Clint Marsden should work for Apple.

He chose to think differently when he saw 17-year-old Sarah Hughes on television, skating her way to an Olympic gold medal.

Most people can’t envision meeting the celebrities they see on TV, and, to be honest, neither did Marsden.

At the moment, he didn’t have a date for his senior prom and then it happened.

“It just kind of came to me,” said Marsden. “I wanted to do something different.”

Why not send Hughes a friendly note and add in an invitation to the Rockwell CityLytton High School prom, he thought.

“When I started out I thought I’d write a few letters,” Marsden said. “I didn’t think it’d actually work.”

It did work . kind of.

Marsden got a response back from Hughes saying she was sorry that she couldn’t make it to his prom. Marsden said he wrote back to her after that to thank her. He happened to mention that Champions on Ice was coming to Ames in June, which is just a little over 80 miles from his hometown.

He said in the letter he thought he might attend.

Even then, Marsden wasn’t optimistic about his chances of meeting Hughes.

“I read an interview with her that she gets over a box of mail a day and I thought `oh great,'” Marsden said.

Then the call came saying that Hughes wanted him to be there. She agreed to finally meet him backstage after the performance, which begins at 7 p.m. tonight in Hilton Coliseum.

Marsden, his parents and two sisters will attend the event.

Hughes will also be there along with fellow U.S. figure skater Michelle Kwan, Irina Slutskaya, Tim Goebel, Evgeni Plushenko and many more.

Now it’s not like Marsden has a shrine of Sarah Hughes memorabilia in his bedroom and lights candles around it all while he chants to it at night. It’s not that type of obsession.

In fact, it’s not an obsession at all. He said it’s more of an admiration.

Of all the teen idols, of all the youth superstars of America, Hughes stood out to Marsden.

“I liked her,” Marsden said. “I talked to another reporter the other day and they asked me `why didn’t you ask Britney Spears or Mandy Moore?’ They don’t have the same effect on me that she does.”

Marsden admits he’s not a big figure-skating fan. That could be a problem, considering she’s probably fairly well-versed in figure-skating jargon.

Nevertheless, Marsden said he’s very excited to finally meet Hughes. He isn’t sure what he’s going to say to her, though.

“Hopefully I can just get words out,” Marsden said. “Hopefully I’m not too overwhelmed.”