Arms outstretched and smile sparkling, Alexandria Shaughnessy glides quickly across the ice. The Duxbury native jumps and spins on white skates, sapphire dress flowing and dark hair shining beneath the harsh rink lights. Off the ice, this high school senior and National Honor Society member speaks modestly of her skating accomplishments. But as Shaughnessy trains for the US Figure Skating National Championships this January, her skating tells another story.

Shaughnessy began skating lessons when most children begin preschool - at the age of 4. Initially, her only goal was to skate with friends on the Duxbury cranberry bogs. But Shaughnessy's talent soon surpassed expectations, and others took notice.

"Two coaches approached my mom" Shaughnessy recalled. "They said 'We'd really like to work with your daughter.' I was about 6 years old."

Despite competing in both dance and gymnastics for a time, the permanent switch to skating was easy for Shaughnessy.

"I love (skating) because it's kind of a mix of everything," she said. "It was one of those things where I could just do it myself rather than having to rely on a team."

A member of the Skating Club of Boston, Shaughnessy does skate with her team in exhibitions on occasion, and she is currently co-captain of Duxbury High's skating team, of which she is a founding member. But Shaughnessy's earliest successes occurred in her singles events.

She won bronze in her division at the New England Regional Championships this past October, advancing to Eastern Sectionals. She has been a solo act at numerous charity events throughout New England, and has competed internationally in Switzerland and France.

But Shaughnessy' s foray into singles skating, while successful, has been arguably overshadowed by another type of ice skating - the pairs events. In 2009, Shaughnessy joined forces with Jimmy Morgan of Windham, N.H., and the duo began intensive training for the entirely new discipline.

"I always wanted to try pairs," Shaughnessy said, noting that pairs skating differs sharply from singles events. "The biggest thing about pairs is communication. A lot of skaters have trouble with that, but Jimmy's like my best friend. We're so different from a lot of other pair teams in that way."

Morgan, a freshman at Boston University, competed with Shaughnessy in Eastern Sectionals this past November, and the pair finished in second place. That silver earned them a spot at Nationals this month. So while most high school seniors relaxed over winter break, Shaughnessy and Morgan stepped up their training.

"We have our whole year program on a poster board at the rink" Shaughnessy said of her training regimen. "We lift weights, do cardio, and work with a dance choreographer to fine-tune our facial expressions. By the time Nationals comes around, we'll be pretty much conditioned to do a long program and a half."

And school?

"I actually had to kind of give up high school for (skating)," Shaughnessy admitted. "I've been taking online college courses and virtual high school classes, but it's definitely a lot harder doing things online, not being in a class with your peers."

"It basically got to the point where Alex would have had to either be home-schooled or give up skating," explained Shaughnessy's mother, Ann. "Alex was just missing so much school for skating. Thankfully, we found online college classes, and Duxbury worked with us, allowing her to be dual-enrolled."

Shaughnessy takes Advanced Placement Art in the mornings at Duxbury High school, trains in Boston from noon to 6 p.m. weekdays, and completes her online classes at night. She leaves Sundays for coaching younger skaters and Saturdays as her one day off. But despite her sacrifices, Shaughnessy still has time to be a mostly normal, if unusually self-driven, teenager. She does community service, wins awards for her artwork, and loves every minute of high school.

"I still get to go to prom," Shaughnessy said with a smile. "I still get to see my friends. I'll still graduate with them, and I can still go to football games and everything."

When asked about the future, Shaughnessy has few plans set in stone. She's applying to schools in Boston so she can continue training with the Skating Club and take some of her classes online. Shaughnessy mentioned a major in psychology and the hope of coaching in the future.

"I'm really seeing how far I can go with the skating right now," she said.

Gliding and twirling, Shaughnessy's smile makes that statement as clear as the ice she calls home.

The US Figure Skating National Championships take place Jan. 22-30, in Greensboro, N.C. Shaughnessy and Morgan will appear as background skaters in the U.S. Figure Skating film Rise, set to premiere Feb. 17.

Originally published: December 25, 2010 10:56 PM
By STEPHEN HAYNES  stephen.haynes@newsday.com

Photo credit: James Escher | Samantha Cesario of Oceanside High School is hoping to improve on last year's showing at the figure skating nationals. (Dec. 24, 2010)

It's early morning on Christmas Eve, and it doesn't matter. For Samantha Cesario, that holiday stuff can wait. She's on the rink at Iceland in New Hyde Park and, despite the calendar's exclamation, it's a Friday and practice is imperative.

After all, she's prepping to compete in the U.S. Figure Skating Nationals, which begin Jan. 26 in Greensboro, N.C.

Midway through her session, she sticks a string of spectacular spins in succession; near-flawless jumps with the elevation and tightness her coaches seek, and the landings are graceful. Not bad, considering she had avoided those maneuvers for the previous two weeks while nursing a sore back.

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It's been almost a year since Cesario, 17, first competed in nationals on the senior circuit in January, which served as the Olympics qualifier. She was 16 then: talented but raw, unafraid but unaccustomed to that stage. She had upset former Olympian and fellow Long Islander Emily Hughes in the regional, thus gliding onto the grand platform. But it meant having to perform against some of her idols in the national competition.

In addition, Cesario was featuring moves (triple Lutzes, triple jumps and triple flips) she'd picked up only a few months earlier. A fall in the short program set her back and, though her long program was clean, it wasn't enough to recover. The result: 14th place.

"When I got my scores, I was upset," the Oceanside High School senior said. "I wanted to at least be in the top 12 . . . But when I got home, I realized being 14th in the country isn't bad."

But for a self-described "perfectionist" - a girl who practices four hours before school - not bad isn't good enough. So her workouts were kicked up a notch trying to get those jumps down pat.

She's built her leg strength for greater lift and her team of coaches and choreographers have worked extensively with cameras and computers to track every movement on the ice, her father, Mike, said. The multiple angles allow them to pinpoint even the most subtle errors. "I've done a lot of work on my triples," said Cesario, who dedicates roughly half her sessions to jumps. "They look completely different now."

It's shown in the results. She took first in the Gardena Spring Trophy - her first international competition - in April, was a member of Team USA and finished fourth in the Junior Grand Prix in Romania in September, and won the North Atlantic Regional in October.

Mary Lynn Gelderman said her pupil's progress "has been extreme." She, along with Peter Burrows, have coached Cesario since she was 8.

But this year brought its own challenge as Cesario, for two months, has dealt with inflammation around a disc in her back. The injury, not uncommon among skaters, is a result of excessive torque and a lack of recuperation time, her mother, Joanne, said.

Cesario has worked with a physical therapist, receiving heat and electro-stimulation treatments along with stretches and new exercises, and says she's almost pain-free. She abstained from the complicated twirls but now plans to go full throttle the next month.

It's unlikely anything short of severe would keep her off the ice, anyway. The competitive fire is her greatest attribute, her coaches said.

Burrows recalled first meeting Cesario at the rink, when her former coach Susan Cibere introduced them and gushed about her potential. "She asked me me what I thought," Burrows said. "I shrugged and said, 'She's got two legs, two arms and a head.' Susan then said, 'But when she competes, she has something special.' She was dead right."

There's also a noticeable difference in Cesario's demeanor from a year ago; a calmness with which she speaks about the upcoming tournament. Then she sounded like what she was: an excited kid headed to nationals. She admitted it was "a bit of a shock."

And now?

"It'll be easier for me this time," said Cesario, who's aiming for a top six finish. "I'm more relaxed and I know what to expect . . . There's always a little bit of nerves, but I feel prepared. I'm ready to do my thing."