Figure skating club starts at IU

Forty-nine different club sports representatives in the IU Club Sports Federation voted figure skating as the newest club sport at their monthly meeting held Oct. 9 in the HPER building.\nTwo IU freshmen, Katie Laughner and Kirsten Blodgett, proposed the club to the Federation. Thirteen other skaters attended the meeting to show their support of the club. Erin Regenfuss, the assistant director of club sports and student development, said the Federation was impressed with the team's organization and membership since usually only one or two members attend the meeting. \n"We were impressed by the team's showing at the meeting," she said. "They seem highly organized and energized."\nAnother reason the Federation approved the club was that it did not take up another club's space or resources. Membership dues from the skaters as well as private donations go to the Friends of the IU Figure Skating Club fund, which will support the team.\nClub Sports, a division of Recreational Sports, cannot give the organization any money until next spring when it refigures the club sports' budget and sees how much the skating club will need for ice time, travelling and coaching expenses.\nThe team, which already has 30 members, will compete collegiately starting in November at a competition in Bowling Green, Ohio. Each team member practices at the Frank Southern Ice Arena three to four times a week.\n"We are very excited with our membership," Laughner said. "We have more members than Michigan State, and they have been around much longer." \nThe club is open to all IU students, regardless of ability. There will be two divisions of the team: collegiate, composed of skaters who will compete, and a recreational division.\n"The recreational division is open to everyone," Blodgett said. "It's for people who have never skated before or who just don't have the time to compete."\nThe goal of the collegiate division is to eventually go to the National Collegiate Championships, Laughner said. Nationals are an annual competition where skaters from all over the United States compete at the junior and senior level. To get to nationals, the skaters will have to participate in several competitions all over the Midwest against other college teams. If the team does well, it will get an opportunity to skate at Nationals. At these competitions, IU will be competing against club and varsity teams.\nOnly 36 colleges in the United States have some form of a figure skating team. Having this organization is a big step for Laughner and the other IU skaters. \n"I'm very excited about the club," said Stephanie Olson, a freshman member of the club. "It's sometime I have done since I was three, and now I can make new friends by doing something I love."\nIt took Laughner and Boldgett only two and a half months to put the club together. This included meeting with and getting the approval of Regenfuss and the Federation, writing a constitution and getting approval from the U. S. Figure Skating Association.\nThe members of the club are now preparing and anxiously awaiting their first competition.\n"USFSA is very excited that IU is going to join many of the other schools in the Big Ten and begin competing," Laughner said.\nThe team practices from 6 to 7:30 a.m. Tuesday through Friday at the Frank Southern Ice Rink at 1965 S. Henderson Street behind Bloomington South High School. For more information, e-mail iufigureskating@yah-oo.com.\n-- Contact staff writer Amy Barnicle at abarnicl@indiana.edu.