Minnetonka-Hopkins Gymnasts Prep For Junior Olympics
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In Minnesota, gymnastics is not a sport offered in high schools -- they have to go to clubs.
There's one in Plymouth that has put together quite a team -- one that will compete nationally in two weeks with an Olympic hopeful.
They gather in Plymouth five times a week, for a total of 23 hours.
"The commitment it take to be a gymnast is incredible," coach James Letzring said. "It takes a lot of determination, a lot of dedication, to be in the gym as much as they are and be committed as much they not only to be at school each day, but to come in here and work."
That's the minimum requirement to get to the next level. Most want to make it in college some day, hopefully on scholarship. They say repetition is the key.
"Right now in my life, it's basically all I do," Shane Hiskus of Minnetonka-Hopkins said. "I have to sacrifice a lot in my social life just to be able to train and achieve the things that I've been trying to achieve the past five, ten years."
Hiskus is keenly aware -- he's done well enough that the Olympics are part of his dream -- a big part.
"On my whiteboard I have 1,555 days until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics," he said. "And each day I count it down, it gets closer and closer -- a constant reminder."
They say the key to stay focused is staying competitive in the gym, especially with each other.
"The competitiveness with each other -- that's how we keep them motivated," Letzring said. "We've got about 60 kids on the team and they push each other."
In two weeks they will send 10 participants to the Junior Olympics competition -- a club record.
"It's a personal best for this program," Minnetonka-Hopkins Optionals coach Doug Price said. "In the last two years we've broken that record twice -- last year we took eight, this year we took 10. It just means good things are happening. The kids are really buying into a really good, hard-working culture."
