Sunday, June 26, 2011

Van Den Berg Celebrates 25th Year With JSA


‘I’m Very Blessed’
Van Den Berg Celebrates 25th Year With JSA

June 26, 2011
By Scott Kindberg (skindberg@post-journal.com) , The Post-Journal

ASHVILLE - Almost every night, weather permitting, Lenel van den Berg hops in his 20-foot pontoon party boat and takes a 30-minute cruise on Chautauqua Lake.

Accompanied by his dog and his cat, van den Berg enjoys the scenery and the accompanying relaxation at the end of another 10-12 hour work day.

"I've always admired the water,'' he said.

Van den Berg has been a big fan of water in the frozen form as well. In fact, life on the ice has carried the native of Port Elizabeth, South Africa to stops all over the globe in the last three decades.

Fortunately for figure skaters on the East Coast, and in Western New York in particular, he ultimately decided to make southern Chautauqua County his home.

"It's been a long journey,'' he said. "It's been a very good journey, a great journey, actually, because I think we've achieved things beyond what we really expected.''

- - -

Encouraged by his mother, Mavis, van den Berg started skating when he was 9 years old and ultimately reached the pinnacle of the sport, becoming a seven-time national champion, competing internationally for South Africa and, later, enjoying a nine-year career with Holiday On Ice.

"After that,'' he said, "I came to the United States.''

And when the Jamestown Skating Academy needed someone to run the program in the mid-1980s, van den Berg, who just happened to be visiting in Buffalo, took the job, "because nobody wanted it.''

"I remember the first day I walked into Allen Park (Ice Rink) and somebody said to me, 'I hope you have another job apart from this job because you're not going to make a lot of money, there's not a lot of ice time and there's not a lot of (skaters).'''

Fast forward more than two decades. From those humble beginnings, van den Berg and fellow co-director Kirk Wyse have built the JSA into one of the best schools in the country. Beginning Monday, van den Berg will celebrate the 25th year of his summer school, which will attract upwards of 50 skaters (ages 7-25) from throughout the northeast and even as far away as Mexico.

"The beauty of this school has always been that it's all about training and getting better and improving,'' van den Berg said. "It's never been about that other stuff, no fighting between skaters and coaches, a very rare situation. We have had several offers to move to bigger markets over the last few years, but we have given them no consideration. We have an awesome arena, a wonderful office in the arena, great skaters, and tremendous support from the local community. Unless that were to change, we would never consider moving the program elsewhere.''

And what a resume van den Berg and Wyse, who joined the JSA in 1995, have put together.

Along the way, the men have had 104 students pass gold-medal tests, a remarkable number considering that one in 5,000 skaters successfully do so; 15 skaters have won national medals; and three - Robbie Dierking, Hilary Glovak and Janelle Cogley - were national champions. Dierking did it three times.

"The biggest charge for me is helping young people to succeed in life,'' said van den Berg, who by virtue of his students' success is a U.S. international coach. "This sport is a tough sport to be in. It teaches you a lot mentally and it teaches you how to deal with failure a lot. I think it's a wonderful sport for people to learn what is ahead in the future. It's more than medals and championships.''

It's about the notes, cards, text messages and e-mails that van den Berg and Wyse routinely receive from virtually all their current and former students thanking the men for what their guidance has meant not only on the ice, but off it as well. In other words, the JSA, which moved from Allen Park to the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena 10 years ago, is by virtually any measure one big happy family.

Occasionally, though, even van den Berg is caught off guard, even overwhelmed by "one of the nicest things that has ever happened to me.''

That came earlier this spring when he was asked by Kristen Treni, a former area resident, former JSA student and currently a Disney On Ice star, to walk her down the aisle at her wedding in Tampa, Fla.

"That was a highlight,'' van den Berg said.

- - -

Van den Berg, Wyse and 13 of their students have been in Lake Placid this week for the first competition of the figure skating season.

"You go there to tweak their programs, see what's needed in each aspect of the kids' skating and if we're doing the right things with the programs,'' van den Berg said.

The "program,'' - aka the JSA - housed at the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena, seems to indicate that van den Berg, Wyse and their coaching staff are doing the "right things,'' too.

"It's always nice to keep achieving things,'' van den Berg said, "but I've just been really lucky with what I've been able to achieve. I'm very thankful for what I've done with my life. I'm very blessed and I really realize that.

"Sometimes people say to you if you could do it again, would you do it differently. I can honestly say, 'No, I wouldn't. I'd do it exactly the same.'''

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