Synchronized skating team focused on recruiting, raising bar for next season
5/26/2023 7:00:29 PM | Synchronized Skating
After competing in the Collegiate Open division this past season, Liberty University’s synchronized skating team is working toward returning to the Collegiate division for the 2023-24 school year. That would make the Lady Flames eligible to compete in the United States Synchronized Skating Collegiate National Championships, as they did in 2021-22.
“This past season, we had a very good turnout … and we were able to accomplish a great season together to build our team culture and our team aspect of who Liberty University Synchronized Skating is,” said first-year Head Coach Hannah Pulley, who previously competed for the Lady Flames from 2017-21. “We are currently recruiting throughout this summer and building up our team for next season.”
“The goal is to compete at one level higher next season, so we are bringing some recruits in and having them skate with us and see where they’re at,” senior Hailey Jordan added.
Assistant Coach Haley Gram (’20), who was a teammate of Pulley’s and joined her staff this past season, said building team culture was the primary focus of this past season.
“We wanted to generate a safe place where the skaters could feel loved, accepted, and valued, so we really stressed relationships on the ice and off the ice,” she said. “We just really wanted to focus on investing in these girls to build them up and we were definitely able to reap the benefits of it this past year. We always tried to do something fun either before or after competition as well as do various volunteer activities around Lynchburg (and) we think that really contributed to our success on the ice.”
Jordan added that even with plenty of newcomers, the Lady Flames were able to medal at three of the four competitions they traveled to this past season.
“We did bring a lot of freshmen onto the team and we had two skaters transfer in for the second semester,” she said. “Everyone has a really unique friendship this year and it really showed in the way we skated at competitions.”
Video edited by Kylee Lilge/Club Sports Video & Media Coordinator