Her mother summed it up in one word: Crazy.
Then she corrected herself.
”
Actually, it’s really crazy,
”
said Laura Dobbs, mother of 10-year-old Hollister resident and
figure skater Amanda Dobbs.
Amanda is awakened by her mother every morning at 3:45 a.m.,
when they pile into the car in the darkness of the very early
morning and begin their journey to the Logitech ice rink in San
Jose.
Her mother summed it up in one word: Crazy.
Then she corrected herself.
“Actually, it’s really crazy,” said Laura Dobbs, mother of 10-year-old Hollister resident and figure skater Amanda Dobbs.
Amanda is awakened by her mother every morning at 3:45 a.m., when they pile into the car in the darkness of the very early morning and begin their journey to the Logitech ice rink in San Jose.
Amanda sleeps in the car until around 4:45 a.m., but once they get to the rink she skates for about two hours before they have to drive back to Hollister so she can make it to her fifth-grade class at Sacred Heart Catholic School.
Even with the hours of skating six days a week and a full work load at school, she still has time to fit in choir practice on Fridays, off-ice training such as pilates and ballet during the week, an occasional sleepover at a friend’s house, birthday parties and all the other things “normal” 10-year-olds do.
“They’re long (days),” Laura said. “I can come home and collapse if I need to, but she’s in something from the time she gets up.”
Amanda has been skating since she was about 2 years old, but the family’s life has been revolving around the tremendously hectic schedule for the past two years, when she became really serious about competing.
About eight months ago, she decided to split her time as a singles figure skater to incorporate a partner – 15-year-old Chris Trefil from San Ramon – which has made juggling time and energy even more chaotic, Laura said.
“She spends almost as much time with the pairs as she does with the singles,” she said. “So three hours a day on the ice instead of two, and then you start having to coordinate two people’s schedules.”
The grueling schedule Amanda willingly subjects herself to paid off for her and Trefil in early December 2003, when they attended the U.S. Figure Skating Junior Championship’s Juvenile Pairs Division in Scottsdale, Ariz., and walked away with a silver medal.
The consummate competitor and athlete was elated just to be in the competition, and wasn’t disappointed in the least with the pair’s second-place finish, Amanda said.
“I was happy I got the silver – I wasn’t planning to,” she said.
After Trefil suffered a back injury with his former pair’s partner, he wasn’t sure he would ever compete again. When Amanda’s coach, Tracy Prussack, introduced the two and suggested they work on pair’s skating, the ensuing result was nothing short of amazing, Laura said.
“For them it was such a big deal to even be there and to be in the finals,” Laura said. “They were such a new team and the team that beat them had been skating together eight months longer.
“To walk away with a silver medal was pretty awesome.”
The thought of living a life like most 10-year-olds is unthinkable to Amanda. Nothing comes before skating, she said. Nothing.
“I took a vacation for four days from skating – in December I get (time off) for Christmas,” Amanda said. “This year I missed it a lot. I kept sliding on the floors.”
More than anything, skating makes Amanda truly happy, which is why she gets so antsy when she can’t do it.
If her coach wants her to take some time off, even if it’s just an extra day or two, she has to absolutely forbid her to skate, Laura said.
“(During Christmas) she kept saying, ‘I need to go back to the rink,'” Laura said. “Her level of commitment and her level of focus… at some point athletes develop that, but I know that at 10 I didn’t have that.”
Laura and her husband were both swimmers, and while both swam competitively, they didn’t develop that fierce drive until much later in life, she said.
In February, Amanda’s schedule will be changing with the start of an independent study program that they’re going to try out, Laura said.
The entire family’s life rotates around Amanda’s schedule, and with her out of a set schedule for school, it will free up some extra time for other commitments, such as activities surrounding Amanda’s younger brother, Connor.
“It’s hard to have that level of commitment, and with our son, we have to try to balance it so he gets as much attention and as much of our time,” Laura said. “We’re trying to balance that and I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far.”
Laura has spent much of the past few months working out a unique situation with Amanda’s school so she can still participate in the choir and other special activities, so she doesn’t lose touch with that aspect entirely.
While nothing comes before skating, her friends are still important to her and support her in her endeavors.
“They kind of want me to be active in school, but because they really know I have this big dream they want me to get there,” Amanda said. “So they don’t think it’s really that crazy.”
The giant steps the spirited sprite of a skater is already making will mean more traveling, more hours committed to the rink and more of the family’s finances allocated to her dream of one day competing in the Olympics.
“Just the demands on time and everything that we do somehow or other revolves around her schedule,” Laura said. “What she can do and what she can’t do – not vacationing, where we live, where our money goes – it’s a commitment on so many different levels for everybody. She couldn’t do it without the support of her brother and all the things that we do.”
Upwards of $40,000 is already spent annually on Amanda’s skating, and the figure will considerably increase as Amanda moves through the ranks and becomes even more of a skating presence.
The family has already started looking for sponsors to help with some of the financial considerations, but they attempt to make the most of the opportunities presented to them, Laura said.
“It has a lot of stresses and a lot of difficulties, but if we can make it fun for everybody then that’s the most important thing,” Laura said. “Whether they’re Olympic champions or not, that’s not really what it’s about. There’s so much more to it.”
But as far as Amanda’s concerned, while she relishes every moment on the ice it’s the dream that drives her.
At the age of 16 she plans on being at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada.
“Her grandma found out where it was from an article in the paper,” Laura said. “She called and said, ‘I’m making my reservations now.'”
For more information about Amanda, or to help contribute to her dream with sponsorships, contact her family at [email protected].
