Ninth grader stays active during winter; Sport motivates girl on wheels
Photo Credit: Bryn Cespedes This photo featured Bryn’s instructor in the center with Bryn just to the right of her. It also represents the costumes they wear for recitals.
January 13, 2022
Freshman Bryn Cespedes is an athlete at NHHS, but she also stays active outside of school. The ninth grader is an avid roller skater at Honeygo Run Regional Park. She relates the sport to cheer, dance and figure skating, and describes it as “ basically choreographed dance on wheels..”
Cespedes has been skating for 7 years now at the rec level and thinks she will continue to do so in the future considering she thinks of it as an easy sport and not too serious, and they have alumni things.
The skater adds, “I would recommend it, it’s really fun and you can meet a ton of new people, but you have to be willing to be there on weekends because it takes up some of your time.”
They do group performances unscored/judged and separated by age group similar to dance recitals and create routines. These feature skills, including what Cespedes says is her coolest move, an “8-step turn” where she explains as “you step forward, backwards you jump and spin and then land on one foot going forward.”
When it comes to the choreography of these performances the instructor Ms. Katelyn comes up with the dances and this position was not originally hers, but was passed on from her mother after she had outgrown it. She coaches all of the age groups from the littles to the alumni.
In terms of attire for this sport, she said it is similar to dance; the skaters wear costumes that are based off of themes. “We have someone who makes all of our costumes for us, she runs the company who makes them.”
Cespedes thinks that this sport is more mentally draining compared to physically because, “the physical part of it, if you practice you’ll be fine but it’s hard getting in the mental state of thinking if you fall you’ll be fine, and if you mess up the first time and you can’t do it, do it again.”
The ninth grader said that memorizing and applying the choreography takes an average of about 7 sessions, only because practice is 45 minutes and it can be difficult given the short time frame.
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