She was burned out. Tired of hour upon hour of tumbling, flipping, twirling. Gymnastics had gotten stale.<\/p>\n
Juliana Adams needed a break.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really hard going to practice every day,\u201d said Adams, a Kent-Meridian sophomore who was a Level 8 club gymnast. \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t fun to be there anymore. Then I just quit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little did Adams realize that when she stepped away from the sport that she began as a toddler that it would be three years before she would return.<\/p>\n
Of course, the K-M sophomore didn\u2019t just return. She came back with a bang last winter. In fact, Adams was one of just five Kent School District gymnasts to qualify for the state meet, doing so in the floor and balance beam, and as a freshman.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fun to try and get some of those skills back,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n
Now, however, as the winter gymnastics season begins to unfold, Adams has other challenges ahead. A three-sport standout at the East Hill school, Adams severely injured her right ankle last spring competing in the pole vault at the district track meet attempting to uncork a mark just a shade higher than 9-feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI landed on the bar, and my ankle dislocated, (resulting in) pulled ligaments,\u201d said Adams, a first-year pole vaulter last spring.<\/p>\n
It was a tough end to a promising season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really unfortunate,\u201d said K-M track coach Ernie Ammons. \u201cIt was bad. We knew instantly by the way she came down that she was injured. Just the expression on her face said it all. She kind of came down on the pole and the box. It was not a secure land by any means.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while the injury slowed down Adams, keeping her from the cross country team and working on anything related to the pole vault, it did not stop her altogether. In fact, since her ankle was too tender to traverse the cross country courses, she turned to swimming, where the injury was considerably less impacted.<\/p>\n
Adams will have to adapt to gymnastics as well.<\/p>\n
An all-around standout, the K-M sophomore isn\u2019t likely to compete in the vault this winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe really wants to,\u201d said Kent-Meridian coach Rachel Hopkins. \u201cI\u2019ve been telling her that I\u2019d rather have her healthy at the end of the season and that we don\u2019t want to waste her sophomore season. As much as she likes to push herself, it\u2019s the smart thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being held back somewhat, Adams will continue full throttle on the balance beam, bars and in her floor routine. Though still not quite 100 percent, she put some of that talent on display in a mid-December meet against Kentlake, Emerald Ridge and Mount Rainier. In a meet that included several of the league\u2019s top-caliber gymnasts, Adams held her own by taking third place on the beam with a score of 8.4.<\/p>\n
Seeing Adams back out on the mat, even though she\u2019s not yet at the top of her game, is enough to bring a smile to Hopkins\u2019 face.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow she\u2019s having fun again, which is exciting for a coach,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see a kid who loved (gymnastics) for a long time, then had a sour taste in her mouth return and find it enjoyable again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, advancing to state last winter certainly was part of the fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was unexpected,\u201d Adams admitted. \u201cIt was fun, though, that I made it and was able to see other people from my (old) club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through it all, Adams has gained a new-found perspective.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s no longer burned out.<\/p>\n
Gymnastics is fun again.<\/p>\n
And she has a goal in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cGymnastics is better now that it\u2019s not as competitive or as stressful as it was in club,\u201d she said. \u201cHopefully I can make it back to state again on beam and get further on bars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
She was burned out. Tired of hour upon hour of tumbling, flipping, twirling. Gymnastics had gotten stale.
\nJuliana Adams needed a break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":10909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10908"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}