Utah Figure Skating Club

Previously Featured Utah Figure Skaters of the Month

Kristina Struthwolf   Level: Senior     Coach: Kris Sherard    How I Started Skating:  After watching Kristi Yamaguchi in the Olympics at age 4, I begged my parents to let me start skating until I was 7, when I received skating lessons for my birthday.   Favorite Skater: Kristi Yamaguchi   Favorite Thing About Skating: Everything! I absolutely love to perform.   Least Favorite Thing About Skating: Injuries   Skating Goals: In competition, my goal is not to win a medal, but to skate a clean program and to do my personal best, and to have FUN!   What Else to Know About Me:  My favorite color is bright, electric blue. I collect platypuses. I have a parrot named Lenny that I have taught to do a spiral and I love to travel; I have traveled out-of-state over 100 times for both skating and family vacations and have competed in Europe three times.  I also skated in the 2002 Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

Rachel White   Level: Junior      Coach: Stephanee Grosscup, Jozef Sabovcik, Keith Munden    How I Started Skating: I went public skating with my family and absolutely loved it!  For my seventh birthday, my grandparents bought me ice skates and skating lessons.     Favorite Skater: Yevgeney Plushenko   Favorite Thing About Skating: I love the thrill of performing in front of an audience! Least Favorite Thing About Skating: Bad performances.   Skating Goals: To qualify for the US National Championships.  I also want to get the rest of my triples consistent.   What Else to Know About Me:  I am a junior at Davis High School.  I absolutely LOVE to travel! I have been to Europe twice, once to compete in Switzerland.  I have qualified for Sectionals twice and last year I was the alternate for Nationals.  I also play the piano.

Anna Sophia Rorrer Warren Level: High Free Skate   Coach: Joleen Goodfellow, Keith Munden    How I Started Skating: I started skating when I was three and a half years old in lessons with Joleen. I wanted to skate since the first time I saw Disney on Ice when I was two.   Favorite Skater: Sasha Cohen   Favorite Thing About Skating: My favorite things about skating are always learning new jumps and spins, competing because I like doing my best, my coach Joleen, and making good friends.   Least Favorite Thing About Skating: My least favorite thing about skating is when I fall really hard.   Skating Goals: My skating goals are to do my best and have fun. Also, right now I am working to get my sit spin, lutz, and camel spin and to keep my arms up while I am doing my crossovers.   What Else to Know About Me:  I enjoy reading, swimming, going to the beach, and horseback riding. I have learned how to surf, gone swimming with the dolphins, and dog sledding. I love to travel and have visited places like Maui, Jackson Hole, Disney World, and Maine.

Roberta Capron & Terri Lyn Sorenson Roberta and Terri Lyn have been selected to compete in the Special Olympics Invitational held February 25-28, 2008 in Boise, Idaho. These games are a "dress rehearsal" for the Winter World Games to be held in Idaho during 2009. Roberta Capron   Level: Special Olympics          Coach: Kathy Valburg   How I started skating: When I was in elementary school our teacher took us ice skating once a week for our P. E. class and I loved it.   Favorite skater: Kristi Yamaguchi   Favorite thing about skating: I love to wear the pretty costumes and to perform, it is so much fun.   Least favorite thing about skating: falling down   Skating goals: I want to master a waltz jump and to do my very best each time I skate.   What else to know about me: I started skating when I was 8 years old.  I have won a trip to Internationals Special Olympics in Canada.  My favorite color is pink. I love to go on trips with my family and I am taking sewing  and cooking lessons. Terri Lyn Sorenson   Level: Special OlympicsII     Coach: Jolene Goodfellow   How I started skating: Meadowbrook Elementary Special Ed classes came to the rink to learn about skating.   Favorite skater: Kristi Yamaguchi   Favorite thing about skating: I love to spin, do the lunge and meeting famous skating celebrities through Special Olympics.   Least favorite thing about skating: Practice and falling down.   Skating goals: I want to master a waltz jump.   What else to know about me:  I love to read, dance, play the piano and be with my friends.

Brianna Barmore Level: Novice         Coach: Kris Sherard   How I started skating: When I was 6 I was watching skating on TV and told my mom I wanted to be just like the girls on TV.  So I started skating with the Learn to Skate program at Acord.   Favorite skater: I don’t really know if I have a favorite.  I admire all the skaters who are involved in charity work, who use their stardom to help others. But I would have to say Scott Hamilton. I have met him a couple of times and he has been really nice. He has done so much for figure skating both on and off the ice. Even when he fought cancer he cared about other people. Recipient of the "2005 Distinguished Achievement Award" Octoberfest. Favorite thing about skating: I love doing new and different things. I like to "break out of the box." But all in all I love doing just about everything! I am learning to do Death Drops and I think they are way cool. And I love to jump!   Least favorite thing about skating: I don’t like falling, but then who does?! Oh, and moves in the field (but don’t tell Kris!)   Skating goals: To pass my junior and senior levels! (and yes the moves in the field). I would like to be a coach some day; helping to shape the lives of other people is important through hard work and dedication to whatever it is they want to be.   What else to know about me: I am a sophomore at Tooele High School. I love to read Manga books.  I love hanging with friends! I hope to go to Japan some day. I have one wall that has all Japanese stuff on it. I have 2 older brothers, an older sister & brother-in-law and 2 nephews & 1 niece.

Raylynn Edwards   Level: Pre-Juvenile            Coach: Kathy Valburg   How I started skating: My grandma and grandpa took me to the skating rink and I told them I wanted to do ice skating, and they signed me up for Learn to Skate.   Favorite skater: Where do I start? I have so many. I like Kristi Yamaguchi, Sasha Cohen, Sara Hughes, Michelle Kwan, and one of my other favorite skaters, Kristina Struthwolf. Favorite thing about skating: Everything!!!! I love skating.   Least favorite thing about skating: I love skating, but I really don't like competing. It's not my favorite thing so I don't do it too much, and injuries.   Skating goals: To try my hardest and have lots of fun and be the best I can be at skating.   What else to know about me: I love music. I play the guitar. I have an electric and two acoustic. I have two dogs and a bird. I love to go skating on the public sessions and teach the little kids how to skate.

Kelsey Stone Level: Novice   Coach: Holly Cook Tanner   How I started skating: Well, when Nationals came to Utah in 1999, my family somehow managed to get tickets to a practice ice for women's short. Seeing figure skating so close made my parents think it would be fun for us to learn how to skate. So they put us in basic skills and we all loved skating so much my parents put all of us in private lessons.   Favorite skater: I have had many favorite skaters over the years. Some of them have been Irina Slutskaya and Alexei Yagudin. I also got the special chance of flower sweeping for Alexei Yagudin when he won the gold in the Olympics in 2002.   Favorite thing about skating: Well, I love skating all around, but if I were to pick some things, I would pick jumping and performing. I love jumping and challenging myself with harder jumps, and I just love performing!   Least favorite thing about skating: Hmm... that's a hard one, but if I had to choose, it would probably be moves.   Skating goals:  I have always had the goal in skating to just have fun and never quit. But another goal I have is to finish all my tests up to gold level.   What else to know about me: Well, I attend the University of Utah, where I am majoring in Exercise and Sport Science. I also love to teach skating and Pilates.

Amy Dursteler Level: Intermediate   Coach: Kris Sherard and Tiffany Kennard   How I started skating: My sister and I both liked skating just for fun so we asked our parents if we could take group lessons. I was almost 11 when I started taking lessons at Polar Ice in Peoria, Arizona. I started taking private lessons and then competing a couple years later and I moved to Utah when I was 14. Favorite skater: I love watching skating on the television; my favorite ladies skaters to watch are Mao Asada, Yu Na Kim, and Mirai Nagasu. My favorite men’s skaters are Brian Joubert and Stephane Lambiel and my favorite ice dancers are Meryl Davis/Charlie White, Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir, and Tanith Belbin/Ben Agosto.   Favorite thing about skating: I love everything about skating, but my favorite things to practice are jumps.   Least favorite thing about skating: Injuries and bad performances.   Skating goals:  To skate my best in competition and to improve as much as I can.   What else to know about me: I am a junior at Davis High School and I have a 3.9 GPA. I also love music, drawing, and playing the guitar.

Paige Hepworth Level: Intermediate   Coach: Holly Tanner   How I started skating: My sister and I both moved here from Indiana and started Learn to Skate together. She did not like it as much because her butt would be in pain. I always felt amazing and was so excited to get on the ice and so I kept going. When my first competition came I got first place and that is when I really started to love this sport and I will never forget that feeling.   Favorite skater: I love watching Kristi Yamaguchi. But I just love watching skating in general. I really don't have a favorite.    Favorite thing about skating: My favorite thing about ice skating has to be the jumps because it feels like you are flying in the air. And the feeling of landing a new jump after all the falls.   Least favorite thing about skating: Bad performances because you feel so disappointed and that you could have done better.    Skating goals:  To catch up on all my jumps and to do well in my performances.   What else to know about me: I am in eighth grade at Bountiful Junior High. I love to draw, color, and eat. The other sport that I am passionate about is volleyball. And I love hanging out with my friends. They make me laugh.

Madeline White Level: Pre Juvenile   Coach: Stephanie Grosscup & Keith Munden   How I started skating: Well, my sister, Rachel White, started because our grandma used to skate, and then after the Olympics in 2002 I finally convinced them to start me up skating. Now me and my sister, Rachel, skate almost every day.   Favorite skater: Well, I don't really know. I have too many...Well, I really like Marai Nagasu and I happen to be a huge fan of Johnny Weir.   Favorite thing about skating: Well, I really like the jumps and just getting to meet new people. I have made lots of friends from different cities and that has been awesome.   Least favorite thing about skating: Well, for one thing I really don't like falling. I know nobody does, but that is pretty much all that I don't like.    Skating goals:  Well, for every session I skate, one of my goals is to run through two programs at least and do my combo spin five times. By the end of the year I would like to have all of my doubles (not including double axel) and all of my combos. My skating goals for the future are making it to Junior Nationals or Nationals.   What else to know about me: I am going into 8th grade and I have been skating for six years. I love to sing and dance and hang out with friends.