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Miss Hall’s Zia O’Neill skates to success on and off the ice

PITTSFIELD – Miss Hall’s School 18-year old senior Zia O’Neill has been a fixture at the Christmas Brook Figure Skating Club in North Adams since she was three.

There, she took to the ice after watching her older sister, Tegan, lead the way.

Fifteen years later, she is an accomplished figure skater with a first place finish in the 2013 Bay State Games in the Novice Ladies Freeskate and a third place finish in the 2012 Games in Intermediate Ladies.

The Miss Hall’s honor student learned valuable lessons along the way and, for the past two years, has been a coach passing down all her skills and experience to a new generation.

“The biggest challenge of figure skating is that you fall a lot,” O’Neill said. “Each fall means that you also have stand up on your feet, wipe the snow off your leg, and try again.”

While O’Neill learned about perseverance and inner strength while skating, she also had to manage pain and overcome daily injuries to eventually develop a passion for a highly challenging individual sport.

“I might have a bruise from an especially hard fall the previous day, but I still skate that day because I know that with each practice you can only improve,” O’Neill said. “Figure skating is a sport where you have to keep skating – you cannot take a season off casually – you have to keep up your practices to maintain your level – let alone improve.”

Time management has also been a skill developed by the Stamford, Vt., resident, not only with her studies but also with her contribution within the community as both a coach and basic skills assistant.

“Over the past few years, I have had to juggle a high school homework load and skating six to 10 hours a week with one to three hours with my coach, Holly Viall,” O’Neill said.

Viall has coached O’Neill for 11 years with the International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury, Conn.

“[Viall] has shared her lifelong love of skating with me, encouraging me to constantly work hard and work toward my goals,” O’Neill said. “Her remarkable attention to detail makes sure that everything in my programs is perfect from my landing positions to timing with the music.”

While Viall has been an ideal match with O’Neill in regards to managing routines and competitions and knowing when to push O’Neill and when to draw back on a difficult element – it has been the relationship and the family bond that has developed that O’Neill has cherished.

“Her family has become very close to mine over the years, and she has become a good supporter of my academics and other extra-curricular [activities] as well,” O’Neill said.

As an individual sport, O’Neill still feels a connection to her skating community, making the experience feel more like a team sport instead of an individual one.

“I have always been supported by my family, my coach, fellow skaters and friends that make it feel as though it is a team,” she said.

While the winter skating season is wrapping up, O’Neill still has some goals on the ice and off that she would like to accomplish before attending college this fall.

“I hope to pass my Novice and Junior Freestyle tests before I go away to college,” O’Neill said. “However, I hope that I will continue to coach figure skating for many years to come as well as skate myself, out of pure passion for the sport.”

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Posted by on March 28, 2013. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
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