JULI MCKI N S TR Y H O S K I N G by LOIS ELFMAN


hen Juli McKinstry Hosking looks back on her life in skat- ing, the friendships she forged and sustained over decades are what come to mind. Te U.S.


junior champion and two-time senior medalist said thoughts of fellow competitors, students and their families are her fondest recollections. “Tose endure throughout,” McKinstry


Hosking said. “Te camaraderie. When you’re in a show and you’re on the road for 10 months of the year and in rehearsals, it’s kind of like going to col- lege. It’s an experience you shared that’s unique.” McKinstry Hosking, who grew up in North- ern California, took to the ice at the age of 4 during a family vacation in Squaw Valley, Califor- nia, site of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games. One day, her brother and father went skiing while she and her mother went ice skating. As her mother laced her own skates, McKinstry Hosking went out on the ice alone and started skating. Every day after that, she asked to return to the rink. When the family got home, she kept beg- ging to go skating. She trained in Santa Rosa, California, with Skippy Baxter. In the summers, she and her mother rented a house in Squaw Valley, where Jimmy Grogan and Barbara Wag- ner ran a summer skating school. About 10 girls boarded with them.


After winning the U.S. junior title in


1970, McKinstry Hosking went to train at the renowned Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Col- orado, where she worked with Jack Raffloer for the remainder of her career. She made the World team in 1973 and ’74.


“Te highlight is always finishing a clean


program,” she said of her ’73 free skate. “When I skated, it was always that challenge to go and do a clean program. You try to practice perfect. Practice doing a clean program generally leads to a clean program, but you’re never 100 percent sure.” In 1975, she joined Ice Follies. While


McKinstry Hosking liked performing, the tour- ing lifestyle wasn’t for her. So in 1977, she started coaching, which she did until 1999. After coaching for 22 years, skating has not been a significant part of her life since she mar- ried husband Richard Hosking and they moved to Scottsburg, Oregon, but it’s returned recent- ly, as they spend a couple of months a year in Mesa, Arizona. While they enjoy the warmth during holiday season and prepare a couple of units for peak rental season in January to March, McKinstry Hosking avails herself of nearby skat- ing rinks. “Tere’s a great facility, Arizona Ice in Gil-


bert,” McKinstry Hosking said. “Te first couple of years we came here, there wasn’t much going on. Now, they’ve got a good director of skating, Mark Fitzgerald. “It’s fun to actually skate,” she continued. “I


try not to trip over my toe picks.” While her muscle memory is good, McK-


instry Hosking steers clear of jumping. She does the occasional single and lots of turns. In her mind, she’s still skating her favorite free skate program. McKinstry Hosking first met Hosking when she was coaching in Omaha, Nebraska, after touring with Ice Follies. He was one of her


SKATING 9


adult students. She joked about the time she was teaching him a jump on the harness and he took them both out. She taught at the Blade and Edge Figure


Skating Club for eight years, and her job included not only teaching, but also skate sharpening, mea- suring for boots and putting together ice shows. In the mid-1980s, a friend from the Broad-


moor days, Audrey Weisiger, asked her to apply to coach at Fairfax Ice Arena in Fairfax, Virginia. She liked the idea of less-harsh winters, so she decided to give it a go. Before she left Omaha, she made sure there was someone to take over for her. “It was a really hard decision,” McKinstry


Hosking said. “Te relationships and how re- sponsible you feel toward your students. I didn’t want to leave unless they had somebody lined up to come in, because Omaha had been fantastic to me. I wanted to make sure that there was some- body that was going to carry on.” She trained one of the fathers to sharpen skates and made sure everything else was covered. During her years coaching in Virginia,


McKinstry Hosking became a tax preparer for H&R Block. Able to make her own hours, she worked around her teaching schedule, and found it an interesting side occupation. McKinstry Hosking also enjoyed the prox-


imity to Washington, D.C., and took in shows at the Kennedy Center. She stayed in touch with Hosking over the


years, and when both attended the wedding of one of her former students from Omaha, they reconnected and a relationship ensued. Tey’ve been married for 16 years. McKinstry Hosking has five children and


10 grandchildren. Te grandchildren are now mostly grown, including three in college and two in graduate school, but over the past 16 years they’ve spent many summers visiting in Oregon. “We built a home … for the grandkids be-


cause we thought this would be a neat place,” McKinstry Hosking said. “We thought we’ll build a family home so they can come up in the summertime. It’s worked out through the years. We’ve had different groups of grandchildren for two and three weeks at a time. I taught them how


to swim in the river and fish. Now, they’re be- coming boat people — getting their boater-safety cards and learning how to operate boats. “My husband grows a fantastic vegeta-


ble garden,” she added. “We have six or seven months of fantastic weather. It’s just beautiful. We like to fish and hike.” Te area is quiet, which suits McKinstry


Hosking nicely. She described herself as decided- ly not a big city person.


While the pace of life is leisurely, she does


work a bit as a real estate broker. It’s something she always wanted to explore, but it didn’t mesh well with coaching skating. Where they live is a small community. Tere aren’t a lot of properties for sale, but just enough to keep her occupied. “My neighborhood is kind of out of the


way,” she said. “Te realtors are reluctant to drive out there, so I thought I’ll get my license. I can represent people around here.” Her attention to detail honed first as a skat- er and then as a coach helps her in real estate. She can thoroughly explain important details about local regulations. “It’s not a cookie-cutter neighborhood,”


McKinstry Hosking said. “Every property is dif- ferent.” McKinstry Hosking savors lifelong relation- ships with her former students, some of whom she taught from their first lessons into adulthood. Some, like Darin Hosier, Roxanne Tyler and Brenda Bader, have become coaches. Tese days, she’s happy to be back on the


West Coast. Her husband is retired and intent on enjoying life, which they do to the fullest. During her time in Arizona, she teaches a few group les- sons, which she enjoys. Although it’s no longer a daily presence, skating has an ongoing impact on her life. It even helped sustain her when she battled acute myelogenous leukemia in 1986. “I’m very appreciative for every day that I


have,” said McKinstry Hosking, who did volun- teer work with the American Cancer Society af- ter she regained her health. “Tere’s a confidence that you acquire through skating. It has guided me, been influential in the rest of my life.”


Juli McKinstry Hosking with husband Richard Hosking


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