SECTIONALS AND REGIONALS (Chapter 34)

They were a little nervous. They didn’t expect to be, but they were.

It was, after all, their very first competition. For all their blather about not taking it seriously, they did want to skate well. Placements really weren’t all that important. They though they’d like to make it to sectionals, which would take a top 4 finish out of the 7 teams competing. Outside of that, though, they skated for fun. Even so, they wanted to skate clean and skate well.

All of their family members would attend the free dance, but they couldn’t make it to all the stages. Sophia’s mom made it out to compulsories, and Warren’s dad was able to attend the Original Dance. They were very happy with second place finishes in both stages.

"I told you guys you were good," June, their coach, was telling them.

"Yeah, but good isn’t always enough in ice dance," Warren replied.

"True, but that’s less so in juniors. Most of these couples are new, or new to juniors, so there isn’t quite the same pecking order."

"Yeah, but we’re totally new. I’m really surprised we are where we are," Sophia said.

"Well, be proud of yourselves. You’ve earned it. And the free dance is your strength, so anything can happen."

The free dance was on a Saturday morning. Brian and Michelle Daniels walked into the rink and found a good seat—Michelle wasn’t sure she would be able to come, but her parents were watching Briana and Katrina. She was glad, she wanted to come. She had grown very fond of Sophia, and was glad that Brian had reunited with her. It was kind of weird to have a 16-year-old stepdaughter—Michelle herself was only 29, seven years younger than Brian—but she also found that kind of neat, too. They had had some very nice talks when Sophia called, and she had been to visit a few times, now..

Brian, for his part, was nervous. Very nervous. He was sweating, and felt like he wanted to pace, but there really wasn’t any room for that.

"You OK?" Michelle asked him.

" I can not believe how nervous I am!"

The couple behind them laughed. Brian turned around. The woman said, "You must have a child skating."

Brian couldn’t help but smile. "My daughter."

The woman looked at him very closely, but wasn’t sure. "Your daughter?"

"Yeah. And we’ve just reunited after a very long estrangement. I know this is very important to her, and I’m very glad she asked me to come, after the problems we’ve had. But, boy, am I nervous."

"Long estrangement?" Then the woman smiled. "I thought I saw a family resemblance. You’ve got to be Sophia Daniels’ father."

Brian blinked, startled. "Yes, I am. You know Sophia?"

The woman cracked up laughing, and her husband said, "Oh, yes, we know Sophia, very well. I’m Jim Kelleher, and this is Peg."

Brian smiled broadly. "Warren’s parents!"

"Nice to meet you," Jim shook his hand, as did Peg. Brian introduced them both to Michelle.

"I’ve got to tell you both, I’ve very rarely met a young man who’s impressed me more than your son," Brian told them.

"Thank you very much," Peg said.

"I agree, He’s a wonderful kid," Michelle added. "I’ve got a three year old who is terrified of any male not named Daddy—she’s even a little scared of her grandfather—and Warren had her eating out of his hand within twenty seconds."

"Our son, the future pediatrician. He adores kids," Jim agreed.

The final group, the top four teams after the OD, were about ready to come out for the warm-up. Ellen had arrived, with Dan, and had sat with them. Brian had even offered to move, but Ellen laughed and told him to stay. They had a nice, pleasant chat about how nervous they were.

Warren and Sophia found skating and competing fun, and didn’t try to hide it. There were three dance teams on the ice putting their "game faces" on, and one team just plain having a ball. They were all smiles. They waved at their parents. The tried the footwork sequence they were having the most trouble with, did it perfectly, and were all grins.

They were third in the order. The team that was first after the OD skated first in the order, and skated well, but they weren’t unbeatable. The team in third fell. Then came Warren and Sophia.

The curse of theatricality in ice dance had spread to the Junior ranks. Most of the couples that had skated before them were over-theatrical—in music choices, costuming, movements, facial expressions, all of it. June had joked that the girl in the first place team had spent the entire free dance looking constipated and waving her arms about like she was signaling with flags.

So, when Warren and Sophia came out—to anyone in the crowd without a rooting interest, they were a definite breath of fresh air. Warren was actually wearing a tux, and Sophia had a long blue dress on, her hair up in a bun. Their music was the classic Big Band mix that they had played for Brian and Michelle, their dance holds and steps were plainly ballroom-derived, and—best of all—they danced the whole dance with huge grins on their faces. They made solid, loving eye contact with each other, something almost unheard of in ice dance, but it was affectionate and charming. They looked like what they were—two people madly in love with each other, dancing, not a care in the world. It was sweet and romantic. The middle section—the part to Moonlight Serenade—especially, and then they danced up a storm to the Opus One ending, handling the tricky footwork with no problem.

The crowd ate it up with a spoon. When they hit their closing pose, the small crowd made enough noise to fill a huge arena. Warren and Sophia took their bows, grinning at the applause like little kids on Christmas morning, and scooped up all the flowers—and the teddy bear from Brian—that were thrown on the ice.

Junior competitions at Regionals were closed judging. There were no scores or standings read or displayed in the arena. Nobody would know the placements until shortly after the end of the competition, when they would be posted. Warren and Sophia—and June—knew they had won the crowd, big time, but they also knew that winning the crowd was not the same as winning the judges. And their dance was so different from the prevailing theatrical style that all bets were off.

It took almost a half hour for the results to be posted. The wait was interminable, as Warren and Sophia, with all their parents, hung around the area where the results were posted. Finally, they saw a competition official appear with a piece of paper, which she hung up. A knot of people quickly grew around her, and Sophia dove into the crowd—Warren was further away, so Sophia pushed her way through the crowd and got to the posted results first.

"Oh my God, Warren, we WON!!!!!!!!!"

The top four finishers from Regionals went on to compete at Eastern Sectionals, along with the similar finishers from two other regions. This year, the Eastern Sectionals were in New Jersey.

The top four finishers from Sectionals would make it to the National Championships. Sophia and Warren didn’t expect to make it there, not in their first try. Sectionals was their goal, and, having met that goal, Sectionals was just a vacation. They skated, they had a blast. They figured this was it. They didn’t think they had a chance at top four—and certainly didn’t think they had any chance to win Sectionals.

In fact, they still didn’t believe it, as they stood on the top step of the podium with the Junior Sectionals Gold Medals in Ice Dance around their neck.

When Warren got home the next day, he quickly ran to his computer. He opened his-email program, and entered in the addresses for Elizabeth Cushman, Jack Garrison, Christine Arsenault, and Andrea Wallach, his four best internet skating friends. They were all competing internationally this fall so had byes to Nationals. He sent this note to all of them:

"Hello, guys. It looks like that Sophia and I will finally be able to meet all of you in person, after all this time of emails, IM’s, and phone calls. We will be able to meet, in Chicago, IL, during the week of January 8^th—because this E-mail is coming to you from one half of the Eastern Sectionals Junior Ice Dance GOLD MEDALISTS. SEE YOU AT NATIONALS, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

His screen lit up with 4 excited IM’s within ten minutes.

Sophia handled the mailing list. One of the stalwarts on the mailing list was Penny Loring, a knowledgeable Skatefan from Texas known for being a die-hard Liz Cushman fan. She was also one of Warren and Sophia's favorite people on the list. Penny had sent out a post.

"Hey, I was just thinking, as I read the results from New Jersey. Is the Warren and Sophia that post here the same Warren and Sophia that just won Junior Dance at Easterns?"

Sophia quoted Penny’s post, and replied.

"Well, Penny, don’t jump to conclusions. There’s got to be tons of ice dance teams with people named Warren and Sophia, right?

So……who’s going to CHICAGO?

Sophia Daniels,

Champion, Eastern Sectionals Junior Ice Dance <G>"

Both of their e-mail boxes were very full, very quickly