Callie Jenkins is a Role Model for her Team
After twelve years of practicing four hours a day, six days a week, Callie Jenkins had finally had enough of club gymnastics. During her senior year, she just wanted to have some fun.
That didn't mean Jenkins stopped participating in gymnastics altogether. She decided to join the school team, but its season didn't start until December.
"After I stopped doing club gymnastics, I had a lot of free time, so I decided to do cheering for Cox," said Jenkins. "I'd never cheered before, but it was the closest thing to gymnastics. I have no hand-eye coordination, so I couldn't play anything with a ball."
When she joined cheerleading, Jenkins quickly became an integral part of the team. The girls made it all the way to the state championships.
"Callie's gymnastics background made her a big asset," said cheerleading coach Beth Bell, "and she works hard and has a good attitude."
After cheering during the fall, Jenkins joined the gymnastics team. The school team allowed her to still participate in a sport she loved, only without as much pressure and commitment.
"In club gymnastics you have to go everyday in order to keep your difficulty level up," said Jenkins. "In high school you are able to miss a few days for homework or something, and it won't affect your performance as much."
Jenkins led the Falcons to a second place finish in the Beach District Gymnastics Tournament this winter, allowing the team to advance to regional competition. During districts she scored a 9.067 on vault, 9.45 on uneven bars, 9.433 on balance beam, and 9.683 on floor. All events are scored out of a possible ten points.
"Callie is a great leader, and her skill level is up there with the best of them," said gymnastics coach Melody Hartranft. "She works with the other gymnasts on their skills to help improve their routines, and the girls look up to her as a role model."
Performing in all four gymnastics events qualifies Jenkins for the all-around competition. Judges add the scores from each event to come up with an all-around score. Jenkins' all-around score was 37.633.
Competing in all-around is no easy task. Because each event is different from the other, each requires that the gymnast have a unique set of skills. This can make practice difficult and time consuming.
"You have to make sure you practice on each event, not spending more time on one event than the other," said Jenkins. "For me bars are the one I have the most trouble with. There's a lot of fear involved with the more difficult skills on bars."
Both cheering and gymnastics share similar acrobatics, so Jenkins was able to take what she learned from one sport and incorporate it into the other.
"Cheering helped me with gymnastics in that it gave me a bit more attitude," said Jenkins. "In cheering you're trying to show off and have fun, so that helped me have more fun in gymnastics. Doing all-around in gymnastics helped me with my tumbling in cheering."
In fact, Jenkins plans to make the switch to cheerleading a permanent one when she goes to college. Jenkins enjoys college sports, and cheering would allow her to become more involved with athletic teams.
"There are a lot of people with gymnastics backgrounds who end up switching to cheerleading," said Bell. "Callie has more than enough ability to cheer in college."
By competing in sports for her school, Jenkins has gotten to spend more time with her friends, which was the whole reason she decided to switch from club gymnastics.
"I like being able to go hang out with friends and do things with them that I wasn't able to do when I was in club," said Jenkins. "The most important thing is to have fun, and that's what I've found in high school sports."
