Dreams on wheels

Top roller skaters bring their expertise to youths at Town 'N Country Skateworld.

By JANE BOKUN

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 14, 2000

TOWN 'N COUNTRY -- Shannon Zahniser describes the sport as "kind of like ice skating on wheels."

The 21-year-old nationally ranked artistic skater has been spinning, twirling and falling on the hard floors of roller skating rinks since she was 5 years old in Sarasota.

Now she and skating partner, Billy Parker, 24, coach more than a dozen children in artistic skating at Town 'N Country Skateworld on Paula Drive.

What they do is a lot like figure skating, Zahniser said. Skaters enter artistic events in one or more categories: singles, pairs, figures and dance skating. They are judged on content and manner of performance.

"There are the same jumps and arabesques, but there's a little more friction and it's a cheaper sport to learn," she said.

The Town 'N Country artistic skate team, officially called the Tampa Bay Artistic Skate Club, meets four times a week from 4 to 9 p.m. Monday and Tuesday; 4 to 7 p.m. Friday and 7:30 to 9 a.m. Saturday. There is a monthly practice fee of $35 for rink use and a $5 monthly fee for membership in the club. Students compete in local and national meets. Although it's a lot of roller skating for the children, who range from 3 to 19 years old, they don't seem to mind.

Team member Chelsea Ochinero, 12, said she roller skates three to five hours a day, six days a week. But despite the mall and homework time she may be missing, she remains upbeat.

"I study really late at night. This is my fun time," said Chelsea, who enters seventh grade this year at Davidson Middle School in Westchase. "I want to be as good as Billy and Shannon."

Parker and Zahniser, who live in Orlando, also attend the University of Central Florida, where Billy majors in computer engineering and Shannon in marine biology. Parker moved to Orlando from Chicago to follow his own artistic skating trainer. Both world-class pair skaters, the two have won awards nationally through the USA Roller Skating organization.

They support themselves by coaching, driving every week to the popular Town 'N Country rink.

Skateworld had lost a coach last January to another Tampa rink. Since Parker and Zahniser arrived, they have taken some team members to placements at a national competition in Lincoln, Neb.

Parker said there are more than 200 regional artistic skating competitions in the United States. Although artistic skating hasn't been accepted as an Olympic sport yet, Parker said, it is in the competition at the Pan American games each year.

"About the only thing that's hard is the jumps," said 11-year-old Lisa Taylor of Webb Middle School, who has been an artistic skater at Skateworld for the past three years.

Although 15-year-old Lauren Sharrock of Hillsborough High School has been an artistic skater for eight years, she said she still gets "extremely nervous" at the competitions. "But I never think I can't do it," she said.

And her teammates share her spirit.

"We had about six club members make it to the nationals last week," Parker said. "We've got a 2-year-old that we teach all the way up to a guy who's 98."

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