Two Carlyle youth have earned spots on the southeast district team for the Saskatchewan Winter Games to be held in Prince Albert in February between the 16th and 22nd, with a pep rally for Team Â鶹ÊÓƵeast to be held on Feb. 8th in Weyburn.
At only 10-years-old both Cassidy Weber and Kyla Fischer are excited for an opportunity to perform at such a competition.
Weber has been skating since she was 5-years-old. This is when the youth also began skating competitively as she was put into a competition and did well.
Since she started excelling at the sport, Weber began training out of Virden, but this year she decided to skate out of Carlyle under local coach Dawn Dyer, while Fischer has been skating under Dyer for the duration of her skating lessons.
Fischer discovered a love of figure skating four years ago and hasn't looked back. This past summer she and her mother, Karen, met with Dyer to decide if the 2013/14 year would see Fischer enter competitions. Fischer decided that the increased competition would be even more fun and becoming a competitive skater was an easy decision.
Dyer has been impressed with the young skaters' dedication and is pleased to be joining her skating pupils at the Saskatchewan Winter Games as she will be one of the southeast district coaches.
"This is my first year coaching Cassidy, but I had been on the sidelines with her before," Dyer explained. "And I've coached Kyla throughout StarSkate, so about four years."
"They're pretty dedicated girls. We met in the summer to discuss each one's goals and Kyla hadn't skated competitively until this year, but she decided to try it."
The dedication of the girls really shone through Dyer explained as they began training for a competition the first weekend of October in 2013.
"We thought about how we could make it work since Carlyle doesn't have ice then," Dyer said. "We travelled to Estevan throughout September, twice a week, and they never complained."
"They're always the first out on the ice and the last to leave."
Both Weber and Fischer thoroughly enjoy skating and in particular love the different jumps they get to perform within their free skates.
"I really like the jumps and different elements," Weber explained as Fischer agreed.
Ultimately they are excited to compete at the Saskatchewan Winter games because it is an experience unlike anything they've ever really seen before. It's a big competition, which will see many competitors.
The girls made their way to southeast district team through competing in a pre-juvenile provincial competition on Dec. 13 and Dec. 14 in Warman, SK. Here Weber was able to place 8th with a score of 19.17 and Fischer placed 11th with a score of 16.52.
"I was kind of surprised," Fischer said.
But both competitors agreed that though slightly surprised, they had kind of expected it as well. Going into a competition one has to believe they will win or accomplish the goals they have set for themselves otherwise their performances will not be as good.
This competitive mentality is something that has served them well as coach Dyer stated the girls have each improved this year.
"They've each improved about five points from their first competition to this last one, which doesn't sound like much but when with scores of 20 or 18, five points is pretty big," Dyer said.
Despite her coaching efforts Dyer said that the girls' dedication and determination along with the support of their families has really helped them succeed.
"The support of the parents and the club has been great for them," Dyer said. "And the rink has been so good to them, letting them on the ice whenever it's available to let them skate."
