The No-Fooling, Coach-Changing Update

And finally, a couple of coaching switches for those not involved with Worlds this year…......................................................................................................................... This one is hot off the USFS presses, but I can only assume it’s true rather than the best April Fool’s trick of the season: Adam Rippon is ending his 2-year run with Brian Orser as his head coach, and enlisting Ghislain Briand in the role instead. Briand has already been a part of Rippon’s coaching staff for those same 2 years, so I’m guessing it’s not a complete uprooting Here’s Rippon’s press release on the matter..…………. ……. And this from a couple of days ago: U.S.’s Alexe Gilles is following in the footsteps (skate steps?) of Jeremy Abbott. Which is to say that she’s making the same coaching change he made a while back—from Tom Zakrajsek in Colorado Springs to Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen in Detroit.................................................. As a junior competitor, Gilles was the 2008 U.S. Champion and frequent Junior GP medalist… but in three Senior Nationals attempts, she’s done no better than 8th and, this year, slipped all the way to 14th. Gilles is now 19 years old and stands 5’8”, which I’m sure doesn’t help her chances when she’s often competing against tiny dancers who really know how to rotate those triples (at least until THEY get older and taller). So I hope the change can truly do her some good. I’d love to see her really get into the mix. (Hey, I’m 5’10”—if I can’t support one of the tallest ladies in U.S. Seniors, who can I support?)