On a day when the temperature is possibly colder outside the Richard Korpi Ice Rink behind Bayonne High School than inside, Danny Durak and Molly Massarelli work up a sweat, running through a three-minute figure skating routine that has already placed them third in Eastern Seaboard competitions and brought them an invitation to compete in a national competition on Dec. 19.
Danny and Molly will leave for Cleveland on Dec. 16 for a four-day trip that could result in their advancing even more than they did last year.
What does it take to win?
Dan gives a grin and says, “I was going to say by skating,” but then adds more seriously, “There’s always room for improvement.”
“There’s always room for improvement.” – Danny Durak
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Danny and Molly are building on a year of success since they went to Lake Placid in 2007 for the U.S. Figure Skating Association Junior National Championship tournament. Although the high school ice rink is home for the Bayonne High School hockey team – the Bayonne Bees – the rink also hosts a full range of ice-related activities open to Bayonne residents and non-Bayonne residents alike, including: open public skating sessions, learn to skate programs, and a variety of figure skating programs.
Molly, who is a sophomore this year, and Danny, who is a senior at Bayonne High School, will be performing their routine to an instrumental version of the Moody Blues’ song “Knights in White Satin,” a song both kids said they like.
Under the supervision of their coach, Danielle Sullivan, the kids started with two-hour-per-day training sessions, and still do 20-hour-a-week workouts to keep their routine finely tuned.
Figure skating is an athletic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level (senior), and at local, national, and international competitions.
Skaters qualify for the U.S. Junior Championships by finishing in the top four at one of nine regional championships held throughout the country in November. Past champions of the event include two-time world bronze medalist and two-time U.S. champion Evan Lysacek, as well as 2008 U.S. silver medalist ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White.
To earn their ranking, the duo had to compete against five other couples during a four-day competition, which also featured more than 300 skaters along the East Coast who sought rankings in a variety of other skating categories.
Pair skating teams consist of a woman and a man who develop routines that include jumps, lifts, pair spins, spirals, and other elements.
“Each routine has 11 elements,” Molly said.
Judges rank the skaters for technical merit, looking closely at the required elements in their program and overall presentation, giving marks from zero to six – with six being the highest in each.
This is the fourth year Molly and Danny have been competing and the second time in the intermediate level.
In the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships, the annual event crowns the U.S. champion in ladies, men, pairs, and ice dancing categories in the first two levels of the U.S. Figure Skating competitive structure: juvenile and intermediate.
U.S. Figure Skating is the official governing body for the sport of figure skating in the United States, recognized as such by both the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the International Skating Union (ISU). As the governing body, U.S. Figure Skating’s mission is to provide programs to encourage participation and achievement in the sport of figure skating.
Massarelli and Durak compete with the Skating Club of New York, but both said they started in the Bayonne Skating Club.