When the air turns cool, a spark of holiday excitement for the season of Christmas, hot cocoa, sparkling lights, and more ignites throughout the school. As winter continues, some may have supported friends at a soccer game, gone Black Friday shopping, or frosted a gingerbread house. Some may have even tried their hand at a sport which a rare few at Holy Trinity are involved in, one especially popular during the last few months of the year – ice skating. With the upcoming Winter Olympics, the sport prepares for another month of early-morning training and holiday performances. Holy Trinity has several figure-skating students that dedicate themselves to perfecting their loops and axles at multiple practices a week, often waking up well before first period to train outside of the school.
“I wake up very early, like 5:45 a.m. and I do power classes,” said freshman Brylee Barnett, who has been ice skating for five years. “That’s basically where you do push-ups and sit-ups and suicides on the ice.”
Her rink practices before school don’t cover all the work she puts in. “I also go to the gym three times a week, and do camps over the summer. [The camps] give you dance classes, more power classes, and they do off-ice classes to practice stuff you do on the ice.” Barnett skates at Space Coast Ice Plex in Rockledge, a 20 minute drive from the Holy Trinity Upper School campus. This means she has to wake up three hours before the first bell in order to be on time for practice and school.
Senior Siri Rao formed the desire to start figure skating by watching professionals during the coronavirus pandemic. Since 2021, she has laced up her skates to practice just like her idols, Yuzuru Hanyu and Alysa Liu. “I’m looking forward to hopefully qualifying for Excel Nationals next year through the qualifying series,” said Rao.
Rao will perfect her routines for months until her next event in February 2026 and competition season in the summer of 2026.
Also from Space Coast Ice Plex, sophomore Carrie Ann Conwell has been skating for five years – three competitively – and has been a student at Holy Trinity since kindergarten. “Personally, I don’t have a Christmas performance, but my rink has a winter gala,” said Conwell. “In the summer we have nationals for team red, an intermediate level competitive Theater on Ice team.” Conwell perfects her skills at 6 a.m. practices during the school year, working out and repeating her moves until she can get them right. She has also competed in numerous competitions for her sport. “I did the State Games of America, and then two qualifying competitions for that competition. My best result was probably winning second place in state games, or winning nationals for Theater on Ice. Usually, our galas have themes, so I like to perform my routine to a song that aligns with the theme.” Now, Conwell works on mastering the catch-foot spin, her favorite move. She said that the high-energy environment of competition with a large arena, audience, and megatron excite her for the upcoming competition season.
