Williams Lake Bullets speed skaters have a new coach, and she is happy to be back on the ice.
“It’s just like riding a bike, except on 12-inch blades,” joked Alexandria Quint, the new coach, who recently moved to the area with her husband Aaron Quint and two young children Everett and Owyn.
The family relocated from Port Hardy to Williams Lake for her husband’s job at the Williams Lake Regional Airport as a flight service specialist.
Quint, who grew up in Abbotsford, said her parents put her in skates and out onto the ice as soon as she could stand, and she’s doing the same with her two sons.
“I’ve just been skating all my life,” said the 27-year-old coach and mom.
She must have had a knack for it, because when a hockey coach saw her out skating with her parents, he asked her parents to put her into hockey.
Quint’s 12-year-old response was: ”No, I want to go fast.”
So instead, her parents enrolled her in speed skating, where she became a member of the Matsqui Blades Speed Skating Association, and she hasn’t looked back since.
Despite being diagnosed with Type I diabetes due to an illness which damaged her pancreas, Quint still didn’t give up the sport she loved, she just figured she had to eat more before skating.
“Speed skating actually helped me keep my blood sugar in check,” said Quint, as the physical activity helped her regulate her levels.
While she loved the sport, Quint said she wasn’t super competitive, but instead just had a lot of fun with it.
“It becomes a family with speed skating.”
She has taken a break from the sport in recent years and instead has been busy with her two sons, Everett, who is two and already getting out on the ice, and Owyn, who is six months old.
“He’s really picked it up,” remarked Quint of her son Everett’s progress. She said he started walking early, so they have had him out on skates and he isn’t skating on his own yet, but he’s getting his feet under him.
As for coaching, Quint began coaching speed skating in 2010 and looks forward to being back at it now with the Bullets and said she still knows a lot of other coaches in the province from her previous time in the role.
“I love it,” stated Quint.
She said the Bullets started back on the ice on Sept. 20 and they practice Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m., with younger skaters taking most of the first hour, overlapping with older skaters for some games and then the older skaters taking over the ice for most of the final hour.
The team is planning on attending meets in Kelowna and Prince George this winter.
“We’re really excited to start competing,” said Quint.
The team will have another opportunity for registration starting in January and the first practice is free to try.
Contact nsuapa7@gmail.com for help with registration.
