Marcellus senior recognized by U.S. Figure Skating

Marcellus High School senior Erin Driscoll recently received one of the highest honors in figure skating – a Certificate of Figure Skating Success from U.S. Figure Skating, the national governing body for the sport of figure skating in the United States.

Erin, who has been skating for 14 of her 17 years, earned the award by achieving gold level test scores – the highest possible – in the disciplines of Moves-in-the-Field and Ice Dancing.

“It is a big deal,” Erin’s coach, Lisa Mirabito, said. “The only skaters that receive that are the ones that have achieved the highest level in the sport. She’s among the upper echelon of skaters. Becoming a U.S. Figure Skating gold medalist is the culmination of many years of hard work and dedication to the sport.”

In a typical year, some 40,000 U.S. Figure Skating test levels are completed by athletes. Of those, about 1,300 – or 3 percent – are at the gold or senior level, Mirabito said.



Erin D.

 In a May 8 letter to Marcellus High School guidance counselor Heather Devendorf, U.S. Figure Skating President Patricia St. Peter writes to congratulate “this outstanding student athlete and wish Erin much joy during the weeks prior to graduation from high school.”

Erin, who also played soccer for Marcellus for four years, has been a member of the Skaneateles Figure Skating Club, Camillus Skating Club, Bluewater Blades Synchronized Skating Team (for the Skaneateles Club) and the CNY Blizzard Synchronized Skating Team through the Skating Club of Central New York. She practices in Skaneateles and Camillus about four times a week for two hours, with additional off-ice workouts.

“I honestly started skating because my mother liked the pretty dresses,” Erin said. “But I was also a very athletic kid who was willing to try anything. I participated in many sports, but skating really stuck.”

Her signature move, she said, is the “pancake spin” – a low-to-the-ice trick on one foot while spinning in one place.

While a member of the Bluewater Blades synchronized team, Erin earned silver medals at the 2007 Eastern Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships, a qualifying event for the US Figure Skating Synchronized Skating National Championships. She also skated in both individual free skate and synchronized team events at the 2007 State Games of America event held in Colorado Springs, Colo., and earned a silver medal for her free-skating performance and a bronze medal with her teammates.

She also has skated with coaches – Marcellus High School alumnae – Janice (Prieto) Fishlock and Lisa (Church) Esterguard.

Erin will continue synchronized skating in college as a member of the collegiate team at the University of Delaware, the reigning U.S. silver medalists in the U.S. in their division.