Oake says goodbye after 13 years

LEWISPORTE - April 17 marked the date that local skater Jessica Oake said goodbye to the Notre Dame Figure Skating club after graduating with 13 years with the club.

Jessica began skating at the age of four. The first badge back then was pre-beginners. In order to pass this badge, you had to be able to glide on one foot for a count of four. Jessica showed her determination early as she tried and tried to master the move. She accomplished that task and quickly completed the next four badges. At age six she moved to Juniors and at age nine she was on to Seniors. She learned many of her skating moves outside of the stadium as she practiced spins on a frozen ditch in front of her house.

At age seven Jessica started competing and attending seminars and summer schools. Her first competition was in Wesleyville where she won a silver medal. Since then she has won 17 gold, nine silver and 13 bronze medals. At age eight she was named to the provincial C team. At age 10 Jessica advanced to the B team and then the A team at age 13. She has attended 33 seminars with coaches like Daniel Beland, Brian Orser, Doug Leigh, Lee Barkell, Eric Gillies, Jose Piccard, Jennifer Robinson, John Briscoe and others.

Over the years, Jessica has won many awards including:

The most promising skater at Snowflake Skate.

The most competitive athlete of the year from Skate Canada Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Bank of Montreal Merit Award for the most outstanding performance at Sectionals.

The Campbell Soup award at provincials for least deductions.

A bursary from Skate Canada.

The Elizabeth Swan Award.

Senior Skater of the year from Notre Dame Figure Skating Club.

Program Assistant of the year from the Notre Dame Figure Skating Club.

The talented skater also won a silver medal at the Newfoundland and Labrador Winter Games and the highlight of her skating career was a gold medal at the Sectionals in Corner Brook in 2002 that enabled her to compete in Junior Nationals in 2003. Since then she has represented Newfoundland and Labrador at three Eastern Challenge Events in Ontario and New Brunswick.

Skating for Jessica has meant many sacrifices, especially giving up sleepovers because of competitions and summers spent training. Jessica first went to summer skating school at age seven in St. John's. She went to Kitchener at age 10. She trained in Montreal for three summers and Burlington for one. That wasn't all however, as when she came back from the mainland, it was off to Corner Brook or St. John's to finish up the summer and right into fall school.

Skating has held many rewards for Jessica. She got to skate in a number of ice shows with famous skaters including Elvis Stokjo, Alexis Yagudin, Elizabeth Manley, Emanuel Sandu, Kurt Browning (where she had her own solo), Joanie Rochette, Brian Orser, Jeffery Buttle, Shaelyn Bourne, Victor Kratz and Joey Russell.

Jessica has been asked to guest skate at Springdale, Twillingate, Botwood, Deer Lake, Grand Falls-Windsor and Corner Brook.

Jessica has given back to skating by being a volunteer as a program assistant and has been helping since 1997. She also volunteered with the Provincial Enrichment Program (PEP), 2002 Junior nationals and 2005 Skate Canada Master Card international. She is a Quadruple Gold Skater. This means that she has passed every test in four disciplines (skills, dance, artistic and freeskate).

This past season was a very difficult one for Jessica. With the departure of her recent coach John Briscoe and the situation of the Lewisporte rink not being ready to open in time for the regular season, Jessica decided not to skate competitively. She skated very little for herself but still continued to be a dedicated program assistant.

Jessica has submitted the first phase of her coaching assignment to be corrected and plans to get involved in skating at Dalhousie University next year.