Its not just a sport. Its a way of life.

When I step out on the ice, all my thoughts are erased, I don't care about what happened ten minutes ago nor do I worry about the ten minutes to come. There is nothing like newly sharpened blades on a fresh sheet of ice. It's like cutting through butter, smooth and flawless, creating the prefect edge. It's all about the timing, the pressure created, and the lean the body makes when you just let it all flow. It reaches its perfection on an early morning when the air is crisp and clears the mind and when the fog hasn't quite lifted, so it seems like your skating on clouds. There really isn't anything else like it, It's home.

"I AM A SKATER: I have no Olympic medals or national titles .but I am richly rewarded with a lifetime of close friends- friends I have known since childhood, a rare blessing in an age when most people don't even know their next door neighbor. Skating has been my life; a good life; a way of life. It is my career. It has brought me happiness and contentment beyond measure. I am proud to be a skater, thankful for the opportunities, glad for the lessons in verance, indebted for having been taught discipline and responsibility, grateful to have learned how to deal with many of life's hard lessons and to have reaped the benefits of all its best rewards."

"SKATING: It's the feeling you get at the end of a hard practice when you pushed yourself to the limit, the way the ice feels when you get back on it after a few months off. It's a part of YOUR IDENTITY, something you LOVE and something you HATE. A bond that NO ONE ELSE really understands, but that's okay, because every time you get out on the ice it isn't just you; it's all the friends and coaches over the years, all the practices, all the sweat, all the pain, all the tears, all the memories, all the laughter, all the "off" competitions, all the lifetime bests, and all the road trips. As individual as it may seem, skating is really a team sport, and even still, it's more than just a sport. IT'S A WAY OF LIFE."