by Jacquelyn Thayer
What could be considered a disadvantage — a pending federation release that curtailed their chance to compete on the international circuit in 2014-15 — was, for Marissa Castelli and Mervin Tran, a distinct benefit.
“I would say that is the best thing that could have happened to us, because unlike the other teams, we had more time to kind of chill and really have learned how to skate together,” said Castelli. “We had the ability to gel a little bit more on certain elements — obviously some elements were still raw, but it’s just all in time and all in practice. I think it was actually a blessing for us because now we don’t have to rush to try to get ready for every competition.”
Tran, of course, represented home country Canada in 2013-14 after five highly successful seasons — including 2012 World bronze — skating for Japan. The paperwork restricting him from an immediate transfer to compete internationally for the United States with two-time U.S. national champion Castelli has meant that the pair could compete at only the club, sectional and national levels. In their summer and fall events, fields were small and segments optional, but the opportunity to develop away from the spotlight contributed to the growth of their “Summertime” short program, born in the team’s first tryouts and refined over the months. That effort resulted in a strong third place finish in the segment at the U.S. Championships, though inexperience played its role in the free, landing them in sixth overall.
“Nationals was a great experience for us,” said Castelli. “We wanted to do just the best we could and I think we did that, and we’re really excited for next year.”
Now the team looks forward to shifting into a true off-season while awaiting Tran’s hoped-for release from Skate Canada in June, which they would like to see prior to the Grand Prix selection announcement.
“We’re definitely excited to spend an actual off-season training together, and not finding each other,” said Castelli. “I think we had a really good introduction this year. We had about six months together before coming to Nationals and showing our potential of what we could be doing, and we’re really excited to capitalize on it now. Our goal is to get into the best shape we can for the off-season and start running our programs more and getting out so people can see us more. And we’re really excited to hit the international stage this year.”
The pair will continue a two-camp system established this first season. While they train primarily under the tutelage of Bruno Marcotte and Richard Gauthier in Montreal, where they also aim to focus most of their summer training, they split time with Castelli’s former home at the Skating Club of Boston under Bobby Martin and will spend some time there in the spring.
“The coaches work very well together and they keep a pretty good line of communication,” said Tran. “And it’s nice to get a different perspective for everything, without things conflicting. For us, we enjoy it — we like being able to pull observations from different sides.”
“The coaching aspect is pretty much the same,” said Castelli of her own transition. “I’ve worked with Bruno in the past, so I knew what to expect coming in, and they’ve been great, too, helping me adapt to the different situations and rink. It’s been great working with them. And living in Montreal is definitely different than Boston is. Obviously, they speak French here, and that’s a hard thing for me because I don’t speak French, so I had to kind of pick up on some things here and there — I still can’t speak French, but I’m working on it.”
The pair plan to zero in on element improvement while carrying over this year’s Julie Marcotte-choreographed short, “obviously switching it up here and there,” said Castelli. The pair will be taking on a new long program, though announcement at time of interview was pending.
And training in Montreal has meant working at one of the more prominent camps on the international scene, with two-time World medalist and recent Four Continents champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford leading the pack that also includes, on a full- or part-time basis, additional pairs from Canada, Great Britain and Italy.
“Training with Meagan and Eric has been amazing,” said Castelli, who “can’t wait” to cheer them on from home during the World Championships. “They are what every pair team should strive to be — they are very supportive of everyone and give lots of advice and they are also very receptive to advice and support. I couldn’t ask for better training mates.”
Duhamel and Radford’s story, having come together after years of separate experience in the pairs field, is echoed to some degree by the new American duo. Castelli skated with Simon Shnapir for eight years, Tran with Narumi Takahashi for five and Natasha Purich for one — years of foundation and achievement that in certain respects can create their own challenges.
“We haven’t skated together for too long,” said Tran. “So sometimes we had to adjust for each other because we were used to working one way but not working with each other in a certain way.”
“It’s definitely been an interesting road,” said Castelli. “We’d both skated with previous partners for a long time, and I think the hardest thing for us was just learning how to adjust to each other’s personalities, skating skills, you know. Everyone’s different, so we really had to work on that. It’s just adjusting to someone new, like any relationship would.”
But with those adjustments has come the natural forging of a new bond.
“We didn’t really talk about the style we were going for,” said Tran. “[Julie] just had us skate together and when we were doing our tryouts, she saw the way we kind of reacted naturally and we just built it from there. I believe our style that we have now is totally different from what we had with any of our previous partners, and we’re really just focusing on that aspect of it — we’re not really focusing on what we used to do.”
Though Castelli and Tran are only one among a handful of new pairs to emerge on the U.S. scene this season, one unique challenge they’ve faced has been a more limited opportunity for both funding and prize money, with the team ineligible to compete internationally.
“U.S. Figure Skating has been very supportive and have really helped us out a lot — as much as they can for a new pair that hasn’t really done anything,” said Castelli. “We’re just so thankful to the U.S. being very supportive of us and really taking care of us and helping us along the road to, hopefully, success.”
And the team’s border-crossing has introduced a few wrinkles for the American Castelli, who doesn’t possess a visa to work in Canada but has found a few hobbies to occupy her limited free time in the winter months.
“I enjoy doing yoga, Pilates, I like to watch Netflix, I like to read books. I’ve been learning how to cook, slowly, by experimenting through Pinterest,” she said. “Since we’re pretty much snowed in 24/7, leaving the apartment is difficult, so in the summer I’ll be more adventurous and do more things, but right now the snow is…not as bad as Boston, but it’s getting pretty bad.”
“For me,” continued Tran, “right now I’ve been coaching a lot to support my skating, and I’m hoping to have enough time in my life to go back to school next spring.”
And with the persuasion of ardent New England supporter Castelli, Tran adopted a bit of the Boston life just in time for last month’s Super Bowl.
“I converted him. He’s now a Patriots fan,” she said, with Tran confirming. “It was actually really funny because Bruno used to live in Vancouver, so he’s a Seattle fan, so we go back and forth. At Nationals my parents bought him an AFC Championship shirt for the Patriots. I don’t think they knew at the time he was more for the Seahawks.”
In the midst of their on- and off-ice adjustments, the team is staying focused on the road ahead, which they hope will lead one additional time to Boston for the 2016 World Championships.
“Obviously, we have a complicated paperwork trail that we’re working on, but our goal is still going to be the Worlds this season, and we want to bring up the level of pairs skating in the U.S.,” said Castelli. “That’s our goal long-term — we want to be at the top, we want to be on the world stage, we want to be on the podium. And short-term right now, we want to improve on all our elements.”
“Short-term goal next year is to make a really great showing internationally, nationally as well. Kick some ass,” said Tran with a laugh. “Long-term goal is the same thing: kick some more ass.”