USA Gymnastics

Shannon Bartlett loves the challenge gymnastics presents.

The 12-year-old Davie girl, who competes for Park Avenue Gymnastics in Cooper City, has learned many skills in the sport. She was one of almost 250 girls participating in the recent Penguin Invitational hosted by Park Avenue.

"This is my fourth year doing gymnastics," said Shannon, a seventh-grader at Indian Ridge Middle School. "It is challenging. You learn all these skills, and it makes you want to work harder. You want to keep going because you don't want to give up and be a quitter."

She said it feels good to nail something in a meet after struggling with it in practice.

"It is awesome and you feel like you are on top of the world," said Shannon, who has her hopes set on competing in college. "If you are not doing that well in a practice, you always have your teammates to cheer you on anyway. I just tell myself I can't give up. This is a great sport, and I want to go far in it."

Her Park Avenue teammate, Aryelle Berman, 12, started gymnastics at age 2.

"I am very flexible," said the Falcon Cove Middle School student. "I started doing team gymnastics when I was 6. I liked it and I like being a competitive gymnast more because I could challenge myself more, and I like that there are more skills."

The sixth-grader practices 3 1/ 2 hours a day three days a week.

She wants to take gymnastics as far as she can. While competing, she thinks of "sticking" her routine and being safe.

"I don't know if I am going to the Olympics, but I at least want to get to prep optionals," Aryelle said. "Maybe I can do gymnastics in college. School would come first, and I have to be able to finish my work."

Prep optionals, an alternative competitive program within USA Gymnastics, is for anyone who desires the challenge of optional routines and competition or those preparing for a high school team and/or level 7 competition. Prep optionals provide an avenue for continued gymnastics involvement if Olympics participation is too far out of reach.

Aryelle was selected as the best gymnast for her level (4) at her team's banquet last year. She moved up to level 5 this summer.

"I just think, 'wow, I have come this far. I have worked really hard and I deserve this.' Winning is great, but I would rather do my best and try my best," she said. "It is important for me to do my best and hopefully I'll win."

Kathy Semok, women's team director at Park Avenue, is in her 17th season and served as tournament director for the meet. There were 10 teams in the competition.

"For most of the teams here, this was their first meet of the season," Semok said. "This was kind of let's get out and see where we are at. Let's get your first meet jitters out of the way."

Semok said hosting the meet has its advantages.

"For us here at Park Avenue, it is a home meet," Semok said. "It is a comfortable setting. It is a really great place to start, and that is what it is, a starting point. The competition season has started. It goes through November. Then the second season will begin in January."

Jackie Wright, 12, who competes for the Fort Lauderdale Stars program, said she started doing gymnastics in third grade.

"I like it because there is tumbling," said Jackie, a St. Anthony's seventh-grader who lives in Fort Lauderdale. "It is nice because you can build up confidence. It is a great sport to keep you busy.

"I am not planning to go really big, maybe level 6 or 7," she added. "The routines can get hard and scary some times, but you always want to keep going and do your best so you can succeed in it."

Gary Curreri can be reached at SportsCom5@aol.com