Next it's JeremEEE; Then McBru... Someone Let Me Off This Merry-Go-Round!

Are they done for this week yet?

I thought about posting the latest shuffling news yesterday, as soon as I read about it… but I didn’t want to have to keep updating it. Especially on Memorial Day weekend in the States, where no one’s probably reading this anyway.

So before I start, let me go check IceNetwork and make sure nothing has happened in the past 24 hours…OK, I think the coast is clear…

Two more “shuffles” to add to the list, and these are biggies in the U.S.:

1) National Mens Champ Jeremy (or as we say here, JeremEEEE) Abbott is leaving Colorado and Tom Zakrajsek, his coach for the past 10 years (and recent PSA Coach of the Year recipient). His new coach is none other than 1994 World Champ Yuka Sato, who now works out of Detroit. Read this article from the Detroit Free Press to get a Q & A with Abbott about the whole thing. Interesting that when I was making my guesses at other “contemporary” coach moves last week (including a guess of Tim Goebel for JeremEEE), for some reason I didn’t consider opposite-sex pairups. (Maybe because Sato never had any quads in her repertoire :-) )

Interesting to note that this will put both current U.S. singles champs in the same training camp… at least it will until/unless Alissa Czizny feels “the need for a change” too.

2) National Pairs Champs McLaughlin & Brubaker (or as we say here, McBru) are leaving Dalilah Sappenfield for someone a little more legendary rather than contemporary… John Nicks. Read this article from Sports Illustrated to read about their particular need for “a big change” this coming season. Incidentally, it’s worth noting that Nicks coached none other than Jenni Meno & Todd Sand, who just signed on as Inoue & Baldwin’s new coaching team.

Both of these particular coach switches come on the heels of skaters who had great seasons… all the way until they hit the most important international event of the year. While their respective needs for some kind of change may not be as overt as that of, say, Mirai Nagasu, they do seem to make sense on some level, particularly in an Olympic season. As usual, the proof will be in the proverbial pudding come next winter.

For the Clip of the Day here’s the exhibition skate JeremEEE gave at the ISU Team Trophy last month. By the way, it’s not a Santana song he’s skating to (as the graphic claims), but an acoustic version of Daniel Bedingfield’s “Gotta Get Though This”.

I’m going to sign off now—hopefully the shuffling will continue to take a break, at least until the long weekend is over!