Looking to make it big

PORTLAND – The venue has the safe feeling of home, dank and dreary Pacific Northwest skies making for light-deprived days. The programs are as familiar as a pair of broken-in skates.

But to Kalie Budvarson and Chris Anders, they’re not at Planet Ice anymore.

This is the 2005 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships, where the Coeur d’Alene pair from the Inland Northwest Figure Skating Club will compete against the nation’s other top 11 novice pairs. The pairs’ 2½-minute short programs will be skated today; the long programs will follow Monday at Memorial Coliseum. The competition – in particular, the theatrical, crowd-pleasing senior men’s and women’s events – are being staged at the Rose Garden, which is in the same sports complex.

Spokane will play host to the event in 2007.

“This is much different,” Budvarson said about skating in her first national championships. “We’re already in competition mode. You don’t want to explore the sites until we’re done. It’s strictly business, but it’s exciting business.”

Anders, 19, and Budvarson, 18, began their work day at 7 a.m. Saturday as part of the first practice group. With coach Karin Kunzle-Watson watching rink-side, the two were back for the afternoon practice.

“They were great, excellent. It’s good stuff,” said Kunzle-Watson, a former nine-time Swiss national champion and Olympic pairs skater. “This is not their first competition. They’ve done this a few times.”

Anders and Budvarson bring a refreshing innocence to a sport that requires costumes rather than uniforms and is heavy on glitter and void of eye-black grease. Both were born in Coeur d’Alene, where the closest indoor rink is across the state line at Planet Ice in the Spokane Valley. Anders graduated from Coeur d’Alene High in 2002. Budvarson is a 2004 Lake City High graduate.

They grew up buddies, a result of their parents’ friendships. Jay and Marilyn Anders and Mike and Teresa Budvarson all work full time. Shelling out $500 for boots and blades and spending hundreds of dollars on ice time, despite the rink’s generosity, continues to put a significant dent in the parents’ budgets.

Even with their demanding practice schedule of 15 to 20 hours of on-ice and about 15 hours of off-ice practice, Anders and Budvarson are full-time students at North Idaho College. They also have part-time jobs.

“We met on the lake,” said Kalie’s mother, Teresa Budvarson, a Lakeland High School graduate. “We’d stop, pull over, talk. When you have little kids, you see each other here and there and your lives intertwine.”

Anders, the elder of two children, got hooked on choir and theater when he was younger. When he performed in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” the Budvarsons were there to watch. Budvarson, the younger of two children, got into figure skating first. As a preteen, she spent hours at Go Cart Family Fun, which is no longer in business. She also practiced at the indoor rink at Liberty Lake, which also is no longer there. But that didn’t stop her.

“I knew she loved it,” Teresa Budvarson said. “There was a period of time when she said, ‘Oh, this is a lot of work, but I love it.’ When I wanted her to take a break, she said, ‘No, I can’t.’ That’s when I knew she was in it for the long haul.”

She began local competition as a singles skater. Anders and his sister Erin, now 15, would watch. Soon, they wanted to try.

“I put the kids in rental skates and they really enjoyed it,” Marilyn Anders said.

Anders liked skating so much, by the time he was 13, he, too, began competing at small contests.

Skating as a pair came natural to the childhood friends. Just two years and three months ago, Anders and Budvarson started experimenting with lifts and spins. Kunzle-Watson, who also coached them in singles, immediately saw potential. They surprised their parents by performing a pairs program at the 2002 Christmas show at Planet Ice.

“It was good,” Teresa Budvarson recalled. “I thought ‘Wow. OK. They can do this.’ “

They’ve been lifting their game ever since.

Last year as novice skaters – two levels below junior and senior divisions – they won the Northwest Pacific regional competition in Seattle and finished fourth in the Pacific Coast Section in Escondido, Calif. The top four pairs in the Pacific Coast, Eastern and Midwestern sections advanced to this week’s nationals.

The required elements in today’s short program are two lifts, one side-by-side spin, one side-by-side jump, one pair spin and one death spiral. Kunzle-Watson said the pair’s strength is their lifts and footwork.

As for weaknesses, Budvarson noted “consistency and confidence.”

Kunzle-Watson, who skated competitively with her twin brother, Christian, said one of the intangible elements of pairs competition is understanding one’s partner.

“You need to know how to deal with your partner’s nerves,” Kunzle-Watson said. “Sometimes one partner is very quiet before and after competition while sometimes you have someone who doesn’t stop talking.”

If Anders and Budvarson continue on their path, they could advance to the junior division within the year. They also have set their sights on 2007 for the chance to compete at home.