It's a Family Affair for Hudeys

Julie Folk, The Leader-Post
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Brad Hudey and his wife Marion, along with daughter Marsha, 16, and son Ian, 14, strap on their skates at Regina's speed skating oval to practise together. Brad, a masters speed skater, coaches his children as they race around the track through the wind and cold which can get down to -40 C, biting into exposed faces.

Brad has shared his love of the sport with all four of his children. His own beginnings came when he was 10 years old. His mother was working for a professor who consulted speed skating coaches.

Brad's mother signed him up for speed skating and he's been at it ever since.

"It's been a very successful sport for me," said Brad, now 45, who holds the Canadian age 40-49 masters records in the 500-metre, 1,000m, 1,500m and 3,000m races.

Brad competed at a young age, but took a break from the sport until his children got older. He wanted to get his children into an activity, and remembered how much he had enjoyed speed skating. When he got them involved, he started skating again himself.

"To do the sport as a family has been fun," he said. "It's a very effective way of giving your kids something—life skills—and we can be involved with them."

Brad coaches the eight-to-12-year-old division with the Regina Speed Skating Club, and sometimes skates with the older group in a skater-coach position.

Marsha doesn't mind her dad coaching her; in fact, she calls him "a pretty cool guy." Brad said the best part about coaching his children is developing a different relationship with them.

"As they get older, our goals aren't the same in many ways," he said. "So working on the ice together is refreshing because we have the same goals in speed skating, and it's a release from the parent-son or parent-daughter relationship."

While Brad thought speed skating would be beneficial for his children's health and lifestyle, it has created many other opportunities. Marsha and her brother Austin, 18, will be representing Saskatchewan at the 2007 Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse, Yukon, at the end of February.

Marsha will skate both long track and short track. She placed 10th at the last Canada Cup competition (a national competition speed skaters attend three times a year). The top four skaters will be competing on the world junior team, meaning Marsha will go into the Canada Games as one of the top six skaters.

"I'm very excited," she said. "It's going to be great and I have a chance of medalling in the sprints."

"If she skates well," Brad added.

Older brother Austin thinks Marsha will go far—at 16, she has quite a few years left, and he said she can only get faster. Austin is ranked in the top four skaters headed into the Canada Games. He's been taking classes at the University of Calgary this year in order to train indoors at the Calgary Olympic Oval.

His goal right now is to make the world junior team next year. Then he said he'll start looking at the 2010 Olympics.

Although he has a coach in Calgary, he said his dad is still his coach and main motivator.

"He puts so much into it—he has his Level 3 coaching, he reads about it, he has the experience, he just knows so much," Austin said. "And he knows me better than my coach (in Calgary) does."