Fiveasec: Five Noralta skaters getting ready to compete at Sectionals in Edmonton

Fort McMurray’s Noralta Skating Club is sending five skaters to their first competition in almost two years. The Sectional Championship takes place in Edmonton from Nov. 4 to 7.

Since the pandemic started, skating events in Alberta have been limited or cancelled. But next week’s competition is expected to have more than 200 skaters. Fort McMurray will be represented by Mackenzie MacIntyre, Isabella Scheers, Daliko Kutateladze, Nesi Kutateladze and Olivia Johnson.

Ben Sauvé, coach and director of operations for the skating club, said the pandemic’s impacts on the sport has been “destructive,” particularly at the youth level.

“We’ve seen a generation of kind of up-and-coming skaters across the province, their careers have stalled for the better part of a year and a half, two year,” he said. “We don’t know what we’re going to see once the girls get back out there after that long.”

“That’s why it’s exciting. It’s like the first time competing again.”

To prepare for the elite-level provincial competition, Sauvé said he’s tried getting the skaters back into the same training habits they had before. It’s also been important to be prepared for anything, he said.

“Be prepared for the excitement of an event, the excitement of a performance when you haven’t done that in a long time,” he said. “It’s a bit of a different challenge when it’s the first time in two years versus something you’ve trained for regularly.”

Sauvé said he’s both nervous and excited to see how the girls will react and perform at the competition, but also how they build off of this performance.

“It’s like anything, once you’ve played in the big game you want to go play in the big game again,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to not just this event, but as a coach building off of this event to get their careers back on track.”

Although it can be difficult to predict what the rest of the season will look like, Sauvé is hopeful there will be more events this season, but said they are waiting for information from Skate Alberta.

“We all like to think we’re coming out of this now, but definitely we’re still seeing a lot of effects,” he said. “We’re seeing competitions with very limited amounts of registration, competition is limited regionally to the skaters within one region competing.”

lbeamish@postmedia.com