What will you be doing over Christmas Break? Snowboarding? Sledding? Playing with new toys? Perhaps caroling? Well, Trinity sophomore Ernie Stevens will be spending his break in Paris, not just for pleasure but to train. Stevens is a figure skater and a darn good one at that. Stevens moved to Louisville in the second grade from Lexington. He was interested in playing hockey, so when he arrived in Louisville, he began skating lessons at Iceland. He had a great time and was graceful on the ice. This led his skating coach to suggest figure skating. Stevens wasn’t sure what exactly figure skating was, so his coach told him, “It’s just skating with jumps and spins and you get to throw stuff.” Stevens gave it a try but soon figured out that it was much more strenuous than his coach once said. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, he and his parents make the trip up to Indianapolis to train with his Russian partner, Christina Zeitsev. Both weeknights, he drives up and back. On Friday he spends the night and trains once more on Saturday morning. While he is in Indianapolis, Stevens and his partner follow a very intense workout called skater’s program. This workout is the equivalent of running a four-minute mile. This goes on year-round. There is no such thing as an offseason. Figure skating has taught Stevens many life lessons as well. He said, “My favorite part of the sport is falling and getting back up and trying it again. It’s just like life.” Stevens’ work is paying off. He and his partner are ranked No. 4 in the nation. They will be competing in the sectionals in Wichita. There he will represent Louisville as the highest-ranked skater. If Stevens places in the top eight of that competition, he will move onto Junior Nationals in Cleveland. If he medals at nationals, comes in third or higher, he will be placed on the U.S. international team for next year. Stevens’ goal is to compete at Worlds then represent the U.S. in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Probably one of the most impressive feats Stevens has accomplished is the fact that he goes to school during all this. Many, in fact most skaters in Stevens’ position, are home-schooled. However, Stevens and his partner are among the few that attend a regular high school. Stevens does his homework in the car during his two-hour drive home every Tuesday and Thursday night. He says that regardless of the commitment to skating, he will be at THS all four years. Stevens is kept to a strict schedule and must keep up his GPA. Since Stevens is a figure skater and does not play a “popular sport” in Louisville, there are many naysayers. However, Stevens handles the criticism, saying, “Many people think this is not an athletic sport. I laugh at those people because while they are sleeping in, I will be training in a different country.”