WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
ers Association) are my college degree.” Morris-Adair, 49, and Adair, 51, who live
and coach in Indianapolis, first met in the sum- mer of 1975. “Te year of the movie Jaws,” she noted. Tey were both attending summer skating
school in Clarksville, Ind., with their partners. Despite the 1977 upset, they remained friends, and then romance blossomed in the early 1990s as a fortuitous job offer came their way. She was living in Columbus, Ohio, and he
in Atlanta, and they were co-coaching a young ice dance team long distance. Tey were approached about joining the coaching staff at the Indiana/ World Skating Academy and forming a competi- tive ice dance program. Tey accepted the offer and began on April 1, 1991.
Tey got engaged in the summer of 1996
when Adair crafted a romantic proposal in Lake Placid, N.Y. “We’ve always gone to Lake Placid for the summer dance competitions,” Adair said. “We were there with one of our dance teams. I took Kelley for a carriage ride around Mirror Lake. We stopped at the south end of Main Street by the church. I had the ring and the champagne. Tat’s where I proposed.” “It was very romantic,” Morris-Adair said. Tey married in 1997. A couple of years later, they decided to re- adjust their coaching duties to allow them more time at home. “When we first moved to Indianapolis, we had a lot of success early on, a lot of teams, na- tional champions,” Morris-Adair said. Tis in- cluded U.S. novice champions Kate Black and Kevin Spado and junior champions Kimber Hartley and Michael Sklutovsky. “It became clear as we started dating and exploring our personal relationship, we needed to decide how much that was going to be dis- turbed by a coaching career. We were always on the road.”
Tey made a conscious decision to spend
time together, which meant cutting back on trav- eling with skaters. After the 1998 U.S. Champi- onships, they sat down and made a plan about where they wanted to go personally and profes- sionally. Te late Pieter Kollen was especially helpful in encouraging them to find a work/life balance. “We value our relationship,” she said. Tey continued to consult with other coaches and do choreography for ice dancers, but focused on finding niches that kept them close to home. Morris-Adair works with skaters in all dis-
ciplines on edge work, details and choreography. Adair loves working with test skaters. “I’ve always enjoyed taking people through their dance tests,” he said. “I can still skate pretty well. To see the happiness of them achieving a goal of getting a gold medal in ice dancing is re- ally satisfying for me.” Tey work with a couple of young ice dance teams as supplemental coaches — traveling to Louisville, Ky., where Adair coaches on a regular basis.
Morris-Adair did take on a huge, time-con- suming commitment in 2007 when she became president of the PSA, which she said she couldn’t have done without her husband’s love and sup- port — not to mention his excellent cooking skills. She served until 2010 with the mantra that “teamwork makes the dream work.” “We were trying to give the PSA back to the membership and really listening to what the members wanted,” she said. “It was a lot of hard work because we were coming up with and implementing so many new ideas. It was a most rewarding time.” Given the coaching careers that Morris-
Adair and Adair have been able to carve for them- selves, her time as PSA president provided a real eye opener in terms of the challenges that many figure skating coaches face. “Tis engagement gave me a real awareness
Kelley and Donny take in the scenery with some of their ice dancers in Lake Placid.
of different environments and the struggles and the challenges that coaches were going through,” she said.
While they may not be at U.S. and World championships, they are certainly aware of the top teams and express the utmost admiration. “I’m not sure I could do half the stuff they
do now,” Adair said. “Tey truly are amazing ath- letes. Meryl [Davis] and Charlie [White] are just an amazing dance team. I’m so glad they were able to break through and finally win the big one that we’ve all been trying to do for so many years.” Te one thing Adair said he finds a bit miss-
ing in current ice dance programs is connection. “Tere used to be time to really look in your
partner’s eyes. Te crowd could see that and feel that emotion between a dance team,” he said. “Nowadays, they have so many elements they have to do. Other than Meryl and Charlie and the Canadians [Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir], I don’t see them take the time to do that anymore. I miss that emotional attachment with an ice dance team.” Tey don’t display much personal skating memorabilia in their home, but there are some special items connected to the legendary Jackson Haines, from who Adair is descended. Most of it had belonged to Adair’s late mother, Ann Robin- son, the 1943 U.S. novice champion. In their down time, Morris-Adair and Adair
love to head to their lake house. “A little piece of heaven that is about a two-
hour drive away,” she said. “We decompress and we really enjoy all the outdoor sports and water sports.”
Both are avid golfers and “golf groupies,” and they often plan vacations around going to watch a golf tournament or playing a special golf course. Tey also check out local sports teams at Butler University. “We enjoy watching athletes at their finest
in action,” Morris-Adair said. “We love being around that competitive spirit.”
When they get the chance, Kelley and Donny like to check out a professional golf tournaments.
SKATING 9
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