At the start of every semester, while Oswego State students are finding where their classrooms are and reading sylabi, the Ice Effects, Oswego State’s synchronized skating team, is doing all that while learning its new moves for the semester. 

The synchronized skating club team’s schedule started up in September and this year, it ended with a first place finish at the Empire State Winter Games on Feb. 2 in Lake Placid. The Empire State Winter Games is a slew of winter sporting events including figure skating, bobsled and hockey. In the open collegiate synchronized skating competition, the Ice Effects beat Cornell University and Colgate University. 

The Ice Effects began the semester by flying in Heather Paige from Chicago. Paige is the team’s choreographer who creates the moves for the team’s performances. From there, the Ice Effects spend three days a week practicing formations and holds both on the ice and on the floor. The team also has coaches from around the area including Melissa Manwaring, who works at Oswego State in the alumni office, as well as Carolyn Quinn, who is the co-director of the Skating Club of Central New York’s Learn to Skate Program. Occasionally, the team travels to Syracuse to work with Quinn and even received its choreography from Paige in Syracuse.

Like all sports, injuries arise in synchronized skating. It is a difficult problem to resolve because each person is given one spot or space on the ice. If that person is injured or cannot make an event, the entire team is affected.

“It is very hard with synchronized skating because if one person misses a practice, it is very hard to practice our performance,” club president, Kaylin Pafumi, said. “If that one person isn’t there doing their job, then the whole routine is messed up … [despite that] I feel like we came out pretty well.”

Aside from the team’s first-place finish in Lake Placid, it also performed at the Eastern Synchronized Skating Sectionals in Albany. The Ice Effects competed against different colleges along the east coast. While this year’s sectionals were still in the state of New York, the team may travel up and down the coast. Three years ago the team took the trip down to Florida, something members of that team will never forget.

“It is a great opportunity for the girls to explore and see other places, where they might not have it in their school schedule to travel abroad,” Pafumi said. “It is a great opportunity for us to see the world.”

While many of the women on the Ice Effects have been doing synchronized skating or figure skating for years, they welcome skaters of varying talent levels. With this season ending, the team will prepare for the next recruitment day on March 1. This provides high school students interested in attending Oswego State a chance to see what the team is all about by meeting the team, touring the campus and even hitting the ice. Current Oswego State students are welcome to go to the recruitment, as well. 

Beyond the practices and events, the team is like a family. The women on the team spend time in new places and can see what all of them have to offer.

“Florida [is my favorite memory],” team treasurer Nicole Evans said. “When we saw the manatees.”

And, while the team is focused on performing, it goes beyond skating.

“I feel like [going out to eat is] the memory I remember more than just the skating,” Pafumi said. “Just hanging out with the girls, making jokes. That’s what I remember the most.”

Photo provided by The Oswego State Ice Effects