For the love of skating

It's 5:55 a.m., and a lone skater circles the ice at Hitchcock Park's Motto McLean Ice Arena.

Ten minutes later, she is joined by two others. More show up as the morning progresses.

Across town at the Moylan IcePlex in Tranquility Park, the same scene unfolds.

Figure skaters are a dedicated lot. There are early-morning ice practices and lessons; evening ice practices and lessons; classes for conditioning, jumping, stretching, ballet.

While many of the girls and boys in Omaha's three figure skating clubs may dream of going to the Olympics or skating for a national championship, most of the members know that's not going to happen. But it doesn't make them any less dedicated to their sport.

Besides getting up and going to bed early, they try to keep up with schoolwork and school activities while putting in their time at the ice rink and endure injuries to be the best skaters they can be.

It's not a cheap sport to pursue. Lessons, skates and costumes can be expensive. That can mean financial hardship for families and part-time jobs for skaters.

Skaters' families are an important part of the programs. In addition to paying the bills, they provide transportation to lessons and competitions, and volunteer at skating events.

“It's a very small world,” said Andrea Williamson, skating director of the Figure Skating Club of Omaha. “It's something special you share.”

Interest in the sport always increases during the Winter Olympics. This year is no exception. At the Vancouver Games, the competitions for pairs and men were this week, but ice dancing and the women's competition are still to come. Plenty of young skaters in the Omaha area have their eyes glued to the TV to watch for mistakes and hear pointers, to get movement and program ideas, to dream their own Olympic dreams.

Rhonda Festner, membership chairwoman for the Blade & Edge Figure Skating Club, said the Olympics always seems to bring an influx of membership inquiries. Joining a club isn't necessary for taking lessons, she said, but to become a competitor, a skater must belong to a figure skating club recognized by the U.S. Figure Skating Association. It's a rule.

There is a lot more to skating than competitions, however. Williamson said figure skating builds character. She likes watching children develop as they get over nerves, get over bad days and learn to accept criticism without breaking down.

Alexei Mantsorov, director of the Premier Figure Skating Club, said he and the other instructors “need to do everything we can to make sure that everyone in the program has fun.”

* * *

The Figure Skating Club of Omaha is one of the oldest in the country, and currently has between 110 and 120 members.

Williamson arrives at Motto McLean with the early birds. She's there to work with her first student, Paula Turpen, who is evidence that skating lessons and club membership are for all ages.

Turpen is 53. She learned to skate as a child in upstate New York but had been away from the ice for a long time. One of her daughters, Jessamine, is an accomplished skater, and watching her made Turpen decide to give it another try.

She's been taking lessons for about 10 years and competes in the Adult Nationals. “It's so inspirational,” she said of the event, which draws skaters as old as their 80s.

Also on the ice that early morning was 14-year-old Lauren Ellis. She said she had tried to play a lot of other sports but settled on figure skating. One reason: “There's not a lot of us.” Lauren thinks it's cool to be the only one in her school who is a figure skater.

Lauren hasn't decided how serious she wants to get about skating. “I want to just stay where I am and see where it goes.” Her father, she said, would like for her to go on as a competitor.

She likes the early-morning practices because she doesn't feel like she's missing out on any part of being a normal teenager. But it isn't easy to get to the skating rink three times a week at 6 a.m., and it makes her tired by the time she gets to school. “It drains you,” she said.

Later that morning, 10-year-old Marissa Newman steps onto the ice. She looks great and looks like she's having a great time. But Williamson gets serious with Marissa during their lesson, making the girl repeat several moves that look good to a nonskater but need plenty of work according to the teacher.

Marissa, her eyes shining, says her favorite thing about skating is the jumping. Her goal is learning to land double jumps.

“She has a lot of pep,” Williamson says with a laugh, “but she needs to learn consistency, and not getting frustrated.”

Williamson grew up in the club. Although she has taught in other cities, she came back to Omaha.

“What I enjoy most is getting to share my enthusiasm for skating with my students,” she said. “That look on their faces, when they get something and land something, is priceless.”

* * *

Roxanne Tyler is director of the Blade & Edge Figure Skating Club, which splits its time between the Motto McLean and Tranquility rinks. The club also skated at the Benson Ice Arena until heavy snow caused some of the roof to cave in.

Although there are about 175 club members, during an evening class at Motto McLean about 20 skaters were using the ice. Tyler and other instructors worked with one, then another.

Samantha Jackson, 9, comes to Omaha three times a week from her home in Missouri Valley, Iowa. She's working on a program to music from “Annie” for the coming Winter Festival skating competition.

“It's my favorite,” she said.

She likes skating because “it's something to do that's different.” Jumps, she said, are the hardest things to learn, but she thinks about her favorite skater, Michelle Kwan, and hopes to be just like her.

Platteview Junior High student Sara Hrabik, 13, said she started lessons at Mahoney State Park. Her coach there noticed she was doing well and thought she would like to try private lessons. She recommended Jason Dilworth of Blade & Edge.

Sara said she is happy with the change and is looking forward to the Winter Festival competition. It won't be her first. She has gone as far as Minnesota and Colorado Springs, Colo., for competitions.

Her dream: She wants to go to the Olympics someday.

Also on the ice, and standing out like a horse in a pen full of ducks, is the only male skater.

David Festner, 18, a senior at Millard West High School, said he has been skating since he was 5. It doesn't bother him at all to be outnumbered by so many girls. He thinks there are two or three other guys in the club.

He likes to compete and plans to continue with his skating after he goes to college. He is one of the junior instructors for the club and sees coaching skating in his future.

His coach, Tyler, said she likes to see her skaters get enthusiastic about the sport. “They start out in Learn to Skate, and then they get bitten by the skating bug,” she said.

* * *

There is an undefinable difference between the skaters of the two other clubs and those who are members of the Premier Figure Skating Club.

Maybe it comes from Mantsorov, a product of the old Soviet figure skating system. He is from Ukraine, and he still has contacts in that elite skating community who mentor him. But when the Soviet system fell apart and being a skater became more difficult there, he, like many others, turned to the United States. After he got his green card, he and his wife looked for a place outside the biggest U.S. cities. They settled on Omaha.

Right now the club has only 27 members — although there are 110 students in his winter classes. Mantsorov wants the club to grow.

While he wants all his students to find joy in skating, he also is serious about helping talented skaters move on to important competitions. Several of his early students went on to junior national competitions, but now he is working with a new generation of young skaters to get some of them to that level.

On a recent evening, one of his instructors, Irene Pullum, led five girls in a class of stretching and ballet off the ice. They looked like Gumbys, twisting their bodies into impossible poses. “Can't,” “don't” and “no” are forbidden words, they say.

The five look like stairsteps. Dorothy Szto, 9, is a little pixie, only about half as tall as her 13-year-old classmate Sajya Singh. Dorothy has been skating for five years; Sajya for nine.

Dorothy wants to go to the Olympics someday. She loves jumping. Sajya likes footwork, but it's hard, she said.

All five have learned the same way, Mantsorov's way: “Completely master the basics and the harder stuff will come.”

Pullum, who attends Dana College and was fourth in the collegiate nationals this year, said she likes passing on what she has learned.

“I want to make the next generation better than me.”

Mantsorov said the economy has had an effect on his skaters. Many youngsters don't go beyond Learn to Skate because of the cost. A promising young male skater in the club had to quit competing last year because he couldn't afford it any longer. Sponsors, who could help the skaters' families with the financial burden, have become hard to find.

But Mantsorov remains positive. He thinks things will turn around.

“You get addicted,” he said. “Skating is fun. I want to share that fun. I want my students to know that everything is possible.”

Contact the writer:

444-1067, carol.bicak@owh.com

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