Hi Folks, good news for this year, prices are down. The Ice Rink at
Eastland Mall will go under new management as of September 1st, they
have agreed to sponsor a speed session at the rink on Sundays at 5:15
PM, it will be 1 hour of Ice time at no obligation to the club, the
session fee will be $15, pay at the door. The rink will take over the
maintenance of the Mats, however, the skaters will still need to be
there early to help put the Mats out and take them down at the end.

Because it is a rink sponsored event, no club membership is required,
however, the rink will require you to sign a Waiver and have an
amateur athletic card before participating. The rink will also
promote the speed sessions and they are putting down new Ice and
repairing the infrastructure after next Sunday so it should be a much
better skating surface. The new management has plans to paint and
spruce up the place as well. These session may or may not be coached,
I am sure that some of the regular speed skaters will be glad to
provide some tips on speedskaters for new comers.

Jimmy Jang, US National Team Coach for USS has offered to come down
and run a clinic in Charlotte at the rink for no charge, this is
something that needs to be coordinated, however, the new rink
management is willing to help work this out. Jimmy has also let it be
know that under the new agreement between USS and USARS that he is
looking to recruit inline speed skaters when he visits places like
Charlotte.

Looking for coaches, if anyone would like to volunteer to coach and
pursue their USS certification there is an opportunity to become the
coach at Eastland, as many of you know I have had a lot of back issues
as a result I regret that I will not be able to continue coaching
going forward. I will try to make sessions short term but long term a
new coach needs to be recruited. When I am there I will gladly
provide input to any skater's attending.

Coach