By Kayla Bruch

POLL: Youth in P.A. eye the finish-line during a meet

Mar 1, 2015 | 11:55 AM

Strategy and speed are key aspects in a sport that’s open to all ages.

Short Track speed skating is becoming more popular among young children in Prince Albert and surrounding areas.

“I think sport can be quite useful to many kids because a lot of kids just don’t know what they want to do or they might not be great volleyball players, basketball players or any other sport but they seem to find they can fit in here,” said Ron Hlasny, who opened the Prince Albert Speed Skating Club in 1991.

Hlasny said the club probably started with about four members and is now up to around 30 and he never expected to see such a rapid growth in the number of skaters.

 “My wife figured since I skated so long [since 1974] maybe I could introduce something to Prince Albert,” Hlasny, taking his wife’s advice said, “we tried it out and it seemed to just keep on growing from there.”

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The club is unique according to Hlasny, attracting skaters from Melfort, Canwood, Debden, Saskatoon, Regina, Moosejaw, and Lloydminster.

On Saturday the crowd watched from the stands in the Art Hauser Centre as around 40, five to 18-year-olds raced, in the Need for Speed Skating Meet, around a 110 meter track.

Two of the younger racers, 7-year-old Lambert and his 5-year-old brother Isaac just started speed skating this year, and were excited to race in their first meet.

“I like speed skating because I enjoy it when I’m racing with others,” said Lambert. “It’s like a competition for them against me and to see who wins, that’s why I like speed skating.”

“I like speed skating because I like to go really fast,” said Isaac. “When I’m going like really, really fast it feels really good to speed skate.”

The boy’s mother, Kathleen Schwartzenberger said she hasn’t tried speed skating but said it’s a “pleasure” to watch the sport and learn about it with her children.

“We are trying this out as something new and were very impressed with how the club is run and how much the boys are enjoying it,” she said, adding the club is more focussed on developing skills then on competition. “What they like about it is that they are in multi-level groupings so they can be inspired by children who are older and more competent racers as well as develop their own skill-set at their own age-level.”

Even being young, Schwartzenberger thinks her sons will likely stick with the sport.

“We talk a lot about what they want to be involved in but I think that they…do enjoy the way that the practices are run and they are excited to come here every week,” she said.  “I don’t see why we would switch to something else if [they] love it.”

Lambert and Isaac agreed they want to continue doing the sport for fun.

The competitive nature of speed skating is “within” the person, believes Hlasny and as the children compete in more meets he says they learn the intricacies of the sport.

“The strategy is…should you pass, shouldn’t you pass, when should you pass, where should you pass,” he said. “There [are] a lot of things the kids learn, from how to start properly, how to cross over and then just basically how to skate the track.”

Hlasny said skaters who compete, not only in the Prince Albert meet but in meets in Warman, Caronport, Regina and Lloydminster have the chance to qualify for the Canada West Championships.

“We probably have a couple skaters that’ll go to the Western Canadians for Short Track, which is about [ages] 13 and up can, if they make a certain time,…go to the Western Canadians which will be in Winnipeg this year,” sometime in March, said Hlasny.

kbruch@panow.com

On Twitter:@KaylaBruch1