posted Nov 5th, 2008 - The gold medals in the Advanced Class at the USPA Nationals 2008 was a great achievement for CSC Rhythm XP. However, it was only a step on the way to more and better and faster. The Midwest Skydiving League team works on new plans for the 2009 season, and those plans include a personnel change.

JaNette Lefkowitz (Center Outside), Steve Lefkowitz (Point) and Laurent Beaudouin (Tail) will have to replace Brian Ball, Rhythm's Center Inside of 2008. The three original team members recruited Brian Ball at the end of the 2007 season after the decision to discontinue the player coach project and find a full member.

JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz had competed with various teams in the Midwest Skydiving League before they decided to form their own lineup. Steve Lefkowitz had just graduated from the Chicagoland Skydiving Center (CSC) student program in the summer of 2005 and progressed quickly through all competition classes in 2006. The married couple asked former CSC Rubicon member Laurent Beaudouin to join the team and then hired Robert Chromy as the team's player coach.

Robert Chromy guided CSC Rhythm through the whole 2007 season, which began with a 10.8 average in the AA Class at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007 and ended with a 14.5 average and a 3rd place as a guest team in the Advanced Class competition of the USPA Nationals 2007. Andrew Metcalfe was filming CSC Rhythm in 2007.

The NSL News reported on 6 December 2007 (Archives > 2007 > News > Search for: CSC Rhythm) that JaNette Lefkowitz, Steve Lefkowitz and Laurent Beaudouin had new plans for the 2008 season. The "aggressive plan" included a new Center Inside for financial reasons, as JaNette Lefkowitz explained by then: "The finances of a player-coach team and doing as much tunnel and jumping as we want to do - it just didn't work."

Brian Ball, who flew the Center Outside position for his former team Ranch Pulse, joined the CSC Rhythm 3-way, and the 2008 season turned out to be just as successful for CSC Rhythm XP as the first year was for the lineup of 2007. In fact, it was a perfect season. CSC Rhythm XP attended six meets, including one wind tunnel competition, and finished the 2008 season with gold medals at the USPA Nationals 2008 and an Advanced Class record average of 16.9 after ten rounds in Eloy.

The original 3-way, JaNette Lefkowitz, Steve Lefkowitz and Laurent Beaudouin, is still hungry for more, as JaNette Lefkowitz told the NSL News: "We're already making plans for next year to include an even busier and more aggressive training schedule than this year."

The Center Inside of 2008, Brian Ball, will not be able to commit to the 2009 schedule, and CSC Rhythm XP is looking for a new team engine: "Brian is not joining us next year, so Steve, Laurent and I are beginning to look for a fourth teammate. We'd like to decide on someone by mid December and start training as early as January."

JaNette Lefkowitz can be reached by e-mail. The NSL News will follow up with more information, as soon as the new Rhythm lineup is finalized. The team is also holding a few more tunnel training camps this year. More information can be found at the team website. All of Rhythm's competition jumps at the USPA Nationals 2008 can also be reviewed at the same website.