LANDING ON HIS FEET

For Dave De Guzman, simply completing the last year in competitive ice skating has been more difficult and more satisfying than any double toe-loop, triple-salchow combination he has landed.

De Guzman, a 13-year-old Arleta resident, never stumbled en route to the U.S. Junior national championships despite doing most of his skating without direction from his coach of three years, Aimee Kravette of Northridge.

“We had a little bit of a rough year,” Kravette said. “We were like, ‘Just do what you have to do and we’ll see what happens.’ ”

What happened was that De Guzman skated the program of his life, winning the intermediate men’s division championship at the Southwest Pacific regional championships at Pickwick Ice Center in Burbank in October.

That showing qualified him for the junior nationals today through Saturday in Westminster, Colo. The top eight finishers qualify for the U.S. national junior team.

The regional performance, which came after a second-place finish in a regional last year and a 15th-place finish at junior nationals in March, made all his efforts worthwhile.

“Once or twice, I was thinking about quitting, but I just kept going,” he said. “I just concentrated on skating and tried to improve.”

It wasn’t easy.

Kravette struggled with the deaths of her mother, sister-in-law and aunt, and her father has been ill. She stayed away from coaching for much of the year and cut her private coaching load in half.

De Guzman wasn’t dropped, but the high costs of the sport forced Dave’s parents to stop private lessons.

De Guzman’s father, Romy, is a retired electronics engineer. His mother, Evangeline, works as a registered nurse at two hospitals. But costs of skates ($2,000 a pair), costumes ($1,000 each), practice outfits ($200 each), ice rental ($8 for 45 minutes) and private lessons ($80 or more per hour) are prohibitive.

Dave turned to 21-year-old brother Rich De Guzman, his choreographer, for coaching, and Kravette reviewed programs and provided encouragement when she could.

“I told them, ‘You’ll have to work together or by yourself,’ ” Evangeline De Guzman said of her sons. “I hated to do it, but what can you do? I have to pay my bills. Sometimes, it is really rough on the families.”

Dave did his best to repay his parents’ efforts with his own.

“It just wasn’t a good year,” Rich De Guzman said. “But Dave took a lot on himself and decided he wanted to work harder, and it’s paid off.”

Dave hopes it keeps paying off.

“My confidence level is a lot higher now,” he said. “I’m improving more in my stamina and my jumps are getting a lot more consistent. I feel like I’m prepared.”

After De Guzman’s performance in regional competition, Kravette is ready for anything.

“He has so much talent, it’s unbelievable,” she said. “Between all of us, with me not being there, either physically or emotionally, and them having financial problems, we were kind of discounting this year.

“But this kid just kept himself together. I’m so proud of him.”