My Gymnastic Hero

Ever since I was 5 years old I have been enrolled in the sport of gymnastics. Gymnastics turned into my life, I would practice every day after school for 4 hours Monday-Friday. I began to really enjoy the sport as I grew up. I encountered some injuries along the way but that never stopped me from finishing my senior year. I got to become very close with my teammates and especially my coaches. My gyms head coach got me to state every year in the sport and I never would have made it so far and achieved so much if it wasn’t for him. He has made a major impact on my life growing up, I consider him my second dad. Sometimes it seemed that I spent more time with him than my actual dad. This past fall my coach got diagnosed with a rare type of cancer that is almost untreatable. It has really impacted me and my teammates.

Me, my mom, my sister, and coach Mark all rode down together. He is very likable and a jokester so we had lots of fun. We learned stuff about him that we never knew. I learned that he graduated UMD with an architectural degree and played football at UMD. I never knew he was such an artist but that helped when I had to make my toothpick bridge for my science class. He drew me out a whole diagram that showed how to make a sturdy toothpick bridge. We told old stories about gymnastics and talked about all the funny memories we have made over the years. The whole car ride was a blast, we even would play games with street signs and license plates to make the car ride go by quicker. Me and my sister had a great meet in Wisconsin Dells. We scored our highest all season and both ended up making it to state in that meet. Coach Mark was very proud of us and I was too. Our hotel put on a gymnast dance party on our last night there. We could all attend the party in a huge ballroom and that was so much fun. It was a great way to end out