WHERE ARE THEY NOW? by LOIS ELFMAN Over the years, eight-time U.S. medalist,
World silver medalist and two-time Olympian Da- vid Santee has been asked to give motivational and informational speeches. Whether in an ice rink or at a convention, those in attendance get insight from what he’s dubbed the “School of Dave.” “It’s an entertaining way for me to get my
message across about different things that I find important in skating,” Santee said. “I try to make it funny, but there’s a lot of information that I give. “We have T-shirts, and on power skating days, which in the summer are Tuesdays and Tursdays, if the skaters at our rink wear the T-shirts, they get one lap off when we have to do laps. Pretty much the entire power class is wearing those School of Dave T-shirts.” It’s an appropriate analogy to how Santee, 56,
has lived his life. He takes the quality of his work seriously but does so with a sense of humor. Di- rector of skating for the Park Ridge (Illinois) Park District, he said how lucky he feels being able to live and work in his hometown. He keeps things positive at the rink, and
coaches who yell or have negative energy are not welcome. Tat doesn’t mean the competitive atti- tude isn’t fierce; in fact that’s a huge motivator for Santee. So much so that he finds light-hearted fun ways to keep people’s fires stoked. Hence, the cre- ation of Moosefest. “When I skated in Janesville, Wisconsin,
with Evy and Mary Scotvold, we had a summer picnic,” Santee said. “We would divide into teams and compete in a bunch of events like tug- of-war and softball. Te winning team would always get T-shirts and there would be bragging rights for the rest of the year. “After I got going as a coach, I decided I want- ed to do something fun,” he continued. “I started out with a figure skating competition. Te coaches were amongst the competitors and the skaters were the judges and coaches. After a few years, I decided I wanted to go back to those days of the picnic.” Initially, there was Winter Moosefest, which included foam ball hockey and broomball. Ten in 2010, Summer Moosefest started with events such as volleyball, a sports-based scavenger hunt and an obstacle course. Participants over the years have in- cluded Ryan Bradley, Rockne Brubaker and Collin Brubaker. Santee is determined to have Charlie White take part after the Olympic season. Away from skating, Santee is a music lover with a special fondness for Fleetwood Mac. Te iconic band is on tour this year, and he described himself as one step away from being a groupie after traveling to concerts in three cities. He’s also a diehard Chicago Blackhawks (win-
ners of the 2013 Stanley Cup) fan, and despite an intense travel schedule, makes it to as many games as possible. His younger son, Mike, 24, now a se- nior at the United States Military Academy at West Point, played competitive hockey through his first two years of college, until a concussion took him out of the sport. Santee taught power skating to his
David Santee is featured on a 1980 cover of SKATING magazine.
son’s youth team and other hockey players over the years.
Older son Christopher, 26, is an analyti- cal scientist for a pharmaceutical company. “He speaks in words that we don’t understand,” Santee joked. Even three decades after the end of his com-
petitive days, people still talk to Santee about his programs to the music from the film Rocky. A fe- male student even asked if she could skate to it. “I said, ‘You’ll have to skate my long pro-
gram from 1981 and it wouldn’t look too ladylike, but you could try it.’ Six triples and three double Axels,” he said with a smile. “I said she could even wear my costume from 1981. She shot it down.” Santee said not stressing too much led to
some of his greatest successes. “I think that’s why I was surprised when I made my first Olympic team (1976), because I never really allowed myself the opportunity to think about it that deeply,” he said. “All of a sud- den it was on.” Te Park Ridge Park District, Santee said, is
incredibly supportive of figure skating. His ex-wife, Ingrid Santee, oversees the learn-to-skate program, on which he assists with the evaluation of coaches. All aspects of Competitive Edge, the competitive skating program, are directly his responsibility. A technical specialist since the earliest days of the international judging system, Santee appreci- ates that his bosses allow him to travel to competi- tions. He believes that greatly enhances his knowl- edge of the sport and also is an opportunity for him to give back to skating.
“Te information that I learn to be on top of
all the rules and rule changes is extremely helpful for our program,” Santee said. “Plus, when you travel that much you pick up a lot of things you can incorporate into your program. I talk to people about what works and what doesn’t work in their programs. I find the best way to run a program is to constantly look at what works and what doesn’t work and try to do things differently. “I want to make sure these kids have a memo- rable experience while they’re here,” he added. “I’d rather develop a skater who enjoys skating and can get something positive out of it. Even a prelimi- nary lady who goes out and lands her first double jumps.
“Every person is important. It doesn’t matter
if it’s Olympics or a nonqualifying competition. It’s of equal importance to each skater. Tat’s what I love about being a coach; you get a different story each 20 minutes.” Unless he’s away at a competition, Santee teaches six days a week. It can be tiring, but no complaints because he feels lucky to be doing something he’s loved his whole life. He said the interaction between coach and student is his favor- ite thing. His second favorite thing is competition. It doesn’t matter if it’s a local event or the U.S. Championships, where he’s been with students such as Agnes Zawadzki (whom he coached for several years) or internationals. Being a technical specialist (certified in data input and in video replay) has also brought people back into his life that he’d had little contact with for decades, such as Terry Kubicka, Charlie Tick- ner and Lisa-Marie Allen. “I felt I wanted to be part of the process to help make our sport better,” said Santee, who has been assigned to the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. “Tere are always going to be things that we can work on to make it better, but what this system gives is accountability. You can look at that protocol sheet when you’re done with the competition and you have answers. Whether you agree with those answers or not, you have an- swers.” For his own Olympic memories, he vividly
recalls attending the U.S. hockey games in Lake Placid, N.Y., and being an eyewitness to the 1980 “Miracle on Ice.” “As far as my own personal experience, the
short program at the Olympics in Lake Placid was probably my high point,” Santee said. “Skating the best I could possibly skate. I kind of overcame some demons along the line.” Rare downtime is spent with his golden re-
triever Tazer, named for Blackhawks captain Jona- than Toews. “Skating taught me many life lessons — dis-
cipline and overcoming adversity are huge,” he said. “If dealt with in a positive way it helps people in future life. As a sportsman, you’re constantly dealing with adversity on a daily basis. How you handle that goes toward how you end up overcom- ing and succeeding.”
(l) David Santee, director of skating for the Park Ridge Park District, goes over the rink schedule with a couple of young skaters. (ctr) Winner of this year’s Moosefest was the Evil Empire, which included (l-r) Chad Gutierrez, Becky Bereswill, Evan Bates, Ryan Bradley, Katie Goodwin, Collin Brubaker and David Santee (holding the trophy is Chris Santee). (r) A lifelong Blackhawks fan, Santee got up close and personal with the Stanley Cup.
SKATING 9
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