Hampden skater uses talent to teach

BANGOR – On a rainy evening in March, figure skaters of various ages and skills levels shoot from the sidelines onto Sawyer Arena’s skating rink. Performing in the fourth annual exhibition “Toepicks in Motion,” the members of Penobscot Figure Skaters circle the rink a few times and form into a line.

Suddenly a tall, slim, graceful young woman glides onto the ice. Dressed in white, arms in fluid motion, body arching with ease, bladed feet taking her through a series of glides and twirls, the young skater looks like a beautiful snowflake dancing in a gentle breeze. The smile on her face, and the ease and grace with which she moves, show this guest skater to be very much at home on ice.

The skater, Hampden’s Tessa McCue – who the next weekend, on April 5, won the Junior Ladies program at the Worcester Open in Massachusetts – started skating when she was almost 9, and it was her choice to do so.

“I just loved it,” said McCue, now 17.

Her first coach, the late Mary Tanis, put McCue on any available ice she could find, said her mother, Debra McCue. Tanis had told her, “There’s something special about Tessa and the ice.”

“Tessa’s first competition, she came home with four medals,” Debra McCue said.

Not everyone is able to perform under pressure, explained McCue’s current coach, Barbara Kossowska. Only a few can “produce in the moment,” she said. Some do well during practice, but do not do well during a performance. A skater has to be able to perform well during that four minutes, she said, adding that it’s “extremely hard.”

McCue’s schedule is full, beginning with skating from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at New England Sports Center in Marlboro, Mass., then a break for schoolwork. At 11:30 a.m. she warms up and is back on the ice at noon. For McCue, it adds up to about 18 hours a week on the ice – plus gym workouts, and sports psychology once a week. But she does get a little reprieve from her routine.

“Sunday is a down day for me,” McCue said, though she does a cardio workout then.

In addition to working out, McCue also watches her diet of healthy food several times a day, such as protein shakes, tuna, chicken, salads and eggs – even if she’s not especially hungry.

“It’s really not hard to eat right during the week,” McCue said, adding that weekends are harder.

McCue also teaches skating two nights a week to 5- to 14- year-olds. Teaching is something most skaters do, Kossowska said.

Because of her schedule, McCue is part of the American home-school system and does about three hours of homework daily. During the week she resides on her own in Massachusetts, where she gets tutored twice a week. Weekends she comes home to Maine and has a tutor for four hours. The rest of her schoolwork is done on her own.

There are eight levels of figure skating – beginner, pre-preliminary, preliminary, juvenile, intermediate, novice, junior ladies and senior ladies.

McCue, who also has had ballet training, is in the junior ladies division. She has passed the first portion of the two-part test for the senior ladies level, involving moves, edges and spins, which have to be “on the dime,” as her mother puts it.

One of the skills that separate the senior ladies from the juniors – and a part of the second portion of the exam for seniors – is the ability to do a triple axel. Other elements such as artistic ability also factor in.

“Tessa always scores high on the artistic,” Debra McCue said, adding that her daughter has competed against as many as 130 to 140 skaters at some events. At the senior level, there are only 10 or 12 women in all of New England competing.

McCue had surgery on her right knee in September 2001 for a condition known as Osgood Schlatters, which can result from rapid growth. The surgery kept her out of competition for 18 months, including a period during which she wore a cast to keep her leg straight and was instructed not to bend it under any circumstances.

McCue was very disciplined about her recovery and did as her doctor directed. Even while wearing a cast, her mother said, McCue was determined to exercise the rest of her body and keep in shape.

McCue recently skated in the Bay State Games in Massachusetts, an event Debra McCue compared to the Winter Olympics for that state. Last weekend, she won two programs at the Worcester Open.

McCue will be skating in a few more upcoming competitions, then in October compete in regionals. The top four in each division go on to the Easterns, and the top four there proceed to the nationals.

Only the 12 best perform at nationals, sponsored by the U.S. Figure Skating Association. Three are chosen to go on to the World Championships, and every four years to the Olympics. On March 29, American Michelle Kwan won her fifth world championship.

McCue is trying to see how far she can go. Both Debra McCue and Kossowska said that the more training McCue has and the more teaching she does, the more it will benefit her. McCue’s sponsor wants her to travel and be a part of championships in other areas – not necessarily to skate – but to be in the environment and experience the excitement.

On March 29, McCue and Kossowska offered a skating clinic at Sawyer Arena, providing group lessons to nearly 20 adults and children. Afterward, the children stayed for a while and practiced.

The pair hope to offer another clinic in Bangor next year. Kossowska said she’d like to help build more interest in skating in the area. Talented and hardworking children “can be found in any part of America,” Kossowska said.

For information on area figure skating, call Andrea Blunt at 862-6940 or Marge Adams at 843-7432.