Michelle Scott & Alex Clark
Article by Karen Frank.
Just over six years ago, Michelle Scott attended her brother’s hockey practice, and wandered over to another rink. After watching the figure skaters on that rink, nine-year old Michelle was hooked. “I quickly ran to my dad and told him I wanted to do that,” Michelle, now fifteen, recalled. For Michelle, skating was never just a hobby; her goal to skate competitively was formed as soon as she stepped onto the ice. “The first time I was on the ice I knew it, it just felt so right.”
Meanwhile, twenty-one year old Alex Clark began his skating career as a hockey player. When he was twelve, he switched to figure skating, and at the suggestion of his coach, began ice dancing competitively, partnering first his sister De Anna (from 1996-1999) and then Melissa Kamin (from 2000-2001).
An Internet search brought the two of them together, and after a successful tryout, Alex moved from Michigan to Delaware to train at the Skating Club of Wilmington under the guidance of coaches Irina Romanov and Igor Yaroshenko. Alex is Michelle’s first partner, but already their partnership has met with success. In the 2002-2003 season, Scott and Clark finished second at Eastern Sectionals to qualify for Nationals. Their subsequent ninth place finish in Novice qualified them for an assignment in the North American Challenge series this summer.
Both skaters credit Romanova and Yaroshenko as a great influence on their skating career thus far. “My coaches are Two-Time Olympians, they push me to do my best and they use some of their own experiences to teach,” Michelle said. Alex agrees. “They push us to become better skaters.” Also, their families are large parts of their lives. “My family supports me the most, they are so awesome and are always there for me. My mom, Liz is the one who drives me everywhere, my dad, Gary Sr. does the work to pay for my skating, and my brother Gary and sister, Stephanie, support me so much,” said Michelle. Alex also names his family in Michigan as his support system, “my mom Susan Musser, my dad John, my brother Dustin, and my sister De Anna. . . they are very supportive of me on and off of the ice.”
Since 2003 Nationals, the team has moved up to Juniors, using the Lake Placid International Ice Dance competition to try out their new programs on the junior level. “At Lake Placid our performance wasn’t our best but it was a good way to start the season,” Michelle said (the team finished sixth in their Free Dance group and tenth in the original dance). Two weeks later the team competed at the Thornhill, Ontario NAC (finishing fifth in novice ice dance). “I am disappointed by how we skated in Thornhill,” Alex said. Michelle added, “I think we, as well as all the other competitors, got thrown off by ” ‘the Black Out’.”
At both competitions, their new free dance generated a bit of spectator buzz with their creative costumes and the music by the Russian band t.A.T.u. It was Michelle who discovered the music. “I heard the music on the radio and I loved it, so I brought it to Irina and said could we maybe use this, and so we did.”
Aside from skating, Michelle and Alex have busy academic lives. Michelle is a sophomore at Timber Creek High School and Alex is a senior Mathematics major at the University of Delaware. “I play the card game ‘Magic: The Gathering’ and I also enjoy playing video games,” Alex says about his off-ice time, while Michelle spends her free time, “hanging out with friends, going to school, dancing, and talking on the phone.”
But with long term goals that include skating “well in all competitions and compete at worlds and Olympics – basically to be successful,” and goals for this season “to do well at all competitions, get an international assignment, and make it to Nationals again,” free time can be pretty hard to come by. “My friends, well some hate that I skate so much and don’t have time to spend with them,” Michelle said, “but then there are others that are amazed at how dedicated I am.” So dedicated, in fact, that skating will always be a part of her life – when she has finished her skating career, she wants “to coach and have a family.”