{"id":1075,"date":"2003-09-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-09-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/2003\/09\/01\/michelle-scott-a-alex-clark\/"},"modified":"2003-09-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2003-09-01T00:00:00","slug":"michelle-scott-a-alex-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/michelle-scott-a-alex-clark\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Scott & Alex Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article by Karen Frank.<\/p>\n

\"int-scott-clark\"Just over six years ago, Michelle Scott attended her brother\u2019s hockey practice, and wandered over to another rink. After watching the figure skaters on that rink, nine-year old Michelle was hooked. \u201cI quickly ran to my dad and told him I wanted to do that,\u201d 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. \u201cThe first time I was on the ice I knew it, it just felt so right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Both skaters credit Romanova and Yaroshenko as a great influence on their skating career thus far. \u201cMy coaches are Two-Time Olympians, they push me to do my best and they use some of their own experiences to teach,\u201d Michelle said. Alex agrees. \u201cThey push us to become better skaters.\u201d Also, their families are large parts of their lives. \u201cMy 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,\u201d said Michelle. Alex also names his family in Michigan as his support system, \u201cmy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201cAt Lake Placid our performance wasn’t our best but it was a good way to start the season,\u201d 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). \u201cI am disappointed by how we skated in Thornhill,\u201d Alex said. Michelle added, \u201cI think we, as well as all the other competitors, got thrown off by ” \u2018the Black Out\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201cI play the card game ‘Magic: The Gathering’ and I also enjoy playing video games,\u201d Alex says about his off-ice time, while Michelle spends her free time, \u201changing out with friends, going to school, dancing, and talking on the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

But with long term goals that include skating \u201cwell in all competitions and compete at worlds and Olympics \u2013 basically to be successful,\u201d and goals for this season \u201cto do well at all competitions, get an international assignment, and make it to Nationals again,\u201d free time can be pretty hard to come by. \u201cMy friends, well some hate that I skate so much and don’t have time to spend with them,\u201d Michelle said, \u201cbut then there are others that are amazed at how dedicated I am.\u201d So dedicated, in fact, that skating will always be a part of her life \u2013 when she has finished her skating career, she wants \u201cto coach and have a family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Article by Karen Frank. Just over six years ago, Michelle Scott attended her brother\u2019s hockey practice, and wandered over to another rink. After watching the figure skaters on that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_gspb_post_css":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-interviews"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=300%2C177&ssl=1",300,177,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=768%2C454&ssl=1",768,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-post-main-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1",400,250,true],"et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=400%2C284&ssl=1",400,284,true],"et-pb-portfolio-module-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=510%2C382&ssl=1",510,382,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image-single":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=400%2C516&ssl=1",400,516,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Articles.jpg?resize=45%2C45&ssl=1",45,45,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Team IDC","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/author\/idcadmin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\u00a0 Article by Karen Frank. Just over six years ago, Michelle Scott attended her brother\u2019s hockey practice, and wandered over to another rink. After watching the figure skaters on that […]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-hl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}