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How It All Started

  The IceBreakers started out as a group of nine individual skaters all going to Lake Placid for the annual Empire State Winter Games when Val Murray, the head coach of Iceworks skating academy, came up with the idea to form a synchronized skating team. The only question was, where on earth are we going to find a coach who knows how to teach synchronized skating? Luckily, one of the coaches at IceWorks, home to the IceBreakers, happened to know someone who had been a synchronized skater in college and would most likely be interested in coaching a team.

And So It Began

   Our first practice was 6am, Sunday morning at the Syosset-Woodberry Ice Rink, an outdoor rink, in the middle of winter. It was cold, and we were tired, and none of us knew what to expect. We hadn't met this coach from New Jersey, and most of us had never done synchronized skating before and when we started, I believe it's safe to say that it showed. At the time, it seemed as if we had given our coach, Meghan, mission impossible. There were just 7 weeks until the Empire State Games and we had to go from public session, to a synchronized skating team. Nine girls working together to be one. But Meghan was determined to make it work.

7 weeks and countless hours later...

we arrived in Lake Placid and it was show time. We had gone to opening ceremonies together and had one of the worst practices a team could possibly have the day before a competition. Luckily, we were too excited to be competing as a team for the first time. Our hair had been done and our dresses perfectly fitted and together we walked across the street to the 1980 Rink for our very first competition.

"Now taking the ice, the Syosset IceBreakers."

If you have ever been to a synchronized skating competition, you know about the high strung energy that just radiates through the rink and how sportsmanship plays a key part. You know about all the good luck cheers each team yells and yet, when we stepped on the ice, it was dead silent. The entire rink seemed to be holding it's breath. This was it, the moment of truth taht would tell us if all our hard work over the past 7 weeks had paid. off. Exactly what happened next, I still don't remember. After the music started, it all became a blur and the next thing I know, we're off the ice walking back to the locker room.

It hadn't hit us yet,

none of us spoke, we were all just breathing, waiting for our minds to settle. Then Paige Friedlander turned around and said, "Guys, we just competed." And that was it. The cheers and oh my gods rang through the hall. In that one moment, we were no longer nine girls just skating together, we were one team...

the IceBreakers.