'Dynamic Duo': DeGirolamo, Shoker Reflect on Time With Miami Skating

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By the time she was 12 years old, Carla DeGirolamo knew she wanted to be part of Miami Skating.

The Cleveland native was competing then with her synchronized skating team in the junior division at the nearby 1992 Midwestern Championships, and, even decades later, can vividly remember seeing the support for the Red and White in the bleachers.

"I saw the big Miami crowd there, with all the athletes in the stands. I don't remember if it was before or after an event, but they were passing around the most massive box of donuts in the crowd," she smiled.

"I thought, 'These are my people. I need to be here!'"

Joking aside, DeGirolamo continued, "When I was deciding where to go to college, I knew I wasn't finished skating. Obviously, Miami was the best of all of the worlds, with getting a great education and being able to skate at a higher level than I had previously…

"My parents told me, 'You can go to school anywhere you want in the state of Ohio.' I said, 'Perfect. Miami's it.'"

And once she arrived in Oxford, she never left.

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One of the skaters competing for Miami against DeGirolamo that day in 1992 was an athlete who had grown up in Oxford initially wanting to attend college anywhere but her hometown university. Her name was Lee Ann Shoker.

As a young girl, Shoker idolized Dorothy Hamill, who won figure skating gold in the 1976 Winter Olympics.

"I was sliding in my socks all over the kitchen floor, begging to skate," Shoker said. "And I wanted the Hamill haircut.

"I definitely did get the Hamill haircut."

Shoker started taking skating lessons when the old Goggin Ice Arena was built in 1976 and was on the ice or at the rink every chance she got from that moment forward.

"A Saturday morning in my childhood would consist of me being dropped off at 7 or 8 a.m., doing what was then 'precision skating.' After that, you would do your group lesson," Shoker recalled. "Later, my parents would either come to Goggin and watch a hockey game for my brothers or I would get picked up and we'd go to another ice rink in Hamilton, Northern Kentucky or Cincinnati to watch hockey. Then, potentially come back to watch a club hockey game and a varsity hockey game. And I'd still want to skate freestyle sessions on Sunday morning as well!"

Through her friendship with coach Vicki Korn, Shoker began her time with Miami Skating while she was still a high school student. By taking classes from the university (similar to how the College Credit Plus program functions today), Shoker was able to begin participating on the Miami club team even though she was only 16 years old.

"I got to compete my senior year in high school, and we just missed making nationals in the junior division. I thought, 'I really like going to school on campus, I really like skating and we could go to nationals next year,'" Shoker said. "I'm like, 'This is pretty cool…I think I could go to Miami.' I got to coach a little bit more too…that really changed things for me, from 'I would rather die than be here' to 'I can't imagine being anyplace else!'"

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Carla DeGirolamo and Lee Ann Shoker — Shoker (back L) and DeGirolamo (back R) have worked
together with Miami Skating for the past 18 years

Shoker was part of the program at a historic time, as she not only skated for Korn on the 1993 Junior National Championship Synchronized Team, but was a member of the university's first Varsity Synchronized Team in 1995-96.

Miami's success continued to grow after Shoker graduated in 1996, with the senior team capturing its first national title in 1999. DeGirolamo, a freshman on that team, was named Rookie of the Year. By the time she earned her degree in 2003, DeGirolamo would claim several other program honors, including Senior of the Year, Outstanding Skater and Miami Athletics' Leann Grimes Davidge Award.

The two women eventually ended up on the RedHawks' staff, with DeGirolamo spending seven seasons as a Miami assistant coach before taking over the head coach role in 2009. Shoker initially earned a law degree and then lived in northern Virginia for a time, but ultimately came back home around the time the new Goggin Ice Center opened in 2006. As a skating instructor at the rink and volunteer coach with the program, her days were suddenly just as busy on the ice as when she'd been growing up.

"I'd start between 6:15 and 6:45 every morning with early practices for the collegiate and junior teams. I'd do the morning practices, then teach basic or intermediate ice skating at 8, 9, 10, 11 and 1 o'clock… we'd have team practice from 3:15-5:15, and then I'd teach private lessons or group lessons after that. It was insane, but it was great," Shoker said.

"You learn a lot by watching that much skating and teaching that many different levels of skating."

2006-07 Senior Synchronized Skating Team — DeGirolamo (second from L) and Shoker (R) with the 2006-07 senior
team that made history by winning silver at the World Championships

Fast forward to 2024, the 18th and final year DeGirolamo and Shoker have worked together, and Miami Skating has continued to make history during their tenures. From the senior team's 2007 world championships silver medal under Korn (the highest finish in history for a team from the United States) to a steady supply of collegiate national titles (for example, Miami's 2016 title was its 12th in a row and established an U.S. figure skating record for any level or discipline), the RedHawks have set the standard for success in their sport.

Last month's national championships marked DeGirolamo and Shoker's last-ever competition as head coach and assistant coach, respectively, after 16 seasons in their current roles. Their finale yielded a bronze medal for the senior team and, fittingly, another national title (No. 22 all-time and the third in a row) for the collegiate team. The latter group also produced a record-breaking score of 117.04, topping a mark set by –who else?– the RedHawks themselves, two years earlier.

"Knowing that it's the end of the road for Carla and Lee Ann as coaches at Miami, we really wanted to give that performance and make it our best skate," said collegiate team captain Natalie Mispagel. "It meant a lot for us to be able to give that as a going-away present, a 'thank you' for how much they've done for us.

"All 117 points that we got were really because of the choreography and detailing and fine-tuning that Carla and Lee Ann put in place over the last few months."

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The legacy these veteran coaches leave in Oxford is about more than helming one of the sport's flagship programs and the myriad of medals and trophies that have come with it.

"The championships are great, and obviously that's a big reason of why we do what we do, but those day-to-day moments…are some of the things that I will remember forever," DeGirolamo said.

Yes, Miami Skating is recognized as a trailblazer in synchronized skating. And yes, there are so many trophies scattered around Goggin that the coaches say it's quite literally difficult to find places to display all of them.

But DeGirolamo and Shoker have always been about nurturing and developing good human beings first and good skaters second.

"They're both just so passionate about the sport and about us as people," said senior team captain Annie Givens. "We always call them the 'Dynamic Duo.' They complement each other so well and work so well together…they're definitely very caring about the whole package: They see us as way more than skaters…

"They foster such a family environment here that it makes you fall back in love with the sport." Carla DeGirolamo and Lee Ann Shoker

"Miami Skating has always been about the people, and the athletes in particular," said DeGirolamo. "We've really tried to keep the emphasis on the people, the experience and the journey. I think that gets us to the outcome."

"That's the best part of the job, hands down," Shoker added. "You cannot be authentic and free in anything you do if you don't know who you are…both of us have been really intentional in helping people cultivate their own preferences and voices."

From making lists of questions for their RedHawks to reflect on…to creating journals for the student-athletes to write in…to encouraging their skaters in being willing to try new things (even if means failing or falling!)…to taking the initiative to help graduates network and connect with potential mentors…to being available to talk about literally anything at any time…the environment DeGirolamo and Shoker have created and honed has made a lasting impact on literally hundreds of lives.

"I would definitely say it's the community and the culture they've set within the team that really drew me into Miami," Mispagel explained. "I was nine years old the first time I came to Miami camp and met Lee Ann. That's when I really fell in love with this school and that's when I knew I wanted to be an athlete here as well.

"It's a very supportive, unique environment in the skating world of being a student and being an athlete, and they really see us as both. They understand that academics are going to continue for the rest of our life, and skating, at one point or another, will end.

"So they're there to help us be the best skater that we can be within the four years but really be the best person that we can be for the rest of our life."

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Every spring at Miami Skating's postseason banquet, the coaches hand out the program's yearly awards and announce who was named Most Outstanding Skater, Most Improved, etc.

Carla DeGirolamo and Lee Ann Shoker with President Greg and Dr. Renate Crawford — *DeGirolamo and Shoker with President Greg and Dr. Renate Crawford*

At the most recent event last Saturday, DeGirolamo and Shoker were surprised to learn two of those honors will have slightly different names going forward.

The program's alumni got together and decided to rename the Senior of the Year Award after DeGirolamo and the Team Spirit award after Shoker.

"As alumni, we felt these awards embodied who you are both as leaders and allows us to continue to honor your legacy. Thank you for all that you've done for Miami Skating, for me, and to continue that legacy that my mom [Vicki Korn] wanted so much for everyone," said Ashley Korn '10 '13.

It's a fitting and lasting tribute to two women who have had such an influence on so many people year after year, to say nothing of their effect on the overall sport.

"They were a part of the foundation; they know this program from the beginning and its history, so they're able to share how far we've come. But they just keep pushing the trajectory – pushing us to world championships, to national championships – that's always been the standard of Miami Skating, and they just kept it going," Givens said.

"You can't even start to explain the impact they've had on U.S. synchronized skating as a whole. Anywhere you look at U.S. Figure Skating headquarters, at the judges, at the coaches: There are Miami alums everywhere…you can't go anywhere in the sport without seeing a Miami alum that knows Carla and Lee Ann or has worked with them or been coached by them."

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With such a storied past and remarkable present, what does the future hold for Miami Skating without two of its most familiar faces in charge?

According to these exiting coaches, the next chapter for the program they've spent so much of their lives associated with is guaranteed to be worth watching.

DeGirolamo, who called leading Miami Skating her 'dream job', said the time is right for the RedHawks to install new leaders.

"I have done the daily work for so long. Although I'm never going to step away from the sport entirely, I think it's time for me to contribute in a new way and open up the opportunity for someone else to get to do the dream job that I got to do," she said.

"I think bringing in that fresh energy and excitement and a new perspective to the program is going to be really great."

"It's really exciting!", Shoker agreed. "You're going to see the future of Miami Skating have a really fresh look…I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised and in awe of what can happen without us."

"That passion, that drive, that striving for excellence and striving to push the envelope that Miami has always been is what Miami will always be," DeGirolamo said. "I think with some new energy and new perspective and new ideas, they're going to grow even more, and it's exciting to see…

"Moving forward, I think the athletes only have up to go. I think the program only has up to go."

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'Dynamic Duo': DeGirolamo, Shoker Reflect on Time With Miami Skating

Players Mentioned

Annie Givens

Natalie Mispagel

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