While most Belmont Hill students are asleep, Roger Wellington ’28 practices and trains as a competitive figure skater. On a typical Tuesday morning, after approximately 30 minutes of warm-ups composed of a mix of box jumps and dynamic stretches, Roger is able to take the ice at 5:50 am for sessions mostly comprised of advanced jumps and maneuvers — his days are long, and very demanding: “Every Tuesday, I’ll skate from 5:50 AM to 7:00 AM, then after I’m done I’ll drive to the bus stop, get on the bus, and go to school. After classes, I head to the rink again to skate for 2 or 3 hours, then come home, do homework, and finally go to bed.” Figure skating has always been a hallmark and a defining characteristic of his life; he learned to skate when he was three years old and began training competitively at The Skating Club of Boston in Norwood when he was five.
At age ten, figure skating became Roger’s main sport, and ever since he came to Belmont Hill, he has trained every afternoon, with extra mornings sprinkled in. Within his career, his passion has driven him to keep on going — “I’d say I enjoy the most, just like, a good, a good solid training day that I’m able to land all the jumps perfectly.” Throughout his career, his coach, Suna Murray, a 1972 Olympian, has been his role model, teaching him to embrace mistakes and learn from them while also seeking personal growth and mastery of technique.
Regional competitions have been a highlight of his career; this past season, he competed in a series of regional qualifying competitions in which he was ranked 8th in the Eastern division going into the national qualifying competition—a culmination of the sectional tournaments with which he hoped to qualify for the illustrious national development camps (a program with the highest placing athletes from the Eastern, Midwestern, and Pacific Coast Regionals). Notably, Roger was ranked 3rd in New England and 15th nationwide, but unfortunately missed the cut for the elusive national camp by one spot this year, becoming the first alternate.
As the season has ended, Roger looks forward to training hard over the next few months in the off-competition season, as next year he will progress into the age division in which there are the first official national championships. All in all, Roger’s accomplishment as an independent figure skater is certainly one of the best-kept secrets at Belmont Hill, and his story of diligence and athletic achievement is not one to be taken for granted.
