Local Town Pages www.millismedwaynews.com
Page 2
February 1, 2011
12-YEAR-OLD SKATER continued from page 1
Felicia Wessenberg, Megan’s Mom a hospital pharmacist. “She used to try to do elements that she saw other skaters doing that she wasn’t really ready to try yet.” Like many children, Megan began skating lessons, along with other activities such as gymnastics and ballet classes, when she was young. At about age seven, she became more focused on just skating, says Felicia, who says Megan knew before her parents did that she “wanted only skating.” According to her mother, she started skating in Norfolk with Coach Teri Onorato. When Megan started getting more serious about skating, Ono-
I
rato introduced the family to the Colonial Figure Skating Club in Boxboro, where Debi Leeming now coaches Megan. Now that she’s twelve, Megan’s schedule is a lot more rigorous. The seventh grader, who commutes from Medway to Ursuline Academy five days a week, is already gaining time management skills. “I skate 6 days a week, every day but Sunday,” says Megan, who spends a lot of time at Colonial Figure Skating Club in Boxboro. “Like, usually during the weekday like 2-3 hours maybe, but then on Saturdays I skate for 4 hours.” She adds, matter-of-factly, “and then there’s off-ice ballet and off ice strength conditioning.” Megan points out that in order for a skater to be good, she must be very
My Customers Valentine’s Day Sale!
20% Store Wide Sale
strong, so both the ballet and strength conditioning help with that. How does she learn the routine she performs? “I have a lesson with a choreographer, and we have a 45 minute lesson each week. It depends on how long your program is…so it’s usually like 3 lessons or 4 lessons to piece it together, but then I have a lesson every week and we fix it up and work on it and change stuff.
between the first and the twelfth wasn’t even that many points.” She did say that her routine “was harder to do in front of the judges, because they’re judging everything that you do.” Her coach had her get to the competition an hour ahead to stretch and advised her to approach the competition as if it were a practice. Megan, who was recently asked to perform on January 22 at the opening of a new skating rink at Faneuil Hall in Boston, says that her favorite part of skating is learning all of the jumps. In fact, Megan had the second highest jump element at nationals –a 3-jump combination of double lutz, double toe loop, and then double loop.
At nationals, Wessenberg skated to “Harem,” by Sarah Brightman. She says that both her choreographer, Beth Duxbury and Coach Twelve-year-old Megan Wessenberg qualifed for Leeming helped her the Junior National Championships when she took “You just have to work on come up with the music, fourth place in her NE division. putting them together,” says although they definitely Megan was very pleased with her Megan, “I just take it one step at a take her opinion into considera- final result, noting, “the difference time.” tion.
ALL thru the month of February!
Jerry’s Toy Store Puzzles, Games & More!
FREE Gift Wrap!! 508-533-3861 74 Main Street, Medway Open Mon-Sat 10-6
www.jerrystoystore.com
JUST IN CASE BEING 96% REFERRED isn’t quite enough. CLEANING HOUSES, NOT WALLETS.
www.villcab.com Local Service Factory Direct Pricing At the Medway Mill 165 Main St., Suite 107 Medway, MA 02053
508-533-8555
There’s nothing like getting a sweet deal from the best cleaning service on the planet. But what else can you expect from a company that comes as highly recommended as The Maids?
Call now to receive a free, no-obligation estimate
508-533-5350 www.THEMAIDSMEDWAY.com Referred for a reason.