By Scott Mammoser, Team FSO contributing writer
Photos by Robin Ritoss
Following a second place result at the U.S. Pairs Final in November, Sydney Cooke and Matthew Kennedy will be headed to Wichita, Kansas, for Nationals for the first time as seniors.
“I am going into this thinking it’s just another competition,” Kennedy said in a Zoom call from his and Cooke’s training site in Delaware. “I just want to do my best, and I am sure, she wants to do her best. For us, the stage doesn’t really matter.”
Cooke and Kennedy, who teamed up in November 2022, were junior bronze medalists at Nationals last season in Columbus. Although Cooke skated with her previous partner Keyton Bearinger on the senior level at Nashville in 2022, this will be Kennedy’s debut on the level.
“I do like the amount of time we have in our program as seniors,” the 22-year-old Cooke said. “In juniors, I always felt like we were rushed. The quality of skating in general – everybody skates as a team. In juniors, sometimes you really had two singles skaters skating at once. We really had to work to skate as one.”
The team is in the midst of a comeback. Cooke sprained her ankle on one of her attempts on a triple twist, and they lost the entire summer. Although they continued to skate during the injury, Cooke could not put weight on her landing foot. In the fall, they competed in two national qualifying series events — Middle Atlantic Figure Skating Championships and Boston Open, where they finished first and second respectively. They won the silver medal at the Pairs Final in November.
“I feel as prepared as possible for how much time we have had,” the 23-year-old Kennedy said. “We’ve definitely grown as skaters. Neither of us are where we want to be right now, and we are excited to show fans what we have when we have a full year as seniors.”
The team is using last season’s programs. Their short program is an updated version of last season’s short program to “One Woman Man” by John Legend. Their free skate is an Elton John medley and includes “Your Song” performed by Ellie Goulding, and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Rocket Man” performed by Taron Egerton. Their programs were choreographed by Adam Blake and Colin McManus.
Cooke and Kennedy both started skating at a young age. For Cooke, skating runs in her family. Her father, Scott, runs Cooke’s Skate Supply in Wilmington, Mass., north of Boston. Her mother, Stephanie, is a coach with Elite Edge Skating Club. She taught Sydney until the age of 10.
“Mother-daughter relationships are hard,” Cooke joked, who first started skating at 17 months old. “But, she did the best she could with a very stubborn daughter. Eventually, it became time to add some more coaches to the team when it came time for pairs. I couldn’t stay with her forever.”
Kennedy’s beginnings at age five in the suburban Philadelphia area were a bit more by chance.
“My mom (Mary) just randomly took me to a skating class at the IceWorks Skating Complex,” noted Kennedy. “I took off and loved it.”
Cooke skated with previous partners, Nathan Rensing, Nathaniel Dennler, Timmy Chapman and Keyton Bearinger before teaming up with Kennedy in November 2022. Cooke said that one of her former coaches recommended Kennedy, despite him having a partner at the time.
“After a couple of partnerships,” she remembered, “I decided to give his coach a call, and then it all clicked right away.”
Cooke and Kennedy skate at the Patriot Ice Center in Newark, Delaware with coaches Roland Burghart and Priscilla Hill-Wampler.
“Whenever Priscilla comes in, you never quite know what is going to happen,” Kennedy said of his coach. “In addition to coaching, she trains dogs. So once or twice a week, she will bring one of her dogs in, and it’s always a fun time. With Roland, it’s also a fun time because you never know what is going to come out of his mouth. He lets us, be us, which is really nice.”
As with many pairs teams, Cooke and Kennedy highlighted the fact that they enjoy competing as a team without the solitude of singles.
“I like the fact that when it comes to competition, there is a lot less pressure than when it comes to when you are skating on your own,” said Kennedy, who also mentioned he enjoys barbecuing in his free time “A lot of the pair elements, when you hit them, they feel really good when you hit them. I love the flow that comes out of when you do a good lift. I am sure she feels the same way when it comes to a throw. A really good throw – there is nothing quite like the speed when you come out of it. For me, honestly, my favorite element is our twist. I try to throw her as high as possible: I call it the ‘Sydney Space Program.’”
The U.S. Figure Skating Championships will be from Jan. 20-26 in Wichita, Kansas, with championship pairs on Thursday and Saturday of that week.
