Happy Friday HRSSC Families,
It was fun to kick off our winter season with both our short track practice on Tuesday and our long track practice on Wednesday. It was a beautiful evening out at the Oval.Our Advanced skaters have also been greeting the sun (or sometimes clouds) with their early morning practices. Lots of great speed skating on the go!
Please review the important updates below including:
- Saturday long track practice
- Sunday Race Series
- Volunteer Opportunties
- SSNS News
More fun coming your way! 🤗We have our long track practice tomorrow, Saturday morning.
- Advanced 8:30 – 9:45am
- Intermediate: Long Blades 9:00 – 10:00am
- Intermediate: Short Blades 9:00 – 10:00am
- Fundamentals: 9:45 – 10:30am
- Learn to Skate: 9:45 – 10:30am
This Sunday 8 January kicks off the SSNS Sunday Morning Race series from 8:00 – 10:30am open to all skater levels. Depending on registration, tentatively planned distances include:
- 100m, 300m, 500m, and 1500m MS
- MS = Mass Start race with 3 – 6 skaters on the line
- 500m, 1500m OS (ages 10/11+)
- OS = Olympic Style race with 2 – 4 skaters in a dedicated lane
- For reference, the Oval is a 400m track
Registration and more information here. *DEADLINE TO REGISTER IS SATURDAY AT 2PM*Sunday Morning Race Series Dates (tentative):15, 29 January5, 12 February Still more fun to be had! Volunteer opportunities!! 🙂🎉Sunday Morning Race Series
- Officials – new and experienced, can register at the link above
- Coordinating Sunday Races
- See attached note below
- Chief Referee Brent Thompson available to mentor this weekend
Long Track
- Parent-On-Site 👍🏼
Dear Speed Skating Families, Happy new year! I hope that our skaters will have many fun and chilly days at the Oval! We get wonderful mix of wintery days, beautiful early evening sunsets, and glorious mornings.
I am sending you this message to ask for some help. There has to be a parent on site every time our athletes are training in case one of our coaches needs a hand off the ice. Your responsibility as the parent on site is to have the list of skaters and their emergency contacts, the first aid kit and a box for with some extra equipment. All would be provided by the club. If you are unable to attend and can’t find a replacement, please contact me by text at 902-943-1159.
Thank you in advance for your support and see you soon at the Oval!Myriam
- Sign Up HERE
Short Track
- Parent On the Bench 👍🏼
Sign up coming soon!
Assistant Coaches
- Thank You to all our Advanced Skaters for signing up and assisting with coaching – We appreciate you joining in to support our younger skaters!!
Speed Skating Nova Scotia – SSNS News
Hi Speed Skating NS member clubs, (CC’ing SSNS Board members)
After a busy start to season and clubs busy training and competing this fall, we are heading into an exciting winter season and also have lots of developments to share!
We are excited to return to our Sunday Morning Race Series at the Oval on this Sunday, January 8th from 8am to 10:30am. (Deadline to register is Saturday, January 7th at 2pm!) It will be a great way to tuck in some quick time trials, racing and officiating experience and to reconnect with the community. Thank You to Chief Referee Brent Thompson for making these possible. We are in need of volunteers to take on coordinating and officiating for this series to continue, including this Sunday as a mentoring opportunity. Please connect with us to let us know if you are available and come out this weekend to learn what is involved. Brent will be there this week but is away for many of the subsequent Sundays this winter. We need to quickly assess our capacity and decide whether we can pull off a low-stakes race the following Sunday without Brent being there!
We received good response to our call for volunteers and officials with the SSNS Atlantic Long Track Championships (January 21 and 22) and Canada Winter Games (February 20 to 25). Please send along any additional members to liaise with Planning Chair Greg Milton and Meet Coordinator Dave Gray.
Apart from the immediate races, there is also lots happening at the back end, organizationally. At the December 18th board meeting, Paula Arruda announced that she was stepping away from the vice president’s role and transitioning from the board this winter. We want to take a moment to recognize the heroic effort that Paula has put in and to thank her for all that she has done and no doubt will continue to do, in a less formal capacity. Thank you, Paula.
As you all know, the president’s role has been vacant since our June AGM although Greg has continued to lead the organizational effort for the Atlantic Cup, Canada Winter Games Team Lead and as our HRM Oval Liasion. Thank you, Greg.
At that meeting, Lynette Robinson and I, Meril Rasmussen, agreed to step into the vice and president’s roles and to work closely with Greg and Paula as they transition to more supportive roles. Neither of us are skaters — both involved through our children — so we will rely heavily on the knowledgeable members throughout our provincial system as we work our way through this winter season.
We will do our best to communicate clearly and efficiently with you all. As is the established system, we will send out communications to you as the club heads and request that you continue with your established communications to reach your club members.
Lindsay Arsenault continues as secretary and treasurer. Thank You Lindsay for keeping us on track so efficiently and effectively. If any club would like to follow along with the minutes of our board meetings, they are available through Lindsay at info@speedskatingns.ca.
Note, we are switching over our URL to speedskatingns.ca, though the legal name-change will have to wait until our AGM in May. For this moment, safest is to email both info@speedskatingns.ca and the old info@speedskatens.ca and see which one writes back!
We are also excited to share that our newest club, the Cobequid Speed Skating Club led by Carolyn Benvie has gotten on the ice this January. Congratulations and Welcome!!
The North Side Blades Speed Skating Club is also seeing some changes and we welcome Nolan Boutilier to the board. Thank You Donna Marie Marinelli for keeping speed skating as a sport option in the Sydney area.
We are actively recruiting new organizational leaders! There are many board, committee, and other volunteer positions to fill. If you have anyone in your club who would like to be a part of helping to support and grow our provincial speed skating system, please have them reach out to Lynette and I at board@speedskating.ca
Sincerely,Meril Rasmussen and Lynette Robinson
Please do not hesitate to check in with any questions. Have a great weekend! Hope to see you at the Oval! Your HRSSC Team ❄️