2016 PSA COACHES OF THE YEAR
Nadezhda (Nadia) Kanaeva, Rafael Arutyunyan, and Vera Arutyunyan at the 2015 PSA Awards Dinner
By Kent McDill
T
he first time he won the Professional Skaters Association Coach of the Year award on 2015, Rafael Arutyunyan was shocked that he had been selected. The second time, he was ready for it. And he had one demand, as perhaps befits a two-time and back-to-back PSA Coach of the Year award winner. “When they were nominating me as Coach of the Year, the biggest issue was, I said ‘I am not only by myself’,’’ said Arutyunyan, 59. “There is a team of people who work together. I told them I will not come (to the induction ceremony) until you put all of my coaches’ names on the award.” So, for 2016, the PSA Coach of the Year is actually a team of coaches: Arutyunyan, his wife Vera, and assistant coach Nadia Kanaeva, a former Russian national team skater. Arutyunyan becomes the fourth coach since 1990 to win the award multiple times; Frank Carroll and Igor Shipilband have won the award three times each. The Arutyunyan team (an unofficial title; Arutyunyan doesn’t have a name for them as a group) earned the
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award thanks to Ashley Wagner’s thrilling silver medal at Worlds and Adam Rippon’s U.S. national title this year. Arutyunyan’s desire to see his coaching mates honored as well is a result of the teamwork exhibited within the coaching framework they use. When it was suggested Kanaeva was the primary choreographer for their skaters, Arutyunyan denied it vigorously. “No! No! No!’’ he said in a telephone interview with PS Magazine. “She is not! That is wrong. “We are all together on the ice all day long,’’ he said. “There is no separation of duty. I do choreography as well. When I work, they contribute to my job as well.” Kanaeva, while expressing her thrill to receiving “my first big thing”, agreed with her former coach. “I think it is fair,’’ she said about the team being awarded rather than just Arutyunyan. “I do the same things as Rafael and Vera. We have known each other for a long time. “I think this is good for other teams, too,’’ she said. “It is very hard if you work by yourself. I am happy to work together with them. Many times, there is a team of