In the 97-98 season I was given the opportunity to skate Team Dance with Minnie Stecker. Minnie and her husband Butch had skated together in Team Dance for many years in the North East Region. They no longer compteted together so Minnie and I teamed up and Butch became our Team Dance Coach. This was a real test of my commitment because Minnie and Butch lived two hours away and each Saturday morning for two years I would leave my house at 3:45am to arrive at their rink by 6:00am. After skating for 5 hours, helping with a beginner class and then driving home I was one tired old man. Then on Wednesday night Minnie and Butch would drive to my rink for our weekly practice.
Figures was always my best event but skating Team Dance with Minnie gave me the greatest pleasure. At 97 Regionals I Medaled in Standard Figures and again with Minnie in Team Dance. From there we were off to Nationals. The day of our event came and the announcer called "Take the floor for a roll around, no dance steps please." Butch wanted us to be the first on the floor and we were leading the line of teams around the first turn when Minnie's skate hit something on the floor and we went down. We were shaken and Minnie ripped her boot cover but we had time to recover from it and skated to 15th place. You can see in the above picture that Minnie's boot cover on her left Skate is ripped. I had a better skate in figures and made finals. Then skated to a 4th place finish.
This is Minnie and I at 1998 Regionals where we Skated to a 2nd place Medal. It almost did not come about because our coach, Minnie's husband Butch was recovering from Heart Surgery and we did not know until the last minute if we would be Skating. We made it and took home the Silver Medal.