Spencer skates (part 2)

Spencer skates (part 1) left off in April 2022, when Spencer began taking private lessons with Warwick Figure Skaters, one of the local clubs in Rhode Island. He and his coach, Kristine Wilkinson, began working on the foundational skating skills that everything else is built on. Spencer being Spencer, he of course tried at every opportunity to skip over this important step and move right to jumps.

Often, he would do one ice session for his lesson and then ask to stay for a second session where he could work on his priorities. Generally, this entailed fearlessly attempting jumps he didn’t yet have the foundation or technique for and slamming into the ice. Over and over.

Christine and I, along with other concerned observers, continually expressed to him that if he kept doing this multiple times per week, it was just a matter of time before he injured himself. He would nod in agreement. But he just couldn’t help himself and would go right back to it the next time.

Spencer formed some wonderful friendships at the Warwick rink as well. As no one who knew him well would be surprised to hear, Spencer never fit neatly into the usual middle school and high school social framework. So, Christine and I loved seeing him smiling and connecting with peers over a shared passion.

Coach Kristine worked with Spencer to develop a debut program set to Cody Fry’s cover of the Beatles classic, "Eleanor Rigby." Eventually, he even dipped a toe in the water at a couple of local competitions. His first ever competition, the Ocean State Open, was on July 23, 2022—three years ago this week.

Figure skating has an extensive set of test levels, and at competitions skaters are grouped by test level. Since Spencer basically came out of nowhere, he competed at the absolute bottom rung of the figure skating ladder: the “no test” level. And in this case, that category included just one person: him. So he began his skating career at the top of the podium.

A few months later, on October 10, 2022, he competed again at the Autumn Harvest Open in South Windsor, Connecticut. This time he had one competitor: a female skater from his home club in Rhode Island. It was close, but he managed to eke out a victory to remain undefeated.

A couple of weeks after that, the Skating Club of Boston hosted Skate America, an elite-level international competition that is part of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating. Spencer was obsessed with the fact that some of the best skaters in the world would be in the area, so Christine and I splurged and bought him tickets for his birthday.

These events run for several days, and as would become customary, Spencer insisted on watching every minute—including all of the practice sessions. Christine and I traded off days attending the event with him.

Skate America 2022 was the first time any of us had set foot in the Skating Club of Boston, and we were blown away by what we saw. The club has a storied history dating back to 1912, and for decades had operated from a rink in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood. But just a couple of years earlier, in 2020, the club had undertaken an ambitious move to its current location: a gorgeous, modern facility with three ice surfaces in the Boston suburb of Norwood, Massachusetts.

Skate America in Norwood was nirvana for Spencer.

Early on, he bought a gray sweatshirt from the merch table and made it his mission to get as many of his heroes as he could to sign it.

It was an obsession.

At first, the event staff didn’t quite know what to make of this crafty kid who kept ambushing the competitors and shoving a Sharpie in their face. But by the end of the week, he had turned the tables and had the security staff—and a sizable number of event attendees—chasing down competitors on his behalf.

Christine and I did our best to keep up with him and snap photos of him with his "victims."

The last vacation we took as a family of four was to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in October of 2024. Why Halifax, you may ask? Because that’s where Skate Canada, another Grand Prix of Figure Skating event, was held last year.

By this time, Spencer was an entirely different person and an entirely different skater. But even as his own profile grew within the skating community, he never gave up the role of obsessed superfan.

Skate Canada 2024 now feels like a bookend to Skate America 2022. Christine and I traded off skating events with activities around Halifax with Milo. Spencer soaked in every minute of practice and competition and never missed an opportunity to add a signature to his gray sweatshirt.