She Spins Wheel of Fortune

Darcy Wooten dedicated much of the last 10 years to competitive roller skating before reaching one of its highest levels almost as an afterthought.

An injury last year prompted Wooten, a Chatsworth High senior, to turn her focus from skating and embrace other activities. School, soccer and running became priorities.

So how did Wooten wind up at the 62nd National Artistic Roller Skating Championships this week in Fresno? Apparently practice isn’t everything when a sport is ingrained. It’s your state of mind that counts.

Wooten, who won a national pairs title in 1995 and who has made several other appearances at the nationals, qualified for the Fresno event by winning the Junior World Class figures competition last month at the Pacific Western Regional in Bakersfield.

The Junior World Class is for competitors 12-17. Medalists at the national championships will qualify for the world championships in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 2-15.

It’s ironic that Wooten, who has skated more than 300 days a year for much of her life, would achieve so much after only two weeks of practice. But she has an explanation.

“This year I didn’t have all the practice I wanted, so I was going [to the regional] more for fun,” Wooten said. “I was totally relaxed and I think that really helped me.”

Wooten, 17, has little time for relaxing in her everyday life. At Chatsworth, she is a three-year varsity competitor in cross-country, track and soccer, and she has helped the Chancellors win three consecutive City Section 4-A Division soccer titles.

Wooten, who hopes to attend Stanford, is a member of the academic decathlon team and has a schedule that includes five advanced placement classes. This summer she also is attending two classes at Moorpark College and makes a two-hour, round-trip commute to skating practices in Ventura.

“She’s become very proficient at doing her homework in the car,” said her mother, Wendy Wooten, a physics teacher at Chatsworth.

Wooten’s schedule was simplified last November when she suffered a stress fracture in her ankle and had to take a month off from sports.

After the layoff, Wooten was able to practice skating once a month until June, when she launched intensive preparations for the regional and what she believed would be her farewell performance in skating.

“I wanted to go because it was my last year and I wanted to see friends [at the competition],” Wooten said. “I wasn’t expected to qualify for [nationals] in anything and I was really shocked when I did.”

Equally stunned was Wooten’s coach, Tom Davis of Tarzana.

“I thought she could place, but I’d be lying if I said I thought she’d get first,” said Davis, who has worked with Wooten for seven years. “That’s the best she’s ever skated for me.”

Davis said that with such little time to prepare Wooten for the regional, he had her focus on fundamentals.

“We didn’t want her thinking about something technical and leaving something simple out,” Davis said. “Her intensity means she sometimes has a tough time focusing.”

Wooten placed fifth in the regional freestyle competition but won the figures portion, where competitors must perform compulsory maneuvers with little margin for error.

Regional competitors are judged on three types of figures. At the nationals, skaters are judged on those same three figures in an elimination round that whittles the participants from about 20 to eight. The eight finalists must perform a mandated set of three additional figures.

Davis said he believes Wooten, who will compete in the elimination round Saturday, has a good chance to advance to the finals Sunday.

“She’ll need to skate at the top of her game both days,” Davis said. “The problem is, she’s had almost no time to practice [the finals] figures.”

Bolstered by her recent success, which has qualified her to compete on the Senior World Class level, Wooten plans to continue competitive skating during her senior year. However, she expects her career will end once she attends college.

“I’m going to try and skate this year because I’ve gotten to the highest level, and that’s been my goal since I was really little,” Wooten said.

“If I go to college someplace where there was a really good coach nearby and I could fit it into my schedule, I’d consider continuing. But probably not.”