2021 Coach of the Year: Patrice Lauzon & Ice Academy of Montreal

by Kent McDill

Patrice Lauzon & Ice Academy of Montreal

Unique Year, Unique Team, Unique Achievement

The calendar year 2020 was a strange one in nearly every aspect of human life.

While dealing with a pandemic that frightened civilization and altered human interaction, many people persevered. And that included the figure skating community, which found a way to conduct lessons and eventually competitions in the face of unforeseen and unprecedented complications.

It is, therefore, not surprising that the 2020 PSA Coach of the Year honoree is a unique selection.

The official announcement named Patrice Lauzon and the Ice Academy of Montreal as 2021 PSA Coach of the Year, but the Ice Academy of Montreal (I.AM) includes Marie-France Dubreuil and Steffany Hanlen, as well as others on the I.AM team who all share in the award.

In the year of the pandemic, the Ice Academy of Montreal was home to the three best ice dance teams in the United States.

Steffany Hanlen

“We don’t coach for awards,” Lauzon said in an interview with PS Magazine. “We coach all our athletes to win, but it is nice to be recognized by the PSA.”

“I thought it was a mistake,” Dubreuil said. “We were very happy because we were nominated as a team.”

The American skaters working with the coaching team at the Ice Academy of Montreal include Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue, who won the gold at U.S. Championships in Las Vegas and the silver at the World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden; Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who earned the silver at U.S. Championships and fourth place at Worlds; and Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker, who took the bronze at U.S. Nationals and finished ninth at Worlds.

“All three coaches stressed the philosophy ...to create an atmosphere of championship level competition under their watch, believing that atmosphere will inspire championship level performances when it is time to compete.”

A tale of two tales

This Coach of the Year award is the tale of two tales: the opportunity to coach three teams of high caliber in the same competition at the same time, and the unique situation in which they were coached in 2020.

Let’s start with the teams all ending up with the Ice Academy of Montreal.

L to R: Romain Haguenauer, Marie-France Dubreuil, Benjamin Brisebois, Josee Piche, Patrice Lauzon, Pascal Denis

Three teams

Figure skating provides an unusual condition of team success. There are often skaters competing against each other but doing so in the representation of their nation and its skating federation.

So it was for the three ice dance teams working as pairs with the same coaches representing the same country.

“When Patrice and I competed at our first Olympics in Salt Lake, we noticed the teamwork of the Canadian short track team,” Dubreuil said. “They all competed against each other for the same medals, but lived, trained, ate meals, and hung out as a team. It fascinated us.”

“When you think about it, if an ice dance team is the best in their own country, how do they get elevated to continue to strive and get better?” Hanlen asked. “What is their benchmark for being world class on a day-to-day basis? By creating an environment where they literally train besides others of their caliber and that have the same goals, the bar is set. This just makes everyone better.”

All three coaches stressed the philosophy of the Ice Academy of Montreal, to create an atmosphere of championship level competition under their watch, believing that atmosphere will inspire championship level performances when it is time to compete.

“We know the ups and down they go through but at the end of the day it is their own journey. We feel successful when our coaching leads them to achieve or surpass their own goals.”

“The intention of I.AM is to have champions train with champions in a value-based environment,” Lauzon said.

“Championship energy is shared,” Hanlen said. “When it is time to compete, then whatever happens on that day happens.”

Lauzon asked to acknowledge the man who created the I.AM, Romain Haguenauer, who came to Montreal to create an ice skating school.

“The three of us [Dubreuil, Lauzon, Hanlen] basically set the intentions—organize which team does what—and our amazing team of coaches Josée Piché, Pascal Denis, and Benjamin Brisebois are on-ice experts while Samuel Chouinard, Ginette Cournoyer, Emilie Josset, Evan Airapetian, Emilie Bonnavaud, and Sebastien Soldevila are from outside the skating world and the best in the world at what they do.”

I.AM website

One weird year

The year 2020 was weird for everyone. But many, many people found a way to make it work for them, and that included the 2021 PSA Coaches of the Year.

“As soon as Worlds in Montreal were cancelled, we knew we had to shift our training model of the athletes to be supported and stay connected during the lockdowns,” Hanlen said. “We went virtual immediately, and decided to create a virtual program so they could continue training and the coaches could keep working. We knew it would be an emotional time, with some anger, confusion, and grief, given the inability to compete and the many unknowns. Often my (virtual) sessions were about dealing with those issues.”

“We were focused on solutions to an uncertain future,” Lauzon said. “We shifted to having the skater sign into a class at a certain time of day and make the coach or trainer available, instead of scheduling the coach (first). We flipped it. Our goal was to keep everyone engaged because we didn’t know how long gyms and arenas would be closed. But it didn’t seem difficult at all since everyone was fully on board every day.”

Dubreuil said Lauzon was being modest.

“Patrice worked crazy long hours with the city of Montreal and surrounding areas to book ice wherever and whenever he could,” she said. “As soon as they were open, he secured it. This was probably the most stressful time for us. We have a 10-year-old daughter who still needed to be home-schooled, so this was a factor that also had to be our priority as a family.”

The coaches agreed that their efforts to normalize the most abnormal situation helped create the atmosphere for success in 2020.

“We normalized the situation Monday through Friday”, Hanlen said. “Regardless of what was happening outside, the skaters had a routine they counted on and people they trusted.”

Comparing apples to oranges

Lauzon and Dubreuil were ice dance skating partners themselves, earning silver medals in back-to-back world championships in 2006-2007. With their coaching success, they have experienced triumphant moments on both sides of the task.

“Our entire journey as athletes was about finding the right team of coaches that would help us manage the fragile balance between training and rest/recovery so we could achieve our goals,” Dubreuil said.

“Being a coach is the complete opposite. Now we work selflessly to support the skaters so they can achieve their goals. We know the ups and down they go through but at the end of the day it is their own journey. We feel successful when our coaching leads them to achieve or surpass their own goals.”

Additional I.AM Coaching Team Members

Sebastien Soldevila & Emilie Bonnavaud

For more on Patrice and his team, check out iceacademyofmontreal.com and their social feeds.