Monday, August 07, 2000
Teen skater laces up for contest on ice
By Ray Schaefer
Enquirer Contributor
CRESCENT SPRINGS — While most of Northern Kentucky sweats in August's heat, Ben Woolwine chills out by putting on a pair of ice skates.
The 16-year-old from Fort Wright does way more than counterclockwise loops around the ice.
He's good enough to be part of the U.S. Figure Skating Association team that will compete against a squad of Canadians in the North American Challenge beginning Thursdayin Toronto.
And he dares you to say figure skating is easy.
“People think anybody can do this,” Ben said. “You can't.”
Ben trains nearly 45 hours a week at the Northern Kentucky Ice Center on Anderson Road, and he is hardly nervous going into this week.
“I can do everything in the program,” he said.
Olympic skaters such as Scott Hamilton and Kristi Yamaguchi often strap on their skates for the first time as young as age 3. Ben waited until the age of 10 to try skating with some friends.
“I just followed them,” Ben said. “I didn't have any trouble.”
His two coaches, Ted Masdea and Stephanie Miller, saw potential during a group lesson.
“He showed an interest in skating, and he showed balance,” Mr. Masdea said. “He wanted to learn.”
Ben wasn't sure he had the talent to go very far until a competition in Troy, Ohio, three years ago. He hit his first double axel, which required him to take off and land on the outside edge of his left skate blade with two revolutions in between.
“Once you get past double axel, you know you've accomplished something,” he said.
Ben's training starts at
6:30 a.m. Mondays through Fridays. In between the three sessions on the ice are stretching and jumping classes, and weight lifting.
It's a routine he likes. His parents, Millie and Mike Woolwine, home-school him, and he doesn't miss Dixie Heights High, where he would have been a junior.
At home, Ben is almost a mom's dream — he says his room is usually spotless.
But a perfectionist attitude sometimes causes Ben trouble on the ice. He said he beats himself up mentally if his jumps are even a little bit wrong.
“I used to do it a lot, but not so much anymore,” the teen said.
Ben earned his trip to Toronto in the Intermediate Men's division by finishing second in a competition in March in Amherst, N.Y. He may not be ready for the Olympics, but he routinely hits triple jumps.
“The next big thing is a triple axel,” Ben said. “It's 31/2 revolutions. It's the hardest triple you can do.”
Mr. Masdea and Ms. Miller say Ben has a shot at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, if he works for it. Ben says the USFSA Senior Nationals in 2002 is more realistic. “There are thoughts (of the Olympics),” Ben says. “But that's a little too far to think about.”
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