Ten members from the Jacksonville Gymnastics USAG Junior Olympic Team attended a training camp at the Bela Karolyi Gymnastics Camp, located near New Waverly, Texas, about 50 miles north of Houston. The camp is located on the Karolyi Ranch—home of Bela and Martha Karolyi. This is the seventh year that Jacksonville Team Gymnasts have attended the camp. The Jacksonville gymnasts, ranging in age from eight to thirteen and ranging in experience from Level Two to Level Eight, who attended the camp were: Courtney Ellis, Mackenzie Ellis, Alyson Ferren, Kelsy Founds, Tiffini Freeman, Tori Hanley, Stephanie Singleton, Madi Spears, Tori Spears, and Allison Storeygard. Coach Christy Ellis accompanied the ten team gymnasts to and at the camp. The vans left Jacksonville about 3:00Tuesday morning and returned about 9:30 Sunday evening.
Bela Karolyi and his wife Martha (pronounced Marta) are well known in the gymnastics arena, having spent over forty years (and the last 26 in the U. S.) coaching gymnastics, including national, world, and Olympic champions.
Each day at the camp, the gymnasts spend 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, and still having fun while perfecting their skills. And even though the days are filled with gymnastics, there is always time in the evenings for fun events such as swimming, canoeing, hayrides, singing and dancing in talent shows, and participating in a fake beauty pageant that featured the silliest dressed girl. They also have skit night, a favorite of the gymnasts.
On the last day of the camp, the parents and visitors are invited to join Bela, his coaches and the gymnasts for the closing ceremonies and awards. Each year, Bela talks to the parents about what he had been stressing to the gymnasts during the 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.
During the camp, the different groups of gymnasts also learned dances that they performed for the parents and visitors on the last day of camp. After each group was called up and performed as an individual group (about six or seven groups), Bela then called up the girls who knew all four dances and Jacksonville gymnasts, Courtney Ellis, Tori Hanley, Madi Spears and Tori Spears joined the group – in fact, they sort of led the group.
The camp awards are also handed out at this last session. This was the first year that we heard Jacksonville Gymnasts names called out for awards!!!!
In addition to the tough workouts, the gymnasts have time for fun and games and awards. Just a few of the “special awards” that the Jacksonville Gymnasts won are listed below, as reported by Coach Christy.
The entire group of ten girls competed in the “Beauty” contest and also got to compete in the talent portion of the contest. The group performed a skit to a song and won a pie at “lake night.” All of the girls earned a pie and got to cream the coach of their choice. At the camp, when the groups play games or have competitions, if they win, they earn a pie and at “lake night,” the gymnasts cream the pie in the face of the coach they had picked. All the coaches encourage the fun and the girls had a great time doing this!!!
On a “not-so-messy-note” the group won cleanest cabin.
They won the right to the “Coaches’ Call” three separate times. This is where you make up a coaches’ call and the campers vote on which call they like best and they call the coaches to the gym by screaming the call when it is time for rotations to start.
Before going to camp, a group of the girls decided, on their own, to participate in skit night. They choreographed a dance to “Push It to the Limit” from JUMP IN, assembled their costumes, which included a tank top handmade with an iron-on of their name on the back and rhinestone trim around the neck with a starburst at the bottom of the tank. They wore this with spandex shorts, had rhinestones around each eye and each girl had a jump rope, which, after jumping in the routine, they threw to the audience. The girls won first place on skit night. Coach Christy was especially proud of them because they had thought of the idea, made the outfits, choreographed the dance, practiced several hours and most of all, had the guts to do it front of the whole camp and it turned out to be fabulous!!!! It’s very difficult to win many of these awards and Jacksonville Gymnastics this year began to make a name for the gym. The girls in the Skit were Courtney Ellis, Kelsy Founds, Tori Hanley, Stephanie Singleton and Tori Spears.
Other special awards won by Jacksonville Gymnasts were:
Courtney Ellis won: “Senior Dancer” out of the whole camp. She was the Senior (lines six to twelve) dancer who learned all the dances and performed them well. (There was also an award for the junior dancer--lines one to six); Loudest Hay Rider; Second place in the fastest rope climb for the entire camp; and Second place in the fastest Handstand walking race.
Tori Hanley won: The “Dancing Queen”- this means she was the best dancer who learned all the dances and performed them well. Not only did she learn her dance but all the dances and was constantly dancing on the sidelines, on the floor and at the dance at the end of camp; Loudest Hay Rider; Tied in the limbo contest; was Camper of the Day and was an International High Flyer (where she gets thrown into the air by all the BIG guy coaches.)
Stephanie Singleton won “Mad Momma” in the game contests.
All the gymnasts worked hard on skills for their level. Most of them worked on skills that they had not worked on before or that they had not yet perfected for their level.
Coach Christy also reported that even though Tori Spears could not participate in all the gymnastics events due to the foot injury she incurred the day before leaving for camp, that she was quite a trooper and she participated in as many of the activities as well as she could, and even though she couldn’t do a particular skill or event, she worked on the drills associated with the skills.
As you can tell by the report from Coach Christy, the girls had a great time and look forward to returning again next year. The camp coaches work the gymnasts very, very hard and challenge them to aspire to achieve even more than the gymnast could imagine they could do. Many of the coaches have been there for several summers and many of the coaches (male and female) are from Hungary. It is not only a wonderful opportunity for the gymnasts to learn, but also a great opportunity for these coaches.
Coach Christy after the drive down to Karolyi camp, having left Jacksonville at 3:00 a.m. Tuesday morning - looks good after the drive with the ten gymnasts!!!! Remember though, this was only the first day of camp!!!
Seven of the eight older Jacksonville gymnasts after arriving at camp and having made up their beds!!!
The two youngest gymnasts and best buddies - still looking fresh and tough!!!!
Last Day of Camp
The four Jacksonville gymnasts who knew all four group dances as they left the floor after performing with the other gymnasts - Tori Hanley, Madi Spears, Tori Spears and Courtney Ellis.
The many coaches gather in the middle of the gym to decide
who the best camper of the week would be - a show for the gymnasts!
Coach Christy Ellis and gymnasts for the usual official (?) camera - Ha! Front row, left to right, are Tori Hanley, Madi Spears, Mackenzie Ellis and Courtney Ellis. On the beam, left to right are Kelsy Founds, Tori Spears, Alyson Ferren, Coach Christy, Stephanie Singleton, Tiffini Freeman and Allison Storeygard. Last Day of Camp - after presentation for parents. Not too worse for wear!
Jacksonville gymnasts pose at end of camp with two of their favorite coaches. The coaches were very proud of the progress that our group had made.
The girls pose with their Hungarian room counselor.
Bela Karolyi poses with two young gymnasts after the presentation for the parents. He takes great pride in the progress of the gymnasts.