Blue Diamonds hope to be gold (with skating video)

CEDAR RAPIDS - There are no grand illusions.

“We just want to do our best,” said Morgan Cook.

“Have fun. That's number one,” said Lisa Vanderveer-Recker.

Vanderveer-Recker helps coach the two local teams competing this weekend at the 2010 Midwestern & Pacific Coast Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. They're both called the Blue Diamonds.

One competes at the “intermediate” level and consists of 11 mostly teenaged girls and one boy. The other is a younger, “preliminary” team of girls ages 7 through 12.

While the preliminary Blue Diamonds have skated together for about two years, the intermediate Diamonds were literally thrown together two months ago. They are predominantly singles figure skaters who wanted to take advantage of the largest combined skating championships event ever held.

“I'm a singles skater. But since we found out sectionals were coming, we decided to pull together a team real quick,” said Cook, 17, of Iowa City. “You know, take the opportunity to perform here.”

“There have been times when I've wanted to pull my hair out,” Vanderveer-Cook said Thursday. “But when you get to today, this weekend, it's so rewarding.”

The intermediate Blue Diamonds have the opportunity to advance to the 2010 U.S. Synchronized Championships in March in the Twin Cities with a good enough performance this weekend. They had their first official competition a couple of weeks ago in Fond du Lac, Wis.

“Not good,” said Victoria Beebout, 15, of La Porte City. “But we learned a lot, we had a (judges') critique and we've revamped our program completely.”

They practiced that program Thursday afternoon at the Ice Arena and get to show it off for everyone during their part of the competition Saturday morning. The preliminary Diamonds kicked off the Championships on Friday morning.

“I would say our goal is to skate well, with a clean performance,” said Lexi Bernstein, 14, of Cedar Rapids. “And hopefully the placement would be good.”