an intellectual and emotional commitment to the program versus what we had in the very beginning," Babb said. "It's been a good thing to sort of marinate over the last year." 
 
But the free skate is where Skyliners Junior breaks from tradition. The "Two Faces of Gemini" program still features the striking long and flowing lines the team is known for, but with a twist.
 
"It's aggressive in moments, but married with the typical Skyliner style," Babb said.
 
The skaters have translated the free skate into a meaning of their own, recognizing their strengths, weaknesses and how their inner dualities make them whole -- even during a complicated season.
 
"It tells a story of two opposing sides that battle with each other throughout the program," DeVirgilio said. "There are moments of unity and separation throughout, but ultimately it comes together at the end of the program, and the team skates together to show the two personas can work together."
 
Babb said he wanted to try new styles of choreography to reenergize the athletes and give them a challenge to strive for. For instance, as the skaters pass through their no-point intersection, one of the most difficult elements in the program, their expressions dramatically shift from fierce and almost combative to soft and contemplative.
 
And the skaters like the challenge.
 
"There's  a lot of new content in our programs this season, so we've really been inspired by one another," Sakai said. "If one person can do a skill, we help each other figure it out. We're constantly motivated by the people around us, and it really helps us push and achieve our goals."
 
But it took awhile for the skaters to grasp the layered vision, according to Babb. As a team, they started by breaking down the technicality of each part of the program, then added complexity and emotional flairs to the choreography.
 
"It's a very difficult program," he admitted. "There's a lot of new content, which we haven't really explored before as a team. So, I think physically getting a program together was the first step. Then, they had to build an understanding of exactly what tones were expected during different pieces of the free skate."
 
Fortunately, the team is used to spending hours, days and sometimes entire seasons developing a program's character. During their weekend off-ice practices, they dedicate time to discussing each program's themes together.
 
"This year, we spent time working with a Sky Senior alumna, Kata Junninen, and she really helps us work through each section of the program and the music's nuances," Sakai said. "We will sit down, talk about how to convey those emotions, then practice it over and over again."
 
And while the skaters like having a shared framework for their programs, they said they are encouraged to relate to and connect with their programs individually based on their own life experiences.
 
That shared strategy just so happens to be how the team sets goals, too. Which, the skaters said, is particularly helpful when competitions don't go their way.
 
"Goal-setting is something we focus on throughout our sports psychology sessions," DeVirgilio said. "And we've learned it's OK for every team member to interpret goals in their own way based on how each individual defines success for them."
 
"Ultimately, it comes down to, are we technically and emotionally satisfied and proud of the performance that we put out?" Sakai said.
 
Going into the World Junior Championships -- their biggest competition of what Babb calls the 2020-22 season -- the Skyliners know what they want to achieve personally and as a group.
 
And Babb himself is ready to watch their hard work come to fruition.
 
"They're ready," he said. "And I'm looking forward to their moment."