Notebook: Father, son find the art to roller skating
The story of Sean Scace's roller-skating success begins in the late 1980s, when his father lay in a bed at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, paralyzed from the neck down after a car accident.
Kelley Scace, hoping he wouldn't die, settled on some things he would do if he ever escaped his predicament: skydiving, climbing Mount Rainier and roller skating, the last of which he had enjoyed as a kid. The weeks passed. The neck healed. A giddy Kelley Scace jumped out of an airplane.
While he never got around to Rainier, he did find his skates. And a childhood hobby turned into years of practice, which eventually turned into a first-place finish among all adult amateurs at the 2002 national artistic roller-skating championship in Lincoln, Neb.
Sean Scace, a 17-year-old junior at Meadowdale High School in Lynnwood, remembers attending the competition, absorbing the atmosphere and feeling inspired by his dad's performance.
"I got really pumped," says Sean, who until then had preferred the in-line skates he wore to play street hockey while growing up in Arizona.
So he practiced, too. This time on roller skates. Five, six times a week, several hours a day, alongside his dad.
This summer in Lincoln, after breezing through the seven-state regionals in Oregon, Sean qualified for the junior amateur category and won his own national championship.
"People who don't know me very well don't really take me seriously," says Sean, who also runs cross-country and track at Meadowdale. "But my friends and family think it's pretty cool that I'm doing such a unique sport.
"I took a national title. I mean, not too many people get to say that."
Artistic roller skating is the much-less-publicized, much-less-appreciated relative of ice skating. Sean's coach, Donna Ely, says it had its heyday in the 1970s and '80s, when it came closest to becoming an Olympic sport.
Most of the terminology is similar to ice skating. Many of the moves are related. And contestants wear costumes, put on makeup and accompany their routines with music.
World championships are held every year — last year in Argentina, this year in California and next year in Italy.
"There's this skating community that you really don't know about until you go to a meet and you realize there's a lot of people involved with this," says Kelley Scace, a computer network engineer in Woodinville. "They put serious money into it. They put serious time into it."
One of the biggest differences is the weight of the skates. The four wheels and the metal plate on a roller skate are much heavier than the single blade on an ice skate. Jumps are more difficult because it's harder to get off the ground, although some world-class roller skaters can turn three revolutions in the air.
Sean explains all this on a Sunday night at the Lynnwood Roll-A-Way, a little public rink tucked behind a bowling alley just off Highway 99.
Inside, video-game machines whir and an organ rendition of Celine Dion's love theme from the movie "Titanic" tinkles out of the speakers.
On the floor, Sean skates alongside his dad and two of his three siblings, Heather and Kyle. It's bonding time for them before dinner.
Ely, their coach, is working with an elderly man nearby. A few other people roll round and round.
The Scaces jump, spin, skip, pose. They slide backward, weaving their legs in figure-eights, their arms spread wide to increase their speed. Wheels squeak and squiggle and skid.
Sean, who stands 5 feet 6 and weighs about 120 pounds, concentrates on his posture. Chest out, torso straight, back arched.
He shows off the jumps he landed for his national-championship routine, which he set to a rock-medley soundtrack that begins and ends with Europe's "The Final Countdown."
He almost falls. "He's very famous for his falls, his catastrophic-looking falls," Ely says.
His father watches.
"He plugged in ... and it was actually surprising to me how dedicated he was," Kelley Scace says later. "It was one of those parent moments, where I was proud of him for sticking with it and succeeding."
Snohomish wins in Hawaii
Snohomish High School's boys and girls cross-country teams displayed their depth as each took first place Saturday at the Iolani Invitational on Oahu, Hawaii, defeating more than 40 schools from around the country.
The meet featured high-powered squads from California, Washington, Hawaii and Virginia.
Four Snohomish girls placed in the top 15, led by junior Amanda Stopa, who took fifth out of 179 competitors. She ran the 5-kilometer course in 20 minutes, 20.37 seconds.
Senior Alyssa Modrell finished eighth, sophomore Kara Sporrong 11th and freshman Ellie Bonner, 15th. Bonner was the only ninth-grader among the top 25 girls.
All seven Snohomish boys runners placed in the top 24, led by senior Bobby Carlson, whose 17:46.85 time put him fourth out of 166.
Senior Marcus Bastian finished 11th, junior Andrew Glebe 12th, senior Cale McCulloch 16th, junior Steve Mason 17th, senior Kyle Francis 23rd, and junior John Pedack 24th.
Arlington streak ends
Lynnwood football's state-worst 41-game losing streak might be more publicized, but Arlington's boys tennis suffered an equally painful period of disappointment.
Until Friday. The Eagles, who hadn't won a meet in five years, beat Oak Harbor 5-2.
Arlington tennis coach Ben Mendro, who is in his third year, said the school has never had a tennis culture.
He said many students didn't even know the school offered tennis because until this fall, the team practiced and hosted home meets off campus. The school built more courts this summer.
Mendro credits Jared Checkeye, Kenny Davidson, Chris Ennis, Mitch Yunker, Luke Fletcher and Andrew Clark — a group of seniors and juniors who "got hammered every match last year but stuck it out."
Alas, reality set in Monday. "We came right back down to Earth," Mendro said. "We got thrashed against Cascade."
Around the county
• Arlington junior running back Jake Webb, who rushed 23 times for 117 yards and a touchdown in Friday's 26-7 win over Lake Stevens, credits a big part of his team's surprising 3-0 start to the school's new weight room.
"We just took advantage of it," Webb said of an intense summer workout program. "Everyone was so dedicated, running every day after we lifted. It really prepared us."
Coach John Boitano said he had durability and injury concerns after last season, when the Eagles won just two games, so he and his staff established specific weightlifting goals for every player.
If Arlington gets by 0-3 Mount Vernon on Friday and undefeated Stanwood beats opponent Kentwood, that would set up a WesCo North Division showdown Oct. 1 between two 4-0 teams, at Arlington's homecoming no less.
• Archbishop Murphy High School will play its first home night football game Friday at 7.
With the help of parent volunteers and community donors, the private school near Mill Creek built a press box and installed light poles this summer.
Friday's game against Cedarcrest also marks Archbishop Murphy's first game in the Cascade Conference. The Wildcats moved up from Class 1A to the newly created 2A/3A conference this school year.
Two years ago, the school scheduled home games at Everett Memorial Stadium. Last year, the team played home games Saturday afternoons.
Michael Ko: 206-515-5653 or mko@seattletimes.com