Igor Shpilband lascia il team Canton

ingriddiamond

Posted on 4/6/2012, 04:20 by: ingriddiamond

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Coach Igor Shpilband out at Canton's Arctic Figure Skating Club

Figure skating coach Igor Shpilband was told by the owner of the Arctic Edge Arena and its general manager today that he is no longer at their club.

"I just got fired," Shpilband said this afternoon.

According to Craig O'Neill, longtime general manager of the Arctic Edge, the move was made in part because its top three teams -- including 2010 Olympic gold and silver medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, and Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White -- felt as if "Igor wasn't there anymore for them."

Shpilband, who with Marina Zoueva built the ice dance program in Canton into the world's best after he left the Detroit Skating Club nearly a decade ago, learned of his dismissal at about 5:30 p.m. in a meeting with O'Neill and rink owner John Stansik.

“I'm totally shocked," Shpilband said. "I have to talk to the kids (skaters). I just left a message with Meryl and Charlie. He (O'Neill) said the kids don't want me at the rink anymore. For what reason, I don't know."

Shpilband said that he and Zoueva have had conflicts recently, namely over Zoueva's scheduling of their teams, saying that she hadn't been consulting him.

"To me, that's not a good partnership," he said. "Me and Marina had a good run, and I don't want it to end like this; two years after the Olympics (2014 in Sochi) we could have gone our seperate ways.

"Every partnership has arguments -- it our business together. It's give and take, but Marina didn't see it that way. She wanted me to go away. I worked for many years before Marina, I built and took skaters to the top podium in the world. But I felt like I needed Marina to (go) from worlds to the Olympics, which (was) incredible -- we did it together."

Zoueva, who is remaining at the Arctic FSC, said that Shpilband had created a "conflict of interest" because she said he wanted to work exclusively with two new teams. But O'Neill said that wasn't a factor in the decision.

“What John (Stansik) and I did today was all based on the kids," O'Neill said of Virtue and Moir, Davis and White, and 2011 world bronze medalists Maia and Alex Shibutani. "Igor did talk about starting his own program, and coaching some of his own kids, and we didn't have issues with that. Our main focus has to be the top three teams.

“There was a lot of issues. This has been going on for a couple of months. He's not focused with the kids. What it came down to was the kids didn't want to skate there (in Canton) anymore with Igor. Either they were leaving or Igor was leaving.

“We told him that the kids weren't going to come back to the rink until we had this meeting with you."

O'Neill said that U.S. Figure Skating was apprised of the problems at the rink since the end of April or beginning of May. Shpilband said that when he spoke with Mitch Moyer, senior director of athlete high performance at U.S. Figure Skating, he said was about the "issue I had with Marina."

Asked what Shpilband's reaction to his dismissal was, O'Neill said: "He was shocked. Absolutely floored."

Shpilband said that he last met with Davis and White, four-time U.S. champions, a couple of weeks ago before they went on vacation.

“I've always been committed 100% to the skaters," Shpilband said.

Shpilband said tonight that he will be meeting Monday with Davis and White.

Reached by phone, Davis declined comment. Attempts to reach Moir and White were unsuccessful.

"Honestly, I need some time to regroup," Shpilband said. "I don't know what I'm going to do. If Marina put it in a way -- her or me -- OK, I hope that not all skaters go that way, that they see (that ) I put my heart and soul into this."

Zoueva, who has worked with Shpilband since 2001, said: "He built the best-ever ice dance school. I'm very very sad. For me, it's real hard."

Shpilband's influence in ice dance in the United States has been huge over the last 20 years since he defected in 1990 from the Soviet Union and arrived at the Detroit Skating Club. He became an American citizen in 2000.

Shpilband coached many U.S. teams to national and international prominence, including Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow, who won four of their five U.S. titles in the 1990s under his mentorship.

In 1998, Shpilband partnered Tanith Belbin with Ben Agosto, whom with their silver medal finish at the 2006 Torino Games became the first American ice dance team to win an Olympic medal in 30 years.

Ice dance teams from the Arctic FSC have won seven of the last nine world medals, including in 2011 in Moscow, when Davis and White, Virtue and Moir, and the Shibutani siblings completed the first-ever North American sweep of the ice dance medals. With the win, Davis and White also brought home the first-ever American world gold medal in the discipline.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120603/SPOR...re-Skating-Club

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