I have been inline skating since I was 10 years old. I have always enjoyed skating and use to love to go to the skating rink and skate every week. I went ice skating for the first time when I was in 4th grade, needless to say, I was pretty beat up after that :) I ice skated on and off every since and improved over the years. I actually wanted to get into figure skating and spent quite a bit of time on the ice practicing when I got the chance, BUT something in me always loved to go fast and fly around those corners. Several years ago I was skating at the Oilers Ice Center in Tulsa, OK and was just doin' my thing going fast. The head coach of the speedskating team saw me and asked if I wanted to come out and practice with them. He said practice was at 5:30 on Sunday mornings...yeah crazy and I didn't even live in Tulsa so not so much. Well fast forward a couple of years to 2012. I recently moved to Tulsa and God has just opened up every door possible for me to pursue my dream of competing in short track speed skating. In September of this year I decided to pursue this and joined the Tulsa Speedskating Club. I now spend on average about 3-5 hours of training a day sometimes a little less and some days a lot more. I have lots of work and lots of room for improvement. My coach Stephanie Baker has been such a blessing in giving of her time and giving me the time of day. Also thanks to Bert Speed for providing me with my skates and Paul Sherman for providing me with a set of inline skates to do my dryland training. It has been a tough road even in the four months since I have began. There have been days I just want to say, "I'm done!, I'm 31 and visually impaired!" its amazing though to see how when this mindset starts setting in how in that moment there is always something deep within me that says "NO" to giving up. I am so thankful for my parents who have provided the finances for my skates and so much more. This short track journey to the finish will take commitment, dedication, and sacrifice on my part, the support of family and friends, and sponsors to help provide the finances, equipment, and time to pursue my dream of competing hopefully nationally and internationally! Thank you to everyone who has helped me through encouragement, coaching, and finances and so much more!!

I competed in my first competition on Dec. 9th. It was great experience and the guys I was racing against were all veterans of at least 5 years. Even though I was last it was such a great encouragement to hear them say that I improved with every race and that I had great ability and that I would be winning races!

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