July 17, 2005

It’s been a while since I have added any news to my web site journal, so I will begin with my first experiences since Jr. Worlds. While I was at Jr. Worlds, Dr. Kruse, the U.S. team physician spoke to me concerning a boot change. I had been struggling with enlarged bursas near my ankle for almost a year and a half, and he suggested that I should give the new Jackson hinge boots a try. For me to try a new boot would be a drastic change, since I have been in the same brand of boot my entire skating career, and a boot with hinges would be even more drastic! I decided to give them a try, including the new removable matrix blades (I was using another blade before this). Within the first hour of adjusting to the boots and blades, I was able to do triple flips, triple lutzes, and triple loops. I gave myself four weeks to decide whether I wanted to use them this season. I have been in them since then and really like them. My sister has also been using them for about four weeks and doesn’t want to go back to her other boots.

Jr. Worlds was finally the end of my season! I began my search for new music, took a break from training my programs, and tried to prepare for a few ice shows that I was scheduled to do. Amber choreographed a program for me to use in the ice shows. My first show was in Troy, Ohio; the second, in Bowling Green, Ohio; the third, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and the last one in Columbus, Ohio.

My first show this spring was in Troy, Ohio. Jordan Brauninger and I were the guest skaters for that show, and we each did two solo numbers. I enjoyed skating in Troy; I had just competed Collegiate Nationals there less than eight months before that, and I also used to do their summer competition when I was younger.

Bowling Green has their ice show every two years. They have the most elaborate props of any show I have seen. This one was no different. The show director this year was my first coach, Shelly Bressler, and the theme for their junior club show was “Peter Pan”, complete with the pirate ship and masts. Some of the past guest skaters they’ve had included: Liz Manley, Paul Wylie, Renee Roca and Gorsha Sur, Kitty and Peter Carruthers, and of course Scott Hamilton. This year Michael Weiss came, and as in the past show, Melissa Telecky, my sister Amber, and I were also guest skaters. The three of us train together in Detroit, but it’s fun to be home to skate for the show, and be around all of the young skaters and old friends. After the last show, we all gave skating demonstrations to the other skaters that were in the show. One of the skaters asked Michael Weiss to show us a “tornado,” which I had never seen. It is a back flip with a twist in the air. I’m not sure if I will ever see anyone do that stunt again!

Spring semester finals week at BGSU was my next “big” event. I was planning to take a few summer classes to ease my school workload for fall, but I needed a little bit of an academic break. Actually, I am staying in Michigan this summer, and the class schedule wasn’t going to work out while I was training in a different state! Instead, I decided to study some on my own, and work on learning some Russian before fall.

Memorial Day weekend, my coach Theresa McKendry and I went to the PSA conference to help Dan Nicholson with the Jackson “hinge” skate boot demonstration. The other skaters demonstrating were Shantel Jordan and Jeremy Barrett. Dan put each of us in a new pair of boots that day; we warmed up a few minute on the ice, and I demonstrated some triple lutzes and some spins. One nice thing about the boots is that there is virtually no break-in time. Theresa and I also spoke to some of the judges about the new judging system in preparation for choreographing my new long program, and then we did a little shopping in Denver before heading back to Michigan.

My third show this spring was at my home club, the Detroit Skating Club. There were five performances, Thursday through Sunday. Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen skated a pair number together on Thursday evening, and Dan Hollander also performed his “Richard Simmons” number for each of the shows. By the Sunday afternoon show, all of the skaters were a little tired, but it’s also the show that the director knows some pranks will take place. The funniest prank was during a number that some of the guys did for the show. They borrowed some of the girls’ purple wigs and during the second half of their performance they came out from backstage wearing the wigs and finished the number. Ironically, the purple wigs coordinated well with their costumes. The finale was a fun number; all of the skaters, including the guest skaters, had on red, white, and blue cowboy costumes and hats-over 150 of us on the ice for one number.

The following day our summer skating schedule started, and by the end of that week I was ready for a Saturday break. On that Sunday, some of the other competitors and I helped demonstrate our different skating skills for the new judging system seminar that was being held at our club.

My last show was on my birthday; it was the fundraiser “Skate for Hope” in Columbus, Ohio. Carolyn Bongirno, the director, asked Amber and I to perform in this show, along with Parker and Colin Pennington, Emily Hughes, Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin, Jennifer Needham-Wahl, and Ellen Zurfluh and Lester Ascher, the adult national pairs silver medalists. This show raises funds for breast cancer research, and I believe this year it raised about $25,000. Amber and I were very honored to be a part of this show.

My next event will be Skate Detroit, and I am busy training and preparing my new programs for this competition season. I hope you are all having a great summer, and thank you for visiting my web site.

Alissa