THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Smiling while he skates — Wiles, who trains in Coeur d'Alene, wins national figure skating title

When Dean Wiles is happy, the nerves just seem to go away.

Whether that’s performing after a long break from the sport of figure skating, or when the pressure is on in a national competition.

WILES WAS born in Canada and moved to the Northwest in his early teens, moving from Ontario to Spokane when his mother took a job in the area.

“I’ve been skating off and on my entire life,” Wiles said. “Growing up in Canada, I started skating in my back yard when I was 3 years old. Once I moved to Spokane, it was very different as far as skating goes around here. It wasn’t as fun or competitive, and easy to get discouraged with it, so I hung up my skates for about 15 years.”

That was, until a friend convinced him to return.

“I had a friend that was looking for a practice partner and it kind of pulled me back into it,” Wiles said. “I got hooked into the support side of things and then started skating again.”

Wiles, 58, traveled from Spokane to KYRO Ice Arena in Coeur d'Alene to skate weekly before the arena collapsed in 2008. Once Frontier Ice Arena opened in 2012, he began teaching beginner skating classes in Coeur d’Alene, something he still does at Frontier.

“I’ve been working to help build our figure skating community in Coeur d’Alene,” said Wiles, who is the president of the Spokane Figure Skating Club.

AFTER NOT performing for years, Wiles competed in the U.S. Figure Skating-sanctioned Pacific Coast Sectional Championships March 11-13 in Spokane, where he qualified for the U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships on April 6-9 in Newark, Del.

“I had some friends that always encouraged me to get back into competing,” Wiles said. “I’ve been working on my gold test and worked on a program for this competition.”

Performing to the Frank Sinatra song “Fly Me To The Moon,” Wiles landed an axel jump and three other jumps in combination to finish with a score of 31.32 points, winning the Championship Adult Gold Men’s competition.

At first, Wiles wasn’t planning to travel to Delaware for nationals.

“The first hurdle was looking at last-minute flights, and they were really expensive,” Wiles said. “A bunch of my friends and the club helped get the airfare, so I thought while I’m in good health and good shape, I better do it. After a lot of prayer and talking with friends, I knew I had to go.”

The Adult Gold Men division is open to anyone age 21 and up. Ages for skaters in the Winter Olympics range from 15 to 30 years old. When those skaters retire from competition, they often compete in the Masters Division — one level above where Wiles competed.

“The Masters is for those skaters that were really good at some point,” Wiles said.

Olympic routines often last four minutes. Wiles’ routine at nationals was 2 minutes, 4 seconds.

“It’s kind of like doing a sprint, then having to do a hurdle every 10 seconds and jumps for two minutes,” Wiles said. “It takes a lot out of you physically.”

AS FOR the nerves at nationals, it was another Sinatra song that got Wiles through it.

“When it’s just you in front of a bunch of new people, nerves happen,” Wiles said. “During my performance, I was singing ‘When You’re Smiling’ and my nerves weren’t showing. When you’ve got a smile on your face, it makes the whole thing more enjoyable. The crowd is more into it, and so are you on the ice.”

Wiles added that the camaraderie between competitors helped as well.

“It was really fun to go out and perform,” Wiles said. “It was a real bonus to win it as well. One of the other competitors told me that it was good to see me do it because we needed new blood in the sport. It’s fun at the adult level because there’s competition, but it’s a really encouraging environment to go out and have fun on the ice. It’s just encouraging to go out and push and challenge yourself on the ice.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.