Prior Lake woman coaches synchronized skating in New York

Prior Lake American

Prior Lake resident Pamela May straps into her seat each Wednesday for a 1,000-mile commute.

For the past six years, May has flown to New York to coach the world-class senior, novice and intermediate lines of the Skyliners Synchronized Skating Team. On the following Monday mornings, she flies back to Prior Lake.

“I love Prior Lake,” May said. “I didn’t want to uproot my whole family just because of my desire, and I like the coziness, the quaintness of the town.”

May graduated from Edina High School in 1981. While attending college at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, she taught figure skating. Due to her knowledge of skating and her dance background as a cheerleader with the Minnesota Vikings, her mother asked her to coach synchronized skating.

“That’s how I started doing that when I was right out of college,” May said. “I love the team sport aspect of it all. I love that kids compete as a team and not as an individual.”

Synchronized skating is a cross between synchronized swimming and figure skating. Teams of eight to 20 figure skaters perform choreographed routines during competitions and are judged on specific criteria, some relating to the technicality of the performance, some to the creativity.

May said audiences are drawn to synchronized skating — once they know it exists.

“People don’t realize it exists,” May said. “They love it once they see it.”

From college until 2012, May coached synchronized skating at the Braemar Arena in Edina. In 2011, the team took bronze at the ISU Junior World Challenge Cup in Switzerland. Teams from Finland received silver and gold.

May also coached her son and daughter. Her son did synchronized skating until he was 11 years old, when he turned to hockey. Her daughter skated until her freshman year of college.

“A lot of these skaters I have from when they are 8 years old to when they graduate high school,” May said. “They become an added member of my family, all these kids. You’re really a mentor to them and helping them through their everyday life problems.”

The United States sends two teams to the synchronized skating world championships. For eight years, the Braemar team took one of those spots. May said those involved with the sport have tried to get it included in the Winter Olympics, but have hit roadblocks with how many skaters would have to be housed in the Olympic Village.

“The next Olympics is North American and they get to pick a sport that does an exhibition, so it’s very likely that it will be in the next Olympics,” May said. “You have to have the country pushing it because of the expense. It’s a whole political game.”

In 2012, May joined the Skyliners Synchronized Skating Team in New York. She sparked a move for former student Jordan Weiss as well, who joined May on her flights to and from Minnesota. Weiss had been on the Braemar team, but joined Skyliners after May moved.

“I loved Pam, I loved everything she offered with the sport,” Weiss said. “She was kind of like a second mom growing up. I really wanted to compete at that higher level and do that with her.”

Weiss said May was “family-oriented” in her coaching.

“I’d go to the rink and she’d always challenge me, but at the same time, she was so caring and wanted us to be well-rounded individuals,” Weiss said. “She knew skating wasn’t our whole life, but she was there to help us follow our dreams and fulfill them.”

Skater Kristen Lewis, who goes to school in New York, said she also felt that May focused and coached on more than skating. Lewis met May at an audition for Skyliners when she was 12 years old.

“It’s beyond just caring about how the team does, beyond just caring about how their skating skills develop,” Lewis said. “She cares about who they are and that there’s a skater behind the person as well. I always knew that Pam was an advocate for my skating and she was an advocate for who I was as a person, and that was never lost in the process.”

May said she pushes the students she coaches to be driven in all facets of life.

“I’ve always been competitive in my life but competitive through hard work — do what’s necessary to be successful,” May said. “The kids need this for their confidence, their drive, their discipline. It really teaches them life skills that they can use outside of skating.”

In 2018, the Skyliners team took silver at the ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships in Croatia and bronze at the U.S. Figure Skating Senior Championships in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

“I feel like kids need good role models at that age, they need people that are constant in their life,” May said. “That is a very rewarding thing for me to be able to feel like I’m actually contributing and teaching and watching them develop and mold into nice young ladies.”