ROB MURRAY: I’m speaking with Ian Mellors and Troy Flood from the Banff Canmore Speed Skating Club. I’ll start with you, Ian. You’ve been involved with the club for a long time, haven’t you?

IAN MELLORS: I was actually at the very first meeting back in 2002. I skated as a kid as a way of augmenting my hockey skills. I just really enjoyed it, so when the opportunity came as an adult I was like, hey, I remember liking this, so I went out and tried. If I wanted to have a club, I had to get involved at the time because I think at the first meeting there was five of us. I had young daughters and they joined the club. If you want to have something, you have to help create it, and that’s how I got in on the ground floor.

RM: Troy, you’ve been involved for quite a while as well?

TROY FLOOD: I believe 11 years now. I joined because two of my really good friends were picking up the sport in Grade 3. I just stuck with it because of them.

RM: You’ve been to some competitions as well?

TF: One of my first competitions was in Calgary with Ian coaching me. Since then I’ve competed tons across Canada.

RM: You’re still with the club in a coaching perspective?

TF: Yes, as much as I can be with work and everything. I try to show up for practices to help them.

RM: We’re getting into a brand new season here of the Banff Canmore Speed Skating Club, and I believe registration is now open?

IM: Online on the website, plus we have our first practice on Wednesday.

RM: What age ranges is this open for?

IM: Basically 4-5 years and up. We have had many adult skaters, so if you just like to skate we have a program for you. For the four or five-year-olds, the only thing ask is that the kids can at least stand up on the ice independently. We can get them going in a straight line and we can get them going around corners.

RM: As we’re going into an Olympic year here, I understand you’ve actually had people from the club who have gone on to compete at an international level.

IM: We’re pretty fortunate as a small club. We’ve had a number of national level skaters through the years, but we have had one skater, Connor Howe, who’s now skating out of the Olympic Oval in Calgary. He attended a number of World Juniors as a teenager. Last year he was representing Canada at the World Cup and the World Championships. He was only four tenths of a second away from a medal in the 1500m. He’s only about 20 so he has a long career ahead of him, but Beijing 2022 is definitely in his sights. It creates quite a buzz within the club to see someone who started skating at eight or nine years old and to see what he’s become, it’s highly motivating. He came out to a practice last year and the kids’ eyes were all the size of dinner plates. Not only is he a national team skater, but he has won medals in the team pursuit at the World Cup and World Championship level. But there’s absolutely no mandate within the club to be competitive. If you want to come once a week and never race, that’s perfectly fine. The majority of people may race the local race, but that’s it. The fact is, Connor refused to race for the first several years, and now look at him.

RM: We have your first practice coming up on Wednesday night. For people who just kind of want to see if this is for them, you have some Try-It nights coming up?

IM: Those would be on the website. We try to make it as easy as possible to get in at the level that people want. You can come try it, no commitment. We have skates provided for the Try-It nights. What we ask people, if they can bring a hockey or cycling helmet, mittens, and then we have the skates and safety glasses.

TF: I’d recommend this for anyone that just wants to get out on weeknights or a weekend and find something new to do. A lot of sports have been tried so many times. It’s just something different that you can get out and give a shot at. We really have an opening for absolutely anyone that wants to.

RM: What arena do you do this at?

IM: We do it at the Canmore Rec Centre.

Filed under: Banff, Canmore