It’s hard enough for a lot of high school students to get up in the morning and be in homeroom before the morning bell sounds. Imagine rising at 2:30 a.m., driving to Boston, spending two hours in a cold ice rink, driving back to Maine and then going to school for a full day.
That’s the routine Saco’s Andrew Korda and Cape Elizabeth’s Una Donegan chose to endure in the months leading up to the New England Regional figure skating championships.
Ice dancing teams typically begin preparing a particular season’s program in February, but Korda, a sophomore at Thornton Academy, and Donegan, a freshman at Cape, didn’t get together until June. That meant the rush was on if they were going to be ready for the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships, which were held Aug. 2-6.
No problem. Korda and Donegan have been friends for a seven years, and their chemistry showed on the ice as they placed fourth in the intermediate division.
Soon after Lake Placid, though, they decided to switch to a more competitive free dance for the New England regionals (Oct. 18-22). That was when the real scrambling began.
By that point, the pair was already heading to Boston three or four times a week – on the recommendation of their Maine coach, Lynda Hathaway – to work with former junior national champion Justin Pekarek. But school hadn’t started yet, so it was manageable.
When classes did begin, the number of weekly trips down I-95 decreased, but now there were other things – like homework – mixed into the equation.
“It was crazy,” said Korda.
Added Donegan: “We only finished (the new dance program) like a week before regionals.”
Once again, though, all of the last-minute preparations paid off for the pair. They finished third at the regionals and qualified for the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships, which were held in Colorado Nov. 30-Dec. 3.
The limited training time together – as well as the high altitude – ultimately caught up with Korda and Donegan, though, as they finished ninth in the qualifying round.
“We had a very bad skate,” said Donegan. “So next year we’ll aim to get out of qualifying and hopefully just skate our best.”
Yes, the duo are already thinking about next year’s schedule.
“They’re incredibly committed,” said Hathaway, who still works with the skaters when they’re training in Maine. “They’re a great fit. They have a really great relationship intellectually. They understand each other. They’re at that age where they’re very comfortable with who they are and what each of them brings to the table.
“They get it instantly. They’re both very bright. Una came to this able to ice dance and had solo ice danced and had done pairs, but for Andrew it was a great joy just to immediately come into synch with somebody.”
Both Korda, 16, and Donegan, 15, began skating when they were five years old. As they got older, their passion for the sport grew stronger.
“You see eight-year-olds doing these huge jumps and they skate every day for hours and then they just don’t enjoy it anymore,” said Donegan. “I was never forced to skate.”
“I wasn’t forced to skate either,”added Korda, “so it wasn’t a big deal. If I wanted to stop I could’ve, but I didn’t.”
When he was in sixth grade, some of Korda’s classmates tried to recruit him to play hockey, but he resisted.
“It was not something I was really interested in,” he said.
Around the same time, Korda began skating with his now former partner. They stayed together for four years, but split up this past spring.
“You need to have the chemistry and we had some at first, but it just kind of fizzled out,” Korda said.
Donegan, meanwhile, had been skating pairs, but she and her former partner decided to call it quits after one season together.
“We’re really good friends, but we were doing throws and stuff and it got kind of scary,” said Donegan.
The ice-dancing chemistry was there from the get-go with Korda.
“It helped a lot because we knew each other, and we kind of had a feel for each other’s personality and what makes them tick or whatever,” said Korda.
During competitions, the skaters keep things light by telling jokes, laughing during messed up routines and even singing songs to each other.
Just as important as the chemistry they found with each other, though, was the shared passion they found. Both Korda and Donegan plan on sticking to the national figure skating track for as long as possible. And the parents for both skaters plan on supporting the pair for as long as they want and need support.
Maura Donegan, Una’s mother, was the one mostly responsible for getting the kids to and from Boston. When asked if she minded the four hours of driving, Donegan said, “Not at all, not as long as the kids have a passion.”
Jon Korda, Andrew’s dad, feels the same way.
“As long as he shows the ambition and is willing to do it, we’ll do it to where we feel we can keep it in perspective. But we’ll go a little bit beyond that if we need to encourage his dreams.”
Right now, the dream for both skaters is to improve upon this past season’s showing at the regionals and nationals – a realistic goal considering they’ll have four more months training together in 2006 than they had this year.
Over the course of the next month they will start developing a new program with Pekarek. They have some off-ice training planned as well: pilates classes and, depending on what kind of dance they choose, maybe some ballroom classes as well.
So, is it all worth it? The off-ice training? The early-morning treks to Boston?
“Absolutely,” said Korda.
“I really love it,” Donegan said. “It’s so much fun.”
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