The 2022-23 season has been a story of new beginnings for Adrian College's synchronized skating team after rookie coach Dana Hall made her way up north to Adrian, Michigan. The senior team is eager to showcase their renewed sense of confidence going into their international season debut at the Hevelius Cup later this week.
Their appearance in Poland comes with the opportunity to not only showcase all of the improvements they have made under new leadership with Hall and new assistant coach Christine Grajek, but to prove their spot as a top senior team as well.
"We're working really hard, and we want to make some major moves in the senior division this year," said Emily German, a fourth-year member of the team.
Hall comes to Adrian with more than two decade's worth of experience, competing with the Skyliners senior team until she retired at the end of last season. Following her stint as a competitive synchronized skater, Hall knew that she wasn't done quite yet.
"I didn't really want to leave the sport," she explained. "But I didn't necessarily know how to give back and with everything going on. I saw that there was a position open at Adrian [College] and I thought I would try my hand and see what we could do."
After moving to Adrian, Hall got right down to business, creating the team's short program to "léments" by Lindsay Sterling, solidifying the program before the team headed back to class for the fall semester.
"I knew that once the semester started that they were going to be super overwhelmed and I didn't want to have their brains thinking about school as well as thinking about creating a program," Hall said.
"It was kind of a good de-stressor, starting classes, but being able to go to practice, have some fun, and actually start working on the program rather than trying to learn a whole program at the same time," German added.
Because of the earlier start time, the team was able to build their confidence in their short program, which has historically been a weak spot for the college students. Building that confidence has allowed the team to consistently improve on what they had already built in the summer.
"It's comfortable and it's consistent," German said. "So now that it's consistent, we can add more to it. We can add more emotion and we can build on that."
Although the team is right back into their busy schedules, balancing a full load of classes along with their training, the skaters always know they have each other to fall back on, building that sense of camaraderie.
"It really does feel like we're all a team in it, both on the ice when we are skating and off the ice," freshman Hannah-Grace Enriquez said. "There is always someone out there that's willing to lend a helping hand or give you a smile and help you out."
Now back on campus for the spring semester, the team is anxious to keep improving and is looking to find that same confidence in their long program to the musical Jekyll and Hyde. Confidence is sure to come with time for the relatively new senior team, as many of the team members are making their senior debut and are eager to prove themselves.
"We are working really hard," said newbie Enriquez. "A lot of our skaters are really motivated, so you can feel that motivation as we're working at every practice."
"Seeing all of these new people on the team working incredibly hard and putting in the hours is really inspiring to me and I'm super proud and so motivated by my teammates," German added.
As Adrian College looks ahead to their trip to Poland, the team's new leadership and skaters are especially motivated to both prove their spot on Team USA and show that Adrian College is a winning program to watch in the future.
