Team Excel is very proud to present seven synchronized skating teams during our very first season! We are fortunate to have a Synchronized Skating Director with a focused and thoughtful vision who has set organizational goals; an amazing coaching staff and off-ice trainers who prepare the skaters on- and off- the ice; and really great skaters from more than eighty dedicated families.
And as everyone will tell you, “All you need for a great skating team is the coach, the skaters and the ice!” Right?
Well ...
There are also the outfits: formal competition dress, formal practice dress, travel outfits, practice wear. Who fixes it when competition dresses arrive with the skirts on backwards? ...
And transportation: how are the skaters getting to the competition: plane, train or automobile? Who are the people movers on competition day? ...
And the care and upkeep of skaters: who is arranging to feed and care for 20 skaters when practice ice is a 7:30 AM and they compete at 9:30 PM? ...
And finances: How do we create and manage a budget in the spring providing sufficient ice and coaching for each team to prepare for national and international competitions? ...
And competitions? We have volunteers with expertise, but do we have the facility and support to host a competition in our very first season? ...
Finally, what about the future? What lies beyond the blush of the first year? How can we be a viable, strong and growing organization focused on synchronized skating for years to come?
On Team Excel, off-ice support of the coaching staff and skaters is separated into 3 main groups:
- We proudly represent The Skating Club of Boston at all sanctioned events. The Skating Club of Boston has been generous and supportive from day one in both their Boston and MetroWest facilities. The Skating Club has helped us to host a Synchronized Skating Summer Camp, invited us to Friday night exhibitions, included us a holiday showcase and, excitingly, assisted in the planning of the first Boston Synchronized Skating Classic on Saturday, March 27 to be held at The Skating Club of Boston.
- The Board of Team Excel focuses on long-term planning, strategic issues and executive decisions that will impact Team Excel for years to come. They run the organization as a non-profit 501c3 and work to ensure that the executive business and the vision of the Director of Synchronized Skating are synergistic.
- And who is lucky enough to answer the rest of these questions and thousands more? The Steering Committee! The Steering Committee performs all the daily support and operational functions for the coaches, teams and families.
The Team Excel Steering Committee includes the Director of Synchronized Skating, a Committee Chairman, 8-12 Subcommittee Chairs and individual Team Managers. Monthly meetings cover ice schedule and performance planning, competition and travel logistics, publicity and public relations, competition and team clothing, finance and fundraising, rules and policies, and updates from each team and the coaches.
The Committee Chairman facilitates the monthly meetings, coordinates cross-organizational efforts, helps elucidate barriers so that they may be removed, and takes on additional tasks where needed. The Director of Synchronized Skating brings both the on-ice perspective and more than 20 years of synchronized skating experience to the meeting. The voting members (of which, the Director is one) have the final decision on operational matters.
The Skating Club of Boston, The Board and the Steering Committee complement one another in important ways from support, stability and years of experience all the way to successfully managing team performance events. This is all done in the context of the Director’s vision to have a singularly focused synchronized-skating organization combining synchronized-skating experienced coaches, trainers and supportive volunteers with developing skaters and teams in a nurturing and value-based training environment.
I am interested in hearing from other synchronized–skating organizations. How do you manage your day-to–day, team-to-team logistics; how do you get all the work done while ensuring that you are focused on the vision of your organization? We’d be interested to know and happy to share what information we could to promote the sport of synchronized skating.
Stay Warm,
Nicole
Nicole Castro is the mother of a Team Excel Juvenile skater and a Team Excel Beginner skater and the Chair of the 09-10 Team Excel Steering Committee
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