Jacksonville Gymnasts Train for Six Days at Karolyi Camp in Texas
Twenty-three members of the Jacksonville Gymnastics USAG Junior Olympic Competitive Team attended a six-day gymnastics camp hosted by Bela Karolyi on his ranch outside of New Waverly, Texas, fifty miles north of Houston. Coaches Laurel Spears and Christie Ellis accompanied the team members as visiting coaches at the camp.
Bela Karolyi and his wife Martha (pronounced Marta) are well known in the gymnastics arena, having spent over forty years (and the last 24 in the U. S.) coaching gymnastics, including national, world and Olympic champions. This is the fifth year that Coach Spears has taken gymnasts to the camp and the Jacksonville contingency was the largest attending this session of the camp. The hometown gymnasts joined over two hundred gymnasts from California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, Texas, Minnesota, Washington, Wisconsin, and even Hawaii and Alaska.
Each day, the gymnasts spent two three-hour sessions training with the Karolyi coaches. Bela is always present at these sessions, making sure that the coaching is done to his satisfaction and that the gymnasts are learning and perfecting new skills, while still having fun. The camp is designed so the campers have other fun in addition to improving their gymnastics skills. Other activities that they participated in included swimming, canoeing, showing off their varied talents at the talent show night, participating in a beauty pageant that featured the silliest dressed girl, and learning dances to perform for the parents and visitors on the last day.
The parents and visitors were invited to join Bela, his coaches and the gymnasts on the last day for their closing ceremonies and awards. Bela informed the parents what he had been stressing to the gymnasts during their week -- that in order to be good at gymnastics, the gymnasts need to also be good dancers and performers; and they must learn to always do their very best, no matter what that they are wanting to accomplish - all the life lessons we want our children to learn.
The Jacksonville gymnasts, ranging in age from seven to sixteen and ranging in experience from Level Four to Level Eight, who attended the camp were: Bonnie Brown, Kierra Daniel, Courtney Ellis, Kelsy Founds, Sissy Ghormley, Tori Hanley, Sydney Hickerson, Taylor Rai Johnson, Bailea Jones, Kelsey Lerner, Kendra Lytch, Shannon Mavity, Tiffany Maxwell, Sarah McAlister, Lauren McKibben, Kaitlin Soderlund, Tori Spears, Allison Storeygard, Meagan Trotter, Jessica Wilde, Cami Wright and Stephanie York. This was the first time for many of the gymnasts to attend the camp, while others were attending for their second or third time.
The gymnasts, who left at 3:00 a.m. Tuesday morning and returned Sunday night at 10:00, joined their fellow gymnasts at their home gym at Huff ‘n Puff for their three-to-four-hour gymnastics training sessions per day. The Jacksonville Gymnastics team, which will compete Levels Three through Nine, is one of the largest teams in the state.
Twenty-two gymnasts from the 104-member Jacksonville Gymnastics USAG Junior Olympic Competitive Team recently attended a gymnastics camp at Bela Karolyi’s training camp near Houston, Texas. Shown here with Bela, on the front row from left to right are: Kaitlin Soderlund, Taylor Rai Johnson, Courtney Ellis, Sydney Hickerson, Tori Hanley, Kendra Lytch and Bailea Jones. Second row gymnasts are Lauren McKibben, Kelsy Founds, Allison Storeygard, Kierra Daniel, Cami Wright, Sarah McAlister and Tori Spears. Third row gymnasts are Stephanie York, Kelsey Lerner, Jessica Wilde, Shannon Mavity, Meagan Trotter, Bonnie Brown and Tiffany Maxwell. Shown on the back row are Coach Christy Ellis, Bela Karolyi and Jacksonville Head Coach Laurel Spears. Also attending camp but not shown is Sissy Ghormley.