icenetwork.com

Keegan Messing shows off his yo-yo skills. (Mickey Brown)

By Lynn Rutherford, special to icenetwork.com

(05/01/2009) - When Keegan Messing is honored with the first-annual Athlete Alumni Ambassador (3A) Award at U.S. Figure Skating's Governing Council tonight, organizers will know they couldn't have chosen a more apt recipient.

After all, the "3A" -- or triple Axel, in International Judging System shorthand -- is Messing's favorite jump.

"They just come naturally to me," he said.

Competing at the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash., Messing gained recognition, earning the novice men's bronze medal with a triple Axel in his free skate. Since then, the jump has helped him rocket to the top of the U.S. junior men's division, with a silver medal at both the 2008 Sheffield Junior Grand Prix and the 2009 U.S. Championships in Cleveland.

"I had to fight to land it at nationals. My back was hurting so badly, we were talking about possibly withdrawing," he said. Messing battled through to take the silver medal home to Girdwood, Alaska, where he reigns as the state's most visible figure skater. The 17-year-old, who is home schooled, trains five days a week at Anchorage's Subway Sports Center under seven-time Austrian champion Ralph Burghart.

The "3A" award, established by U.S. Skating's Athlete Alumni Association and the Athletes Advisory Committee (AAC), is a scholarship program recognizing novice or junior-level skaters that qualified for the U.S. Figure Skating or Synchronized Skating Championships. Its aim is not only to recognize skaters who have achieved a level of excellence in their sport, but to also acknowledge those competitors who also volunteer and contribute to their community.

"This award is designed to inspire young athletes to be good ambassadors on and off the ice," said Justin Dillon, a former senior national competitor who is now chairman of the Athlete's Advisory Committee (AAC).

The Athletes Alumni Association, founded three years ago by Danielle Hartsell-Minnis, now a U.S. Figure Skating athlete's representative on the U.S. Olympic Committee, raises money through personal donations as well as auctions and events. Members thought long and hard about how to best use their funds to give back to the skating community.

"We wanted to do something that would encourage skaters to excel in their sport and in their communities," Dillon said. "For the 3A award, we asked the skaters how volunteering has impacted their lives and especially how volunteering outside of skating makes them better on the ice."

Applicants wrote two-page essays on the topic, and the response was overwhelming.

"We expected maybe 30 applicants; from those, we'd pick the top 10," Dillon said. "The winner would receive a monetary award, and the other nine skaters [ranked in no order] would get smaller amounts."

"The turnout was overwhelming, with 90 applications. It was awesome to read so many fantastic essays. I know some of them will be even better next year, because there's no limit to the number of times a skater can apply."

According to Dillon, Messing understood the assignment well.

"He's such a genuine kid. His essay spoke about how, through volunteering, he's made friends he wouldn't ordinarily have made. "Keegan is from Alaska, not a big Mecca of skating, and he has the power to inspire many younger skaters in the Northwest Pacific region. He was one of the first novice men to do a triple Axel in competition."

In his essay, Messing wrote of helping build Little Bears Park: "So many people of my town were there to help. Little ones bringing screws to workers, elderly folks holding a day care for parents that wanted to volunteer, and of course us teenagers helping in any way from mounting planks on the jungle gyms and painting, to hauling woodchips to put under the toys. That experience really taught me what a community can do in just a few short days."

Messing and his mother Sally will be on hand at U.S. Skating's Governing Council in Buffalo tonight to accept his award at a special AAC dinner. Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, among other skating greats, will be in attendance, and she and Messing will do a question and answer session.

The AAC has many other ambitious tasks before it. One important project is continuing to build of a comprehensive database of current contact information for past national competitors.

"The intent is to get everybody back into the sport," Dillon explained. "[The database] started with past medal winners and is moving forward from there. It's so great to have past competitors at the U.S. Championships, whether they are appearing at an event or walking around the concourse saying hello to fans."

At the most recent U.S. Championships, 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano spoke at the Team 2014 breakfast for novice skaters. Current ladies champion Alissa Czisny, whom Boitano has been mentoring, also attended.

"All of us on the AAC have been blessed with so many great opportunities as skaters; now that our careers are complete, we want to stay involved in the sport and give back," Dillon said.

With a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, the first recipient of the 3A award might someday join Yamaguchi and Boitano as a famous AAC luminary. Messing likes to think big: he's eyeing the 2010 Vancouver Olympics or perhaps Sochi in 2014.

"I like to have a big goal in front of me," he said. "If I have a big goal ahead of me, it helps me push harder."

The other nine athletes receiving AAC scholarship awards, listed in no particular order, are:

Stephanie Damascus
Lauri Bonacorsi
Jason Brown
Shannon Wingle
Kat Howland
Melissa Lukasiewicz
Yasmin Siraj
Andrew Gonzales
Caroline Kozub