in Heidelberg, Germany, who moved “seven or eight” times as a child, relocated one more time, leaving her training site in Wilmington, Del., and family in Annapolis, Md., to train under Nicks in Aliso Viejo, Calif., with choreographer and coach Phillip Mills lending a helping hand. “I think that I was raised very strong-willed, very stub- born, but out of everything, I was raised to want to win,” Wagner said. “After a while, what I saw as mediocre results became frustrating. I started to think, ‘Tis sport is way too expensive to be spending this much, and not putting out the results that I want.’ I knew if I stayed where I was, the same thing would happen, and I was not ready to let my Olympic dream go.”
Coached at the time by Priscilla Hill, a superb profes- sional who trained Johnny Weir to three U.S. titles, Wagner felt what had worked in the past wouldn’t deliver the golden future she craved. “I’m a firm believer that you need different things at dif-
ferent points in your life,” she said. “Priscilla is an incredible coach and nothing can take away from that. When I went to train with her [in 2008], I eventually moved out of my parents’ house, and she did take on a little bit of a motherly role, and that’s exactly what I needed.” Now, at age 21, Wagner’s budding maturity was about
to take hold. “I knew I wanted a male coach; I wasn’t going to make a change to someone who would baby me,” she said. “I needed to be a little less comfortable, because I feel that is when peo- ple do their best. I looked around for the top male coaches who were available and Mr. Nicks just kept popping up as the perfect coach.” At age 83, Nicks no longer bothers to mince his words,
if he ever did. “She’s wrong,” he said. “Tere are excellent male coach-
es and there are excellent female coaches. Ashley could do just as well with a female coach, if that coach took the right approach.”
FINDING THE RIGHT STUFF Nicks, a native of Great Britain who won the 1953
World pairs title with his late sister, Jennifer, coached Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner to U.S. pairs championships and 1979 World title, and three-time U.S. pairs champions Jenni Meno and Todd Sand. On the ladies’ side he counts 1985 U.S. champion Tiffany Chin and Sasha Cohen, the 2006 U.S. champion and Olympic silver medalist, as past students.
While Wagner’s consistency improved almost immedi- ately — she won bronze at 2011 Skate Canada and narrowly missed a trip to the Grand Prix Final that fall — her rela- tionship with Nicks had some of the mostly good-natured jousting that also marked his time with Cohen. “Ashley is a complete scatterbrain and listens to half of
what I say,” Nicks said when he accepted coach of the year honors at the PSA Conference this spring. “She is very criti- cal of me; [she says] my hairstyle doesn’t hack it, my clothes are too old-fashioned. Recently she said I was her ‘Yoda.’ My friend had to tell me Yoda was [a character] from Star Wars.” He may not be the all-knowing Jedi master, but Nicks soon found ways to tap into Wagner’s talent and desire. “She likes to work in smaller amounts of time, very
intensely,” he said. “Tat’s the way of working for a lot of athletes these days, so we tend to work very, very hard for shorter periods.” Wagner has credited the veteran coach with improving her jump technique, making her triples far more consistent.
Ashley Wagner’s downtown Colorado Springs’ photo shoot included some cool shots in front of the Peak theater.