Delaware Ignite · Speed Team
One hundred percent speed skating. This is the speed team's house — skater profiles, race-night standings, the regional circuit, the gear, the training. Everything here is speed.
Every Ignite racer climbs the same ladder — the club's patch ladder, raced for real: Spark → League → Elite. A second Ignite team opens in phase two — and the two teams race each other all winter.
The beginners' program feeds this team — first speed steps, coached starts, short races, a helmet on every head.
Club racing under the lights — the full Wednesday race-night card, standings and rivalries, all winter long.
The travel team. USARS meets up and down the coast, carrying Delaware into regional and national fields.
Sanctioned speed skating runs under USA Roller Sports (USARS) — the national governing body for roller sports in the United States, under World Skate, the international federation. Ignite races under USARS rules, and Delaware races in USARS's Eastern Region (Delaware · New Jersey · Pennsylvania).
Age 7 & under
Ages 8–10
Ages 11–13
Ages 14–18
Adult racers
Adult racers, age-grouped
$95 a year — required for Regionals and Nationals
$50 a year — racing without qualifying events; a Tier 1 skater can start here
$25 — covers one meet (5 days)
$100 a year — registered coaches, background-checked
Every racer carries their own USARS card, at cost — the club passes it through, never marks it up. Age divisions run inside every tier, so a Spark graduate races kids their own age from the first start.
Wednesday race nights at home are the heartbeat. The road beyond them is the Eastern Region circuit — the teams and leagues Ignite measures itself against, and races.
The region's speed league — league meets through the season, the circuit our Elite team climbs.
Mays Landing, New Jersey — Keystone League racing, coached practices three times a week.
Enola, Pennsylvania — one of the region's anchor clubs, racing out of the Olympic Skating Center.
Hagerstown, Maryland — the region's elite USARS program, at Turner's Skate Palace.
Home invitationals bring the region to our floor; Regionals and the Indoor Nationals are where the Elite team's season points. It starts at Ignite Night — the team's grand opening, with every team in the region invited.
Every Ignite racer starts in Spark — the club's beginners' program, for every age. First speed steps happen there; when a skater is ready, they climb: Spark → League → Elite. Nobody gets rushed, nobody gets left.
Speed skates and speed-skate items only — the gear this page stands behind. Boots, frames, wheels, bearings: the racing wall.
Luigino Strut, Challenge and Bolt — the club-racing standard, from Nistevo's Atom Skates store.
See speed boots ↗Race frames and the full Bont speed line — boots, frames and wheels from the #1 speed maker.
See Bont speed ↗Atom Matrix and Boom — the wheels the regional circuit races on.
See race wheels ↗Bones Reds and Swiss — the bearings wall, 8mm race standard.
See bearings ↗The club's own shop stocks speed gear at member prices — see the Speed Shop's speed gear wall.
Speed is built off the start line as much as on it. Ignite training runs on practice nights and through the summer — on skates, and off them.
Dynamic warm-ups before every session; static work after — hip flexors, hamstrings, calves and ankles, the whole chain a low position loads.
Off-skate position work — the low walk, dry strides and imitations that groove race form without wheels.
Jumps and lateral bounds — the explosive power that wins the first three strides.
The stability work that holds the low position honest at full speed, lap after lap.
This page is the roster system: when the founding roster forms, every Ignite skater gets a profile right here — their clips from race nights (every race night is filmed), their standings, their tier, their gear. Skaters share their own profiles; families follow the season from this page. The roster boards open with the founding season — first at Ignite Night, the team's grand opening.
Posted after every race night — placements, points and the championship chase, by tier. The first standings go up after the first race night of the founding season.
6:00–8:30 PM — coaching night, all tiers
6:30–9:00 PM — the weekly card; standings post after
October 1 – April 1 — the whole winter, every week
Workouts and outdoor rolls when school's out
Dues are $60 a month — by the half season ($180) or the full season ($360, kit fee included free). USARS membership is each skater's own, at cost. Gear comes from The Speed Shop at member prices — the speed gear wall is stocked for this team. And the honors are the team's own: Ignite skaters earn a different set of badges — speed-team badges, earned on race nights and at meets, distinct from the club badges. Join the mailer on the home page of the First State Skate Club — the first 50 sign-ups get club membership free. New to skating entirely? Start in Spark — every Ignite racer did.