A winter sport which gets very little exposure in western Pennsylvania is a big part of one Kittanning resident’s life — synchronized skating. Twenty-two-year-old Marsha Snyder has been ice skating for more than 17 years and synchronized skating for the last five. Her older sister, Kelly, was active in figure skating until she was injured, and brothers, Bryan and Michael, play hockey, so Marsha was destined to be on the ice. When she was younger, Marsha said, she and her siblings would skate everyday after school at the Belmont Arena in West Kittanning. “We live three minutes from the skating rink. The bus went right by there so we just had it drop us off,” Snyder said. “When I turned 16, I started skating in Harmarville. I drove there every morning,” she said. Although she now can do all of the double jumps on ice with ease, learning them was not easy. “Sometimes (falling) really hurt,” she said, “but I didn’t bruise that much. It’s easy once you learn the jump. You learn them when you’re young. That’s when you’re not afraid.” Every morning before school, the dedicated young skater would leave her home in Kittanning by 5:30 to be on the ice in Harmarville by 6 a.m. She would skate until 7 a.m., and be at school by 7:30 or 8 a.m., “hopefully in time for second period,” she said. “After school I would skate at (West) Kittanning.” Skating is her favorite pastime, but, she said, “I don’t really care to get up that early and be on the ice.” Marsha skated competitive freestyle until she was 17, when she was introduced to synchronized skating at Miami University (MU) in Oxford, Ohio. “I went to a (synchronized) skating camp (at MU) when I was 17,” she said, “and I liked it. Synchronized skating is a mixture of freestyle and dance.” Dancing is her favorite aspect of the synchronized skating, which is one of the reasons she decided to attend MU. “(MU) also has good academics,” she added. She said MU does not recruit or offer scholarships for their synchronized skating team, the RedHawks. “They just tell you if you want to come and try out, you just have to take a chance. You might make it; you might not make it.” Marsha took that chance. In February, 2003, she led MU’s synchronized skating team to win third place in the international competition held in Neuchatel, Switzerland. The next month, she led the team to win second place in the national competition at Huntsville, Alabama. The top two teams from the national competition go to the World Championships. Being on a successful team takes a lot of dedication and practice — four hours of practice every day. A typical practice consists of, she said, “an hour of off ice warm up, then two hours on the ice, then we have an additional hour where we do ballet or lift weights or off ice preparation,” where the team walks through the routine. Though practice is important, achieving good grades was a priority. All freshmen and teammates with a GPA below 3.0 were required to attend study tables every week. “They had our standards very high,” Marsha said. “They had a lot of struggle to keep the sport so we could get funding. Sometimes we would have to pay for other coaches to come in and help us choreograph.” Renowned ice skating singles choreographer, Sarah Kawahara, helped the team set up their 2003 winning routines. It was the first time the Emmy Award winning choreographer, whose client list includes Scott Hamilton, Michelle Kwan, Kristi Yamaguchi and Dorothy Hamill, worked with a synchronized skating team. Marsha graduated from the Ohio university in May, with a degree in chemistry. She plans to relocate to Columbus, Ohio, near Ohio State University where she wants to attend pharmacy school. Aside from expanding her educational background, she said, “I’ve been thinking of joining an ice show. I think Disney on Ice would be a lot of fun.” She also intends to coach in Columbus. She coached under-14 girls at MU, as well as some of her teammates. “I coached some of the girls on the team in dance,” Marsha said. Synchronized skating has come a long way, she said. “It was actually supposed to be in the last Olympics as a trial sport. They’re trying.” “I think it’s going in a really great direction.” *****Breakout: From Synchronized Skating History and Information found at: www.synchroskating.com – Synchronized skating was created in 1956. At that time, some skaters were performing synchronized routine during the intermission of hockey game. It starts in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The first synchronized skating in North America was the Hockettes. They were founded by Dr. Porter. – In the early 1960s, some competitions were organized. The first international competition was held in Ann Arbor in 1976. This competition was called The Tri-States. – It’s by 1994 that the International Skating Union started to sanction international competitions. – The first World Challenge Cup was held in Boston, USA in 1996. – The first World Championships was held last April in Minneapolis, USA.

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