About the Capitol Steps...

History of the Capitol Steps:

Coach Renate Gilroy introduced precision skating to Northern Virginia in 1978 with a little show number at the Fairfax Ice Arena. In 1981 the Fairfax Follies entered their first area competition in Bowling Green Ohio. In 1982, Renate formed the Juvenile team, the Starlettes, whose greatest success was 4th place at Nationals in Reno, Nevada in 1988 as Juvenile Competitors, and 4th in Alaska (1991) and 6th in Maine (1992) as Intermediate Competitors.

The Eisettes were born in 1986. They achieved 4th place at Nationals in 1989 in the Novice division and were chosen to represent the United States in the first International Precision Skating Competition in Sweden and Finland, where they placed 3rd and 4th, respectively.

In 1993, Renate retired from precision coaching and Emily Rowlee and Sandy Sparger succeeded her as head coaches. At the same time, the teams changed their image to more accurately represent the broader metropolitan area from which the skaters are drawn. With the departure of Emily Rowlee, Susan Petruccelli joined the coaching staff in 1996, Monica Schultz joined in 1998, Julie Duncan joined in 2001, and Jennifer DeSimone in 2003. Jenny left the Capitol Steps in 2005 for a coaching position in Michigan. In 2006 Chrissy O'Connor, a former Capitol Steps and Miami University skater, joined the coaching staff.

Members of the Capitol Steps Teams attended the first-ever International Skating Union World Challenge Cup in Boston in April 1996. Skaters from the Capitol Steps have gone on to skate at respected collegiate programs such as the Miami Universtiy, Ohio Varsity Synchronized Skating Team and Collegiate team, the University of Delaware Precisionaires, and the University of Michigan, to name a few. Former Follies, Starlettes, Eisettes and Capitol Steps skaters can also be found on several adult teams throughout the the country. The Capitol Steps Teams have continued to medal in Local, Regional, and Sectional competitions for many years. In 2004, the Junior Classic Team earned the Gold Medal at the 2004 Eastern Sectional Team Skating Championship. In 2005, the Youth Introductory Team earned the Gold Medal at the Cape Cod Classic Skating Championship. In 2006, the Open Juvenile Team earned a Silver Medal and the Preliminary Team earned the Pewter Medal at the 2006 Eastern Sectional Team Skating Championship. During the 2006-2007 season Capitol Steps fielded Beginner, Pre-Juvenile and Open Junior Teams. The Beginner team won the Gold Medal at each USFS competition they attended with their Grease program. Pre-Juvenile won the Gold Medal at the Southern Synchro Classic with a tango/latin program. The Open Junior Team were the 2007 Eastern Sectional Champions with a program to a medley of Beatles music.

After 25 years of skating primarily at Fairfax Ice Arena the Capitol Steps Teams moved their primary practice location to the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington for the 2007-08 season. 2007-08 was an exciting year for Capitol Steps with over 60 skaters on 4 teams - Beginner 2, Juvenile, Open Juvenile and Intermediate. Beginner 2 earned the Gold Medal at the 2008 Colonial Classic. The Juvenile and Open Juvenile teams both earned medals at USFS competitions and the Intermediate team finished the year as the 5th place team at Eastern Sectionals and was the alternate for the 2008 U.S. National Synchronized Skating Championships.