"On behalf of the San Jose Sharks organization, I would like to congratulate Alysa on her record-setting performance this past weekend to become the U.S. Senior Ladies Figure Skating National Champion," said Jon Gustafson, Vice President, Sharks Ice. "Alysa joins a long list of nationally recognized figure skaters to train at public ice facilities managed by the San Jose Sharks including the Oakland Ice Center,
Solar4America Ice - San Jose
, and
Solar4America Ice - Fremont
. We are extremely proud of our facilities, our programs, and our skating directors, including David Hicks and Candy Goodson, who dedicate an incredible amount of time to these athletes to help them realize their dreams of becoming national and Olympic champions."
Alysa Liu began her skating career at the age of 5 as a participant in the Sharks Ice Skating School at the Oakland Ice Center. Her instructor, Laura Lipetsky, recognized her talent and began coaching her privately at the age of 5 ½. Liu's first skating competition was at the juvenile level in 2015. At the 2016 U.S. Championships, she became the youngest lady to win the intermediate gold medal.
Impressively, in the last four years, Sharks-managed facilities have produced two U.S. Senior Ladies Figure Skating National Champions including Liu (2019) who trains under coach Laura Lipetsky and Chen (2017) who trained at Solar4America Ice - Fremont under coaches Gilley Nicholson and Sherry Khrane Thomas and went on to represent the United States at the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Chen also captured the bronze medal at the 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Championships by finishing in third place.
Additionally, San Jose's own Polina Edmunds finished as the U.S. Senior Ladies Figure Skating runner-up in 2016 and went on to represent the United States at the 2016 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Edmunds trained at Solar4America Ice - San Jose and was coached by David Glynn and Nina Edmunds.
Oakland Ice Center is the premier public Ice venue in the East Bay. Oakland Ice is a proud member of the NHL's Hockey Is For Everyone initiative which seeks to make ice sports available to the entire socio-economic spectrum of youth participants. Additionally, each year more than 6,000 local children participate in free and low-cost use activities through Oakland Unified School District and the City of Oakland's after school programs. Oakland Ice Center is home to the St. Moritz Ice Skating Club, the Oakland Bears Youth Hockey Club, and Northern California Speed Skating.
San Jose Sharks-managed public Ice facilities include Solar4America Ice - San Jose, Solar4America Ice - Fremont, and the Oakland Ice Center. Collectively, the three facilities are home to more than 9,000 participants in the Class Lessons program, more than 4,400 adult hockey players making up more than 250 teams, girls/women's hockey including 206 families of girls and women participants, more than 1,000 families in the In-house ice hockey program and close to 500 players making up 28 teams in the High School Hockey League. Last year, public sessions at all three facilities sold more than 177,000 tickets and hosted more than 9,400 birthday parties.
To learn more about enrolling your child into an ice sports program at Solar4America Ice - San Jose, Solar4America Ice - Fremont, and the Oakland Ice Center, visit
here
.
