Congratulations to all of our LAFSC skaters and their coaches who participated in the 2009 U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships. You all made us very proud! Great skating and a week filled with a lot of snow made this an experience to remember for our team! LAFSC was represented in every Juvenile event. Brenda Ji earned 6th place in her Juvenile Girls qualifying round and moved on to the champi-onship round where she placed 16th in the freeskate and 16th overall. LAFSC had three Juvenile Boys competing in the championships. Patrick Leahy earned 12th and Spencer Howe finished 1st in Group A in the qualifying round. Skating in qualifying Group B, Daniel Samohin was 4th. Both Spencer and Daniel qualified for the championship round where, in a very close fight for the medal stand, Daniel fin-ished 8th and Spencer won the Silver Medal. Yura Min, with partner Sean Sunyoto, repre-sented LAFSC in Juvenile Ice Dance. They shook off a 10th place finish in their first compulsory dance to get 5th in the second compulsory dance. Shining in the freedance, Yura and Sean got 2nd place to finish 4th overall and they will bring home the Pewter Medal. Juvenile Pairs only got to skate once in these cham-pionships, so it was “do or die” in this event. Devin Perini, with his partner Devynn Sharpe, captured 4th place and the Pewter Medal. Rachel Trail and Darian Weiss improved on last year’s 9th place qualifying round result to finish 6th overall in this

year’s championships. At the Intermediate level, LAFSC had skaters in each event except Intermediate Ice Dance. In the Intermediate Ladies qualifying round, Katarina Kulgeyko finished 3rd in Group A while Katherine Gorodetsky finished 3rd in Group B. In the short program, Katarina was 1st and Katherine was 12th. In the freeskate, Katherine was again 12th and finished 12th overall. Katarina was 1st in the freeskate with a personal best score, and improved upon her 7th place finish at last year’s event to win the Gold Medal. In the Intermediate Men’s event, both Shotaro Omori and Devin Perini skated in qualifying round Group A with Shotaro taking 3rd place and Devin finishing 4th. In the championship round, Shotaro was 6th in the short program and Devin was 19th. Both moved up in the freeskate, where Devin was 15th and Shotaro was 2nd . In the final standings, Devin was 15th and Shotaro, who was 5th in Juvenile Boys last year, finished 3rd for the Bronze Medal. Like the Juvenile Pairs, Intermediate Pairs only had one chance to skate at these champion-ships. Brooke Johnson and Brooks Ishler, who were 5th in Juvenile Pairs at last year’s champion-ships, finished 8th at the more challenging Intermedi-ate level this year. Be sure to watch their performances on

IceNetwork.com where you will also find team LAFSC

in the stories and photo galleries.

LAFSC SKATERS SHINE IN LAKE PLACID!

Pictured LAFSC members: Katarina Kulgeyko, and coach Faye Kitariev, Spencer Howe and coach Wendy Olson, Devin Perini

with partner Devynn Sharpe and coach Todd Sand, Shotaro Omori and coach D.J. Vincent, and Yura Min.

The Los Angeles Figure Skating Club

January 2009 Volume 64, Issue 1

NEWS BULLETIN

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone had a wonderful time during the holidays. I would like to congratulate all of our skaters that participated in Pacific Coast Sectionals. Angelyn Nguyen finished 5th overall in Sen-ior Ladies after coming in 3rd in the short program. Alexander Merritt and his partner Lindsay Davis took home the gold medal in Senior pairs with Don Baldwin and his partner Jennifer Brunn coming in second! Way to go guys! Jessica Perino and her partner William Avila captured the bronze in Senior Dance and Victoria Hecht finished 5th overall in Junior Ladies. Austin Kanallakan skated to a 1st place finish in the short program and 2nd in the freeskate to secure the silver medal in Junior Men. Stanislav Samohin finished 8th overall in Junior Men. Meanwhile in Junior Pairs, Galvani Hopson and his partner Kloe Bautista came in 4th to qualify for Nationals. While in Intermediate Pairs Brooke Johnson and Brooks Ishler took home the silver medal. In Juvenile Pairs Devin Perini and his partner Devynn Sharpe captured the gold with a very convincing performance. Rachel Trail and Darian Weiss also had a great showing coming in 4th in Juvenile Pairs taking them to Junior Nation-als. Yura Min and her partner Sean Benjamin Sunyoto were precise and elegant in their Juvenile Dance events to bring home the gold medal. We are so proud of all of you.

Our pride does not stop at our Sectionals skaters. Our Junior Nationals skaters were also amazing. Katherine Gorodetsky, Spencer Howe, Brooks Ishler, Brenda Ji, Katarina Kulgeyko, Brooke Johnson, Patrick Leahy, Yura Min, Shotaro Omori, Devin Perini, Daniel Samohin, Rachel Trail and Darian Weiss. I won’t repeat it here but please see the great write-up on our web site about our Junior Nationals skaters. Congrats to all!

Our skaters that will be competing at Nationals are Keauna McLaughlin and her partner Rockne Brubaker, Alex Merritt and his partner Lindsay Davis, Don Baldwin and his partner Jennifer Brunn, Jessica Perino and her partner William Avila, Austin Kanallakan, Galvani Hopson and his partner Kloe Bautista. I am assigned to do music at Nationals this year so I will see you all there!

We have our annual meeting coming up in February. I hope you will all come and support our gold medalists and honorees. The Junior Council is planning something fun for afterwards. Please look for information on dates and times.

Talk to you soon!

Carla Golubski, President, LAFSC

UPCOMING COMPETITIONS:

January 18-25 US Figure Skating Championships Cleveland, OH

January 29-31 Midwest/Pacific Coast Sect. Syncho Champs Broomfield, CO

February 7-8 New Years Adult Invitational Ashburn, VA

February 20-22 Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals Las Vegas, NV

March 3-7 US Synchronized Skating Championships Portland, MA

March 22-29 World Figure Skating Championships Los Angeles, CA

April 21-25 US Adult Figure Skating Championships Grand Rapids, MI

May 28-31 International Adult Competition Oberstdorf, Germany

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

Page 2 NEWS BULLETIN

Listed below are tests passed by LAFSC home club members from October 18-December 11, 2008. Slots to take tests are given out on a first come, first serve basis. Tests taken at other clubs are based on that club having reported the results to USFSA headquarters by the date of this report.

Gold medalists are in bold.

Mary Kate Abad Pre-Preliminary MIF

Lois Betancourt Pre-Juvenile MIF, Pr-Preliminary FS

Lauren Campi Pre-Juvenile MIF, Pre-Preliminary FS

Shayanne Casapao Novice MIF

Gary Correa Adult Pre-Bronze MIF, Adult Pre-Bronze FS

Valeria Flores Novice FS

Alexia Hatun Juvenile MIF

Winifred Lee Intermediate FS

Philip Manzo Adult Silver MIF, Adult Silver FS

Ayla McNeil Junior MIF

Caroline Miranda Adult Pre-Bronze MIF, Adult Pre-Bronze FS

Gwyneth Moore Pre-Preliminary MIF

Franzette “Elsa” Paguolo-Rodela Preliminary FS

Emi Shiina Adult Pre-Bronze MIF, Adult Pre-Bronze FS

Kelly Von Boxtel Pre-Preliminary MIF

Darian Weiss Dutch Waltz, Rhythm Blues

Cristina Wong Intermediate FS

Maral Zohrabian Intermediate MIF

TESTS PASSED

Page 3 Volume 64, Issue 1

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR MEMBERS!!

JANUARY BIRTHDAYS

David Allen

Alexandra Bible

Priscella Chan

Alea Kaye Chin

Stephany Davydov

Briauna Donnelly

Desire Duvall

Sharon Gershelis

Alexia Hatun

Jasmine Jafarkhani

Katherine Karp

Erynn Kim

Katie Kornfield

Madeleine Lee

Beverly Lynch

Runa Maeda

Giselle Marquez

Kylie Grace Ng

Makayla Okimoto

Chad Phillips

Ashlynne-Marie Ragasa

Shayna Rothenberg

Nicole Rozenblat

Karin Sartuche

Russell Sessions

Emi Shiina

Katherine Strait

Jasmyn Tang

Crystal Uribe

Karen Warloe

Cara Wilkerson

WELCOME TO OUR

NEWEST MEMBERS!

Isabelle Fields

Natalie Oganesyan

Elizabeth Walker-Ziegler

Page 4 Volume 64, Issue 1

It seems fitting that as 2008 draws to a

close, the last Bulletin article describing the

seventy-five year history of the Los Angeles Fig-

ure Skating Club should be about the Holly-

wood Polar Palace. The Polar Palace, which

opened in 1926, was the second home of LAFSC

from 1934 to 1963. Club “old-timers”, who now

number less than twenty percent of our mem-

bership, share fond memories of the rink that

burned in 1963. It was the scene of the early

development of figure skating in Southern Cali-

fornia. Both amateur and professional figure

skating made great strides during the early

years because the Polar Palace was available at

the right place and time.

Eugene Turner, who in 1938 became

LAFSC’s first national champion, began his

long career there. In 1991 he wrote an article in

the August/September issue of Tracing enti-

tled, “Ice Field of Dreams.” That article is

excerpted below.

We generally think of the Garden of Eden as being located somewhere in the Middle East. But

in the 1940’s, the Polar Palace ice rink in Los Angeles was a Garden of Eden for figure skaters. To-

day’s skater might have blanched at the sight. Bizarre may not be too strong a word to describe the

daily scene. But anyone with an ounce of ability found it to be paradise. It meant skating among

many of the world’s best which made you feel you were being soaked in strawberry ice cream while

being bombarded with atomic particles of a rainbow. “Paradise”, according to the dictionary, is de-

fined as a state of being intellectually or emotionally inspired. The Polar Palace was a bit wide of this

mark, about seven light years wide.

It was a Quonset-shaped brown barn whose interior was laced with a dozen or so rows of

backless benches which stretched up to high windows that only slightly brightened an atmosphere

that resembled an enormous stable. In fact, partly surrounding the ice surface were “boxes” that

bore a close similarity to cattle stalls, and at one end was a raised structure with a log-cabin exterior

on which an orchestra had once played. Yet none of this mattered. The ice itself was not eclipsed.

Gorgeous! Today it would be called handmade: scraped by teams of boys, watered by hand, then

squeegeed. Allowed to melt at night, then frozen in time for any morning skating, we got something

like velvet to skate on. Did I say morning skating? We had none. Oh sure, weekends. But if you

didn’t skate in the afternoon or early evening, you didn’t skate. Patches were unheard of then.

Figures were skated mid-rink during public sessions. Dancing occurred during club sessions, but the

fledgling Los Angeles Figure Skating Club with its 35 members could field no test dancers. Tests

didn't exist then, this being Indian country. So the club invented tests...and judges. Couples skated,

“judges” judged; the judges then took the ice to be judged by the tested couples who be-

came….judges. Voila! Did it work? Only when the USFSA relented after an initial veto, apparently

feeling sorry for us Indians.

But the quiet was to be no longer. She came. The one and only, a personal tidal wave, Miss

Dimpled Smile herself, the she who was to rock the skating world such as it was then to its collective

edges. Miss Henie, Sonja to you, now swept in to conquer “Hollywood” and found the Polar Palace,

the only rink in town. Her reaction to this crumbling edifice as a stage for the first of her Hollywood

triumphs is not known, but even queens can’t be choosers in a city with only one rink. So since this is

Polar’s story, not Sonja’s, it is appropriate that the Polar Palace became the theater for Sonja’s first

conquest. Surrounded by a meager cast of Los Angeles Club members, she managed to exhibit her

charm in front of most of Hollywood’s elite screen stars. She swept into town that night, the film mo-

guls came knocking on her door, and you know the rest. But the good old Polar Palace was never the

same again.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN—by Jo Lawless, LAFSC Historian

ICE FIELD OF DREAMS— by Eugene Turner

Page 5 Volume 64, Issue 1

A PICTURE IS WORTH A

THOUSAND WORDS!

A very proud coach Wendy Olson with student

Spencer Howe, who came home with a Silver

Medal at his first trip ever to Junior Nationals!

LAFSC’s five medalists at Junior Nationals in Lake Placid, pictured

left to right: Intermediate Ladies Champion: Katarina Kulgeyko,

Juvenile Boys Silver Medalist: Spencer Howe, Intermediate Mens

Bronze Medalist: Shotaro Omori, Juvenile Pair Pewter Medalist:

Devin Perini, Juvenile Dance Pewter Medalist: Yura Min

LAFSC Juvenile Pairs Competitors Rachel Trail and Darian Weiss

with former World and Olympic Pair Champions and World Figure

Skating Hall of Fame honorees, Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov.

LAFSC Coach Erika Shorr enjoys a moment with the Protopopov’s.

Wanda Gelsebach strikes a winning pose at

the Artistic Challenge event held at Pickwick

on December 6, 2008.

The Los Angeles Figure Skating Clubs Newsletter is published by the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club. Letters to the

Editor, articles for publication, and advertisements should be submitted to News Bulletin Editor, Josephine Lawless at

7363 Sausalito Ave., West Hills, CA 91307. Phone: (818) 347-1510. Change of address, membership and subscription

inquiries should be mailed to the Membership Chair, PO Box 4055, Burbank, CA 91505. Rates: subscription $12.00 per

year. Classified ad: $5/3line/issue. Display ad: $5/column inch/issue (camera ready art). We make every effort to be

accurate and include as much timely information as possible. We encourage your submissions to keep all of our mem-

bers apprised of events happening within the club and welcome your participation in reporting newsworthy events!

Last month, you may have seen the flyers at Pickwick Ice Rink advertising a new production of Romeo & Juliet featuring LAFSC’s own Darian Weiss. A few of us caught up with Darian and his mom to ask how the show went. Suzanne said it was "great". Darian said it went rather well and offered these facts about his time spent on the set...there were 19 kissing scenes during the play and there were five performances over the weekend. You add these to the multiple practice kisses during rehersals and you get A LOT OF KISSES (over a hundred). Darian added that when the "real time" comes, he'll be prepared! Go Darian! Sharon Carz is recovering nicely from bunionectomies on each foot. She says she'll be back in true skating form real soon! He may not be a skater but he's pretty well known at the rink (especially in the wee dark hours of the morning)...Buzz Bender (Helen's dad) was playing in his team's slow pitch championship

softball game on Monday, Decem-ber 15th. While sliding gracefully into home base, his body didn't do what he thought he'd told it to do. Buzz now has a broken left wrist and a banged up knee. They won the game and call themselves champions now, but all his wife could say is "thank goodness the Christmas lights have already been put up!"

Seen giving hints and tips to our young pair teams, Rachel Trail and Darian Weiss, and Brooke Johnson and Brooks Ishler in Lake Placid at the US Junior National Championships were skating greats and former Olympic and World Pairs Champions Lud-milla and Oleg Protopovov.

Several of our LAFSC skat-ers competed in the ISI Artistic Challenge Event held at Pickwick Ice Arena. LAFSC skaters placing first in their events included: Cris-tina Wong, Vanessa Balao, Kath-leen Albert, Mandee McFerren, Caitlinn Concepcion, Kyra Joseph-son, Gigi Goff, Kylie Ng, Melinda Wu, Wanda Gelsebach, Madelynn

Bruno, Leah Jaffe, Sharidan Wil-liams-Sotelo, Jamila Barranda, Katherine Strait, Joan Bys, Lois Betancourt, Taylor Davis, Cath-erine Herberg, Jacksen Goodley, Danielle Hamel, Taylor Hum-phrey, Patricia Sano, Andrea Hill, and Gary Correa. Congratulations to all you!

Pam McDonald won 3rd place in the Burbank Art Associa-tion show with her watercolor painting of skates, circa 1800's, titled "Lost Legacy". There were 400 entries. This painting is printed on tile coasters, coffee mugs, and cards and are for sale. If interested, contact Pam at zisk8r@att.net.

Jack Curtis, former LAFSC President and USFSA treasurer retired as a national judge after fifty years of service. We wish him the best of luck!

Nelly Pecov, who lives in Phoenix, tells us she is no longer skating, but is active in ballroom dance. She attends dance classes and loves to compete.

Ice Chips………………………………………..heard round the rink……..