The Excellent Lexettes

By Amanda DeLosh

As the young girl takes the cold shimmering ice, having seen her reflection staring back at her, she takes a deep breath turns around to her teammates, and says one quick last cheer before gliding across the ice.

Synchronized skating has been around since the early 1950’s by its creator Dr. Richard Porter. Anne-Arbor Michigan happens to be the founding town of this exquisite sport. The story behind it, however, is interesting on its own. Michigan, being known for its hockey (i.e. the Detroit Red Wings) didn’t know that they would soon have another sport to add to the ice. A group of skaters performed for the first time at University of Michigan hockey games. Then, in 1976, the first team competition was held in Ann-Arbor. Synchronized skating has had a challenging evolution, but there are hopes for adding it to the future Olympic Games.

With synchronized skating consistently evolving every year, one skating team in particular has become world known, the Lexettes. The Lexettes is a part of the Hayden Skating Club. The Hayden Skating Club holds eight synchronized skating teams. The most elite of them all is very well known in the skating world, The Haydenettes. The Haydenettes are recognized as “America’s skating team,” holding 17 U.S. National titles. They are a senior level synchro team, which has been adopted as the short term for synchronized skating by its fans.

Skaters move around the ice with smiles and expressions to wow the crowd. Specific songs are chosen by the coach to capture the judges, and crowd’s interest, and get them into the program. This year the Lexettes have a program to big band swing music. They glide across the ice in block formations doing spins, twizzles, intense footwork and arm movements and facial expressions that really set the mood to the music. It is almost like watching a music video on ice, just with a few skates involved and beautiful dresses the flow in the breeze of the fast moving skaters with makeup that dazzles their faces to make them look even more flawless.

The Lexettes happen to be the junior level team, which is considered one of the most elite levels of competitive figure skating. They are the reigning U.S. Bronze medalists, which got them a spot on Team USA, meaning they represent the U.S. in any international competitions.

The team is made up of 21 girls who skate with their hearts from four states including Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. In order to be on this team one would have to be an avid figure skater, practicing in such areas as dance, moves in the field, freestyle and synchro. A lot of time and dedication go into making a team such as the Lexettes.

Three girls from upstate New York have joined the Lexettes for the 2009-2010 synchro season. Chelsea Travis, Lizzie Bastien and Leah Short have skated together since they were little. Now the girls are heading into their last couple of years in high school and travelling six to seven hours every weekend to practice with the Lexettes in Lexington, MA. Short is from the Plattsburgh, NY area and has been skating since she was 5 years old. “My neighbor told me I should try synchronized skating because I loved to skate and she thought I would love synchro,” Short says. “And I do!”

Short has been a part of the Hayden teams for the past 2 seasons now, including her long time teammates, Travis and Bastien. They have all worked their way up from the Novice level Ice Mates, which is a level below the Lexettes. However, it all begins somewhere and they all really wouldn’t be where they are today if it wasn’t for their old team, the Ice Illusions. The Ice Illusions became a team in 2003 and had their final skate together in February 2008. They took the gold medal up and down the East coast multiple years, and travelled to the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado to capture the silver medal at the State Games of America.

Being on the Ice Illusions prepared the girls, allowing them to know what to expect when trying out for the Lexettes. “Compared to teams we've been on before there’s a lot more work and dedication.” Short. “There are more hours on and off ice.” Short explains.

Even though it may seem like it is all work and no play, the Lexettes have a lot to be proud of and many memories to hold on to forever. “The friends and traveling has been my favorite thing so far,” Short says with a smile.” Travis and Bastien chimed in with their favorite thing simply saying, “Friends and traveling,” continuing, “And working towards our dreams.” Those dreams may possibly be one day competing in the Winter Olympics.

Being a part of any synchronized skating team involves a lot of practice, but also travelling. Some teams are lucky enough to travel all over the world to compete. This past January, the Lexettes travelled to Berlin, Germany to compete and earn the Bronze medal, which is a great achievement for the team. Short says that her favorite memory thus far was definitely travelling to Berlin and competing.

With the season coming to a close there is one last competition for them to compete in and the girls are very much looking forward to one last final skate doing the thing they love. “Bourne is one of my favorites because it's the first competition and it's gets you excited for the season, and it's your first competition with the team that year,” Short says, “And Nationals would be another one because you get to see how much you’ve improved and you can look at the journey you took,” she continues. “So they actually go together, “Short adds with a smile.

As the girls head off to Nationals in Minneapolis, Minnesota to compete against all of the teams in the U.S, after winning gold in the Easterns Synchronized Skating Competition, they hope to do their best and skate with their hearts, and come home with gold medals around their necks one more time as the season comes to a complete and the skates get put away until, it’s time to start all over again doing the thing they love.