After noticing her freshman year that DePaul University had a club hockey team but not a figure skating club, Sophie Peterson, a junior at DePaul, decided to take matters into her own hands.

“Having a lot of friends that attend DePaul and figure skate made me want to form the club,” Peterson said. “My friends and I would always complain about there not being a figure skating club here at school.”

Figure skating is one of many forms of ice skating. This skating developed from many jumps, spins and other movement techniques that require a combination of athletic skills and dance techniques.

Beginning early in her career, Peterson started skating at the age of 4 and competed with other figure skaters as a 7-year-old until she was about 17 years old. After stepping away from competitions, she decided to give personal lessons to people who were just starting out on the ice and even well-trained skaters.

While forming this figure skating club, Peterson thought that it would be a great opportunity to bring everyone together that had interest in figure skating so that they all would be able to skate together.

Although skate sessions have already started this quarter, DePaul’s Figure Skating Club was formed last fall quarter with a recruitment of about 15 members as of today, with the members being made up of girls.

Since the club is just getting started, the girls are meeting up every Friday afternoon for an hour and a half at McFetridge Sports Center’s indoor ice rink located at 3843 N. California Ave.

DePaul currently does not have a private ice rink for the girls to practice and compete at, but that is one of Peterson’s goals to accomplish for next year. She is aware that private ice can be costly for the club, but with more members being recruited, she believes that they can accomplish that goal. 

Peterson is also looking for funding for her club so that she and the girls will be able to accomplish their goals in a timely manner. But for right now, the girls are just practicing basic figure skating skills while getting to know and learn different techniques from one another.

Peterson and other members of the figure skating club have centered on one main focus for the next couple of quarters, which is to be able to recruit more members. She knows that there are more figure skaters at DePaul.

“I’m pretty sure that there are a lot of students around campus that know how to do some form of figure or ice skating and are maybe wondering if DePaul would ever have a team,” Peterson said.

Peterson has already started to promote DePaul’s new club by setting up social media pages on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to inform the DePaul community that there is a figure skating club here on campus for anyone who might be interested. She and other members of the club plan on recruiting new members at the Student Center on DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus searching to collect names and emails over the next few weeks.

Savannah Fish, a junior at DePaul and member of the club, has been figure skating her entire life and started competing at the age of 12. She is familiar with all forms of figure skating, ranging from freestyle dancing to synchronized figure skating. Fish is very excited that DePaul has a figure skating club now.

“I think it’s a great way to meet new people that know how to figure skate and love to figure skate and want to have a good time in the process,” Fish said.

Although the club will not be competing against other teams or giving lessons how to figure skate at this time, they are currently looking for a coach to help them out in that area of the club.

“We are working on getting a coach so that we can start competing at the collegiate level, but for now our focus is on growing the club,” Peterson said.