Northfield Skating School

Last weekend, a group of skaters coached by Northfield Skating School coaches competed at the annual Autumnfest competition in Burnsville. All skaters delivered great performances for the judges and came home with medals! Below is a list of results in descending order of skating level. Congratulations, skaters! We are proud of you.

Aleia Anthony (Eagan & St. Paul Figure Skating Clubs), 5th place, Pre-Juvenile Girls Freeskate. Coach: Carey Tinkelenberg

Elizabeth Penny (St. Paul Figure Skating Club, NSS Skating Assistant), 4th place, Preliminary Girls Freeskate. Coach: Carey Tinkelenberg.

Sofiya Briguene (St. Paul Figure Skating Club), 2nd place, Pre-Preliminary Girls Freeskate & Compulsory. Coach: Carey Tinkelenberg.

Jessica Arey (St. Paul FSC), 3rd place, Pre-Preliminary Girls Freeskate. Coach: Carey Tinkelenberg.

Delaney Leiter (Eagan Ice Crystal FSC), 3rd place, Pre-Preliminary Girls Freeskate. Coaches: Carey Tinkelenberg & Melanie Ritz.

Jacia Christiansen (Eagan Ice Crystal FSC), 1st place, Beginner Girls Freeskate. Coach: Carey Tinkelenberg

Emily North (Northfield Skating School & St. Paul Figure Skating Club), 1st place, Freeskate 3. Coach: Carey Tinkelenberg.

Abby Munns (Owatonna Figure Skating Club), 1st place, Freeskate 2. Coach: Melanie Ritz.

Justine Fischer (Owatonna Figure Skating Club), 1st place, Freeskate 1. Coach: Melanie Ritz.

Milly Reese (Northfield Skating School), 1st place, Basic 7 Freeskate & Compulsory. Coach: Carey Tinkelenberg.

Molly Hennelly (St. Paul FSC), 1st place, Basic 4 Freeskate & 2nd place, Basic 4 Compulsory. Coach: Carey Tinkelenberg.

Click to view more  photos (and full-size photos).

Registration is NOW OPEN for Session 1 programs, which now include THREE days of group lessons!

View class descriptions and calendar to find out about our NEW Tuesday evening lesson program with the St. Paul Figure Skating Club and our NEW Thursday Pre-school/Homeschool Group Lessons.

Tuesday evening classes in St. Paul begin Sept 6 and continue year-round. Register at any time. First class is FREE!

Thursday classes begin Sept 29. Register by Sept 20

Sunday classes begin Oct 2. Register by Sept 20

We are offering two skating sessions this year. Session 2 will run from mid-January through mid-March with exact dates published in October.

Confused or interested in more information about the new programs? Attend our Parent Meeting on Wed, Sept 28 from 7-8pm at the Northfield Community Resource Center!

We have arranged a make-up group lesson for last week’s snow day for Monday, March 7th from 4:00-5:00pm. If your lesson is normally from 1:00-1:30, it will be from 4:00-4:30 on 3/7. If your lesson is normally from 1:30-2:00pm, it will be from 4:30-5:00pm on 3/7. Thank you to arena manager Allison Watkins and Community Services partner Erin Mayberry for enabling this change.

The third annual skating event co-sponsored by Carleton Alumni Affairs and the Northfield Skating School is featured on U.S. Figure Skating’s National Skating Month website. Special thanks to Carleton student Leigh-Anne Borkowski ’11 for producing the short video featured here.

See video on U.S. Figure Skating website

This May, Northfield Skating School Owner/Director Carey Tinkelenberg became the youngest program director in the  Professional Skaters Association (PSA) to earn a Master rating.

The Master rating is the highest rating attainable in the PSA. Coaches and directors become rated in their discipline by successfully completing oral exams, sport science written exams, and meeting experience and continuing education requirements. The minimum requirements for a Master program director rating include 5 years and 500 hours of coaching and management experience and “exceptional knowledge and organization” of staffing, scheduling, promotion, safety standards, education, and ethics of managing skating programs.

Tinkelenberg completed the oral exam on May 25th and was honored at the Professional Skaters Association International Conference and Trade Show in Colorado Springs (pictured above). She also holds a Senior rating in group instruction and Registered ratings in freestyle and moves-in-the-field.

Tinkelenberg founded the Northfield Skating School after graduating from Carleton College in 2005. In 2008, the school was named a “Model Program” by the editors of SKATING Magazine and Tinkelenberg was presented the June 2008 Making a Difference Award by the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative for the school’s positive impact on youth. Tinkelenberg serves as a mentor to directors as member of the U.S. Figure Skating Basic Skills Committee and presents regularly at director training events nationwide. She coaches full time in Northfield, St. Paul, and Eagan and was the silver medalist in Masters Pairs at the 2010 U.S. Adult Championships with Peter Biver.

Last Thursday, Northfield Skating School Director Carey Tinkelenberg and Peter Biver became the Adult Masters Pairs Silver Medalists at the U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships held at the Bloomington Ice Garden in Bloomington, MN. Tinkelenberg and Biver have been training together for just under one year and are both local professional coaches. This was the first year skating pairs for Tinkelenberg, a New England Regional Silver Medalist and U.S. Eastern Sectional competitor in singles skating. Biver, a three-time U.S. Eastern Sectional competitor and two-time North Atlantic Regional Silver Medalist in pairs, guided her from the beginning steps of pairs skating through their national medal. The pair performed to “Carmen.”

Four skaters coached by Northfield Skating School coaches entered a total of seven events at the Farmington Spring Festival last Saturday, March 27th. Out of seven events, there were six first placements and one second placement! All skaters showed their strength and positive sportsmanship. We are proud of you!

Emmalyn Fried: 1st place, Basic 8 Compulsory and Freeskate
Elizabeth Penny: 1st place, Freeskate 2 Compulsory and Freeskate
Maggie Kielas: 2st place, Freeskate 2 Compulsory, and 1st place, Freeskate
Jessica Arey: 1st place, Freeskate 4

Kittel Evenson, Northfield Skating School Assistant Director, has accepted an invitation from U.S. Figure Skating headquarters to join the Basic Skills Sub-Committee, a governance and development group for the largest sub-section of the national governing body’s membership. Evenson joins Northfield Skating School Founder/Director Carey Tinkelenberg on the twelve-person committee. The Northfield Skating School is the only program with two representatives. Evenson’s duties will include voting on rule changes, mentoring new directors, and discussing the future direction of the nation’s 950 Basic Skills skating programs.

Evenson is a Northfield native, Carleton Junior, and former skater who was coached by Tinkelenberg through middle and high school. Evenson joined the Northfield Skating School staff in 2005 when the school was founded. She was hired as Assistant Director two years later during her freshman year at Carleton. Evenson has been an integral part of the school’s development, leadership, and growth into a U.S. Figure Skating Model Program. Her committee invitation came following a presentation she and Tinkelenberg co-delivered at a U.S. Figure Skating Workshop co-hosted by the Northfield Skating School and Shattuck St. Mary Figure Skating Academy earlier this month.

Check out the Northfield News article about Anna Sheehan and Elizabeth Penny, Northfield skaters who have made great strides in their skating recently.  Thanks to Jeff Wald, Northfield News Sports Editor, for taking the time to meet with us and recognize their story.

A big congratulations to Anna Sheehan for becoming our first Northfield skater to pass a U.S. Figure Skating test. Anna is both a skater and Skating Assistant (assistant coach) with the Northfield Skating School and has been skating with us since we formed in 2005. She is a 9th grader at the Northfield School of Arts and Technology (ARTech) and she takes private skating lessons with Carey Tinkelenberg, NSS Director, and Melanie Ritz. U.S. Figure Skating tests are the next step of the U.S. Figure Skating development path beyond the Basic Skills curriculum. These tests make a skater eligible to compete at higher levels, but skaters need not compete in order to progress. The tests themselves are an achievement. Anna impressed the judges with her strength, form, and beautiful spirals as she passed her Pre-Preliminary Moves in the Field Test in front of a panel of U.S. Figure Skating judges in Burnsville. Congratulations, Anna, we are proud to have you representing NSS!

View more photos of Anna’s test on our Photos Page