It’s 4 a.m. and 19-year-old Alexandria Sais is awake, ready to drive 90 minutes to ice skating practice. When she’s finished, she’ll drive another 90 minutes back to attend classes at Adelphi University.
When classes are finally done, Sais heads over to work in the school’s Public Safety office where the Williston Park resident works the front desk, answering phone calls, filing papers, giving out parking permits, and making ID cards.
Afterwards, it’s all about school work when she gets home. This is an ordinary day for Sais.
However, there are times when Sais has to miss school to travel the world with Team USA’s junior team for synchronized figure skating.
“I never imagined making Team USA,” Sais said. “When I got the jacket, I cried. It was like a dream.”
This is the third season that Sais has been skating for the Skyliners, a synchronized skating team that is among five schools that make up Team USA.
The synchronized skating team consists of 16 girls who skate at the same time. The team roster also has four alternates.
Together, the Skyliners participate in six or seven competitions a year. They can be held as relatively close as Massachusetts or across the globe in countries such as France, Sweden or Finland.
“These 20 girls have become more than just teammates, they’ve become my second family,” Sais said. “We spend hours with each other every week and we travel the world together. Knowing that each one of us has made sacrifices and committed ourselves to our team, has inspired me to practice that much more even if that may be at 4 a.m.”
Still, walking out on the ice, hearing her name announced, and seeing the crowd’s excitement makes Sais nervous.
“We have a few traditions we do right before we go on [the ice].” Sais said. “We’ll squeeze hands, and since we have our own team psychologist, we’ll practice some breathing techniques. After, we’ll say this speech where each of us has our own line and remind ourselves of our accomplishments and why we’re doing this. There’s a moment when you step onto the ice and they announce your team as ‘representing the United States of America, The Skyliners.’ It’s like nothing you’ve ever felt before. All of the tears, sweat, late nights, early mornings, practices, and workouts have led to this moment, and nothing can take that away from you.”
Last year in January, the Skyliners won the Junior World qualifiers, which allowed them to advance to the World Challenge Cup in March, where they placed fifth.
This January, they’ll have to place in the top two at Junior World Qualifiers in order to qualify for World competition again.
The Skyliners are currently working on a short program that goes with an Italian opera, “Because We Believe” re-done by Chris Mann. In addition, they’ll be working on a piece to go with a combination of songs from “West Side Story.”
“It’s [her progress] amazing. It proves with hard work, love for the sport, sacrifice and determination. She is now a member of Team USA, a synchronized skating team. Her accomplishments and happiness in herself is every coach’s wish.” said Linda Beach, Sais’ coach.
Sais skating career began at age four, when she took group lessons. Like most beginners, she couldn’t get the hang of it but was determined to learn.
“I would just sit on the ice for hours, but I kept asking to go back,” Sais said laughing, remembering her first time out on the rink. When she was about five, she began taking private lessons with Beach and entering competitions.
During Sais’s senior year at Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Syosset, she skated for The Skyliners intermediate team, which placed second at the nationals.
A few weeks later, Sais decided to try out for the junior team, which represents Team USA. Team USA is composed of the top five teams in the country for junior and senior levels.
“For my entire senior year, I trained early mornings, perfected my edges, movements, and worked extremely hard in order to prove that I deserved a spot, not only as a member of the Skyliners junior team, but as a member of Team USA. A few days later, I received a call from the head coach offering me a spot on the junior team and I immediately accepted.” Sais said.
Since then, Sais has kept up with the routine. She wakes up early to drive from her home in Williston Park to Monsey, N.Y. four times a week. The schedule allows Sais to train alone with Beach and coach Josh Babb, before school on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Wednesday nights and all of Saturday and Sunday are for her team practices.
“It can be very stressful,” the 5-foot-6 brunette said. “It’s all about time management. It’s hard to have down-time, especially with all the traveling and missing school. My parents just want me to keep my grades up, being that school comes first. It’s most stressful when I have to get there [on the rink], try and forget everything, and then come back home to my other life.”
Sais’ division could be added to the 2018 Winter Olympics. Until then, she’s keeping her fingers crossed and continuing to represent USA all over the world.
