CAPE TEEN TRAINS FOR ICE SKATING COMPETITION

While most teen-age girls are worried about the latest fashion trends and makeup styles, Casey Bauer is more concerned about her compulsory dance routine, original step patterns and learning how to waltz while wearing ice skates.

At 13, Casey is still perfecting her image both on and off the ice. She and a partner are training for the Junior U.S. Figure Skating Championship competition in early March in New York.

The Cape Girardeau teen competes individually in intermediate freestyle ice skating and with a partner in ice dancing divisions. She and Owen Irwin, her 12-year-old partner from Springfield, Ill., will dance a waltz at the upcoming competition.

Casey has been skating seriously since age 8 and hopes to one day join the professional skating circuit. She trains three days a week at a St. Louis-area ice complex and each Thursday afternoon at The Ice in Plaza Galleria.

Skating isn't just a hobby for Casey, it's part of her life.

A poster of Michelle Kwan hangs on her bedroom door. A picture of the Stars on Ice troupe hangs in a frame above her bed; another picture rests at the base of a dresser mirror. A wooden plaque shaped like an ice skate holds all her medals and ribbons from past competitions. It hangs on the wall beside her bed. She has so many medals and trophies, she has a hard time remembering where she put them all.

Maybe it was the sparkling outfits or the graceful moves of the skaters, but something attracted Casey to skating at a young age. She first took lessons at 5 with her older sister Holly. But the pair got more interested in dance lessons for a while. Eventually, Casey returned to the ice.

"It keeps me busy and I get to meet a lot of people at competitions," Casey said.

It also means Casey gives up a lot.

Because she trains one weeknight in St. Louis and again each Friday and Saturday, she often has conflicts with her cheerleading schedule at Immaculate Conception School in Jackson.

Teresa Bauer is often surprised at her daughter's dedication. "She gets ready and knows the drill," she said. Casey packs a bag before going to bed each Thursday and leaves for St. Louis directly after school on Friday.

"She has a lot of dedication to be in junior high and leaving every Friday night. That demands a lot," Teresa Bauer said.

Casey's not complaining, however. "It's not hard to keep up with my homework because I do it on the way up and back," she said.

During weekends, she stays overnight with her grandmother in St. Charles and catches a ride home with two other girls from the area who also skate.

Occasionally she'll miss a practice, but it has to be for an important reason. "I just don't skip to stay home and watch TV," Casey said.

Soon she'll be adding another practice day to her schedule so she can concentrate on getting ready for the Junior National competition.

At every competition, whether for the U.S. Figure Skating Association or Ice Skating Institute, Casey skates under the auspices of the Show Me Blades, a local club of which she is a member.

She and her partner placed second overall in a qualifying competition in November which means they'll dance to a waltz on the ice, but they aren't certain which specific waltz that will be. A committee of judges selects the music Casey and Owen will skate to, but the pair must learn an original step pattern so that they will be ready for any sort of music.

"You have to know the tempo because you can get tons of points taken off if you don't," Casey said. During a competition in Indianapolis, Ind., last year the pair got off beat and had trouble during the rest of their routine.

"You have to know the beat to the music," she said.

Whenever they skate together, Owen wears a tuxedo and vest and Casey dons a white dress covered with Austrian crystals. Her skates are white also.

With her sisters surrounding the kitchen table, Teresa played a videotape of Casey at a recent competition. Casey, who doesn't like to watch herself skate, sort of hid from view of the television screen.

"You and I would think it's wonderful, but she knows all the mistakes she made," Teresa said.

While Casey is confident of her routine in ice dancing, her freestyle skating makes her a little more apprehensive.

"I don't know why," she said. Freestyle skating offers her more creativity in the rink, but the division probably has the most competition, she said.

To help herself prepare for competitions, Casey also trains during the summer. She takes classes Monday through Friday at the Chesterfield ice sports complex also home to a minor league hockey team and training site of the St. Louis Blues.

The Chesterfield rink offers Casey an opportunity to skate on an Olympic-sized rink. The Ice at Plaza Galleria is a smaller rink. While skating on two different-sized rinks could be troublesome, it also provides some advantages.

"It's good that one is big and the other little because you get used to a small or big rink," Casey said. That variety helps in competitions since you never know what size rink you'll be skating in, she said.

Instructors at the rink teach weight conditioning and jazz and ballet lessons. There is even a class on how to be an "inner champion," which teaches breathing techniques, how to enter the ice rink and mental preparation tips for the youngsters.

In the summer, the weekday schedule works out best so that weekends are family time, Teresa said. She and her husband, Robert, own a boat and the family often spends summer weekends at the lake.

But Casey isn't the only skater in her family. Her younger sister, Mary, also skates and competes in younger divisions. Her brother, Riley, takes hockey lessons at the ice rink and "tries to keep up with Casey," Teresa said.