BRIAN WELL S
a bit of coaching at Te Skating Club of Boston, but for the most part, skating hasn’t been in his life for almost two decades. A couple of months ago, he was contacted about a new ice complex opening near his home, Florida Central Ice, and he agreed to be on the board. Maggie isn’t currently practicing medicine.
She’s busy with the children and helps Wells with his practice. She also teaches an introduction to medicine course at a high school. She isn’t the only member of the Wells family working at the prac- tice. His first pairs partner, his sister Ann-Marie, handles marketing. Brian was never vocal about his skating past
with patients; Ann-Marie decided it was time to change that a little. She had his national medals framed and put them on the wall. Tere are now pictures of him with each of his partners — after Ann-Marie and before Lyons he skated with Laura Murphy — as well as a picture of the 1996 U.S. World Team. Favorite skating moments include two trips
to the World Championships with Lyons, finish- ing 10th both times. Winning gold at Nebelhorn Trophy was also exciting, especially hearing the “Star-Spangled Banner” played. None of Wells’ kids have skated as yet, but
he plans to take them to the new rink. He is al- ways amused when people refer to old videos on YouTube. While he doesn’t boast about his accom- plishments, he does think they help reflect who he is today. “How do you succeed even when people
Brian and Maggie Wells enjoy a full and wonderful life in Florida with their four children.
weekend when he was doing research) he traveled back to New York to be with Maggie. After she graduated, she was accepted into a residency pro- gram at the New England Medical Center (now Tufts Medical Center), finally putting them back in the same city. Tey married in 2002 with a fairytale wedding held at the Rainbow Room high above Rockefeller Center. “Te first two years of dental school were
straight medical school,” Wells said. “It was a great opportunity to learn from the best in the world. “Harvard was a great learning experience and
challenging, but it was not nearly as challenging and competitive as figure skating,” he added. “I don’t know if skating taught me goalsetting or if I had goalsetting in me and that’s why I did well in skating. I was very driven.” While Harvard had extraordinarily high
standards, there was room for many people to excel. Whereas in figure skating, placement was everything. As he studied subjects such as neural anatomy, Wells felt blessed to be there. Of course, there was stress, but looking back he said he thor- oughly enjoyed his time at Harvard. Perhaps it was his competitive nature that helped him do well. He was even president of his class. “One of the reasons I went to Harvard was
because I knew I wanted to specialize,” Wells said. Originally, he thought he would pursue oral
surgery, but after shadowing an oral surgeon, his instincts told him that wasn’t his calling. At his admissions interview for Harvard, someone indi- cated he should pursue endodontics. At the time,
he didn’t even know what that was, but as he in- vestigated, he realized he’d found his calling. He did his specialty training at Tufts so he
could be near his wife. Tey even walked to work together. Tis proved most helpful when their first child was born in 2005. After both of their residencies were done,
they tried to figure out where to settle down. Mag- gie’s family lives in New York, but they decided to move to Florida, near Wells’ parents. Since 2007, they have lived in a town called Lutz, which goes without saying, is amusing to Wells. Tey also have a beach condo they use most weekends. He practices in Wesley Chapel. He is a root canal spe- cialist and takes great pride in turning a procedure that most people dread into something they view as a good experience. It’s all about embracing the challenge. “When we were trying to decide where I’d
set up my practice, I did a little research and found that Wesley Chapel was the up-and-coming area,” Wells said. “I couldn’t have written it better. Te practice has been wildly successful. I’m very bless- ed. We live a very full, awesome life down here in Florida.” Te third of nine children, Wells is ac-
customed to a busy household. He and Maggie are the parents of Olivia, 10; Ian, 7; Eva, 5; and Owen, 3; he jokingly refers to them as “two pairs teams.” During college, Wells would occasionally go
to Colorado Springs and assist his former coach Irina Vorobieva. When he was at Harvard, he did
SKATING 47
say you can’t?” Wells said. “I was the only 5-foot, 4-inch pair skater in the world. I was told I was too small, and I said no I wasn’t. “Te harder I work, the luckier I am,” he
added. “It’s a crazy, bumpy road along the way. Tat’s a beautiful thing.”
Wells and Shelby Lyons perform during the U.S. Championships.
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