Mt. Lebanon’s Learn to Skate program recognized
By Katherine Mansfield
Yolandi Tafi gives a Learn to Skate student an assist during practice on a recent weekday. Tafi has coached with the program at Mt. Lebanon since its inception in 1977.
By Katherine Mansfield
As a young girl, Adelia Azarkhin completed the Mt. Lebanon Learn to Skate program, and has moved up the ranks. The Mt. Lebanon High School junior now serves as a volunteer coach for the program.
Photos: Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Students demonstrate their skills to coach Yolanda Tafi during a recent Learn to Skate session at Mt. Lebanon’s ice rink. The program was recently recognized by Learn to Skate USA for its high enrollment numbers; Mt. Lebanon is the largest LTS program in the state.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Yolanda Tafi assesses a Learn to Skate student’s jump skill during practice on a recent weekday. At the end of their seven week session, students are graded on skills. They either advance to the next level or, sometimes, repeat their current level to ensure they have the basics down before moving on in the program.
For the second consecutive year, Mt. Lebanon’s ice skating program has been recognized by Learn to Skate USA for promoting love of the sport by enrolling the most students in the state.
This year, Mt. Lebanon enrolled 840 students in its Learn to Skate program, making it the largest program in Pennsylvania and 35th largest in the nation. That’s a significant jump from last year, when Mt. Lebanon ranked third in the state and 75th in the nation.
“I was so excited,” said Learn To Skate coordinator Keri Holton, regarding the recognition. “My goal is always to beat the previous year while keeping the quality of the program. It’s not about, I want to get as many kids in here as possible just to have the number. I want to keep that quality.”
Learn to Skate, an affiliate of U.S. Figure Skating that’s endorsed by U.S. Hockey and U.S. Speedskating, launched in 2016. It is a rebrand of the popular U.S. Figure Skating’s Basic Skills Program.
The program – under both names – has been offered at Mt. Lebanon since 1977, the year the rec center’s ice rink opened.
The original skating director recruited a group of 12 girls, who spent a year training under Yolanda Tafi “so that we would have a basic figure skating group coming in, so we weren’t just going to start with basic beginners,” Tafi said.
Tafi, who has coached at Mt. Lebanon since that first year, still teaches young skaters at LTS and has taught many of the current teachers and helpers.
She attributes Learn to Skate’s success with consistency.
“This rink has had consistently good ice, consistently good management, consistently good programs. In all those years, we have only had three ice directors. There might be 18 (students) on the ice, but they’re divided into smaller groups, and that really helps progress,” Tafi said.
Learn to Skate teaches basic skating skills to kids, teens and adults from the South Hills region and beyond. Students are sorted into the appropriate level, where they learn everything from falling – and getting up again – to stopping, to turning and gliding, and more.
Some students join LTS with the intent of leveling up and eventually playing ice hockey or winning medals in figure skating; others simply want the confidence to hit the ice with friends and family. Learn to Skate caters to all.
“We want to make it personal, not just … push you through the program,” Holton said. “I think parents see that. They see the progression of their kids. We communicate with them if somebody’s not quite ready to move on yet.”
Susan Hlebinsky, who began coaching at Mt. Lebanon in 1978, said skating is cyclical. During Olympic years and when the Pittsburgh Penguins are doing well, “everybody wants to skate,” she said.
“It’s a social activity,” Hlebinsky said. “Skating is a lifelong sport.”
Most of the Learn to Skate coaches are professional skaters who also offer private lessons and coach young athletes to success in other areas, including figure skating. Many of the helpers or young volunteer LTS coaches began in the program, continue with lessons and skate competitively.
“It’s nostalgic,” said Adelia Azarkhin, a Mt. Lebanon High School junior who started skating in the Learn to Skate program and now serves as a helper. “Seeing the kids have fun, it’s satisfying.”
In order to accommodate so many eager learners, Mt. Lebanon’s ice center offers classes every day. The center also hosts open skate times, toddler playdates on ice and other activities that allow participants to practice new skills.
The rink is open year-round, too, which provides skaters the opportunity to remain fresh between LTS class sessions.
Holton, who took over as director in November 2021, said the program is a joint effort between students, herself, the coaches and the recreation center staff.
“It’s a priority to have the Learn to Skate program because they realize in order for the kids to go on with the Skating Club of Mt. Lebanon or with the Developmental Hockey MLHA, they’ve got to have that foundation of basic skills,” she said. “Knowing that so many people want to come in and join, it just makes me see, again, the quality of our coaches, the level of commitment of the coaches, the helpers, all of the staff. Even the cashiers that help us to enroll the kids in the program, they’re a huge support as well. Having everybody really working together is huge.”
Recognition from Learn to Skate USA is huge as well.
Holton hopes to expand the program in 2024. Seasons run from June to May of the following year.
“Rinks come and go. Programs come and go. The fact that this rink’s program has remained and is thriving is just a really great thing,” said Hlebinsky.
For more on Mt. Lebanon’s Learn to Skate program, visit https://mtlebanon.org/parks-and-recreation/programs-classes/learn-to-skate-1st-grade-to-adult/.