State gymnastics finals coming to Coos Bay

COOS BAY - A sure sign of the growth of the Gymnastics Plus program in Coos Bay is an increase in the number of gymnasts competing at higher levels.

Next weekend, 11 club members will take part in the Oregon Gymnastics Level 7-10 Championships, being held in Coos Bay for the first time.

“We've been around this level before, but 11 is definitely a new high,” said Roy Lans, the head coach in the Gymnastics Plus program, which is affiliated with the Boys & Girls Club of Southwestern Oregon.

“It's really a reflection of the program and the coaches that teach at the lower levels as they move through.”

In addition to Lans and his longtime coaching partner Barb Dellinger, five other coaches are working with the athletes, including Kelsey Stevenson, who also is in her final year of competition.

Stevenson, who is 19, has been hampered by injuries in recent years, and will compete at Level 7, the lowest optional level, next weekend. Her teammates in Level 7 include several students she coached when they were starting out.

“I think it's great,” she said. “It's been a lot of fun to compete with them. They're doing really well.”

Aside from Kelsey Stevenson and her younger sister Alina, who is 17, the Level 7s range from 10 to 12 years old and are state competition rookies. Most moved up to Level 7, the first optional level where they get to create their own routines, after competing in Level 6 last fall.

“We moved them right up,” Dellinger said. “We figured what other opportunity would they have to compete at a state meet at home.”

The other Level 7 gymnasts are 12-year-olds Kelsey Ereth, Mareyna Karlin and Kara Wood and 10-year-olds Braeden Kennedy and Taylor Mauer.

Competing at Level 8 are Samantha Clark and Laura Vincent, both 15, and ShaeLee Ipparaguirre, who is 11.

Torie Dellinger, who is 15, is the club's only current Level 9 gymnast and probably has the best shot at reaching the regional championships in Yakima, Wash., in April. Dellinger would need to score at least 34 in the all-around to advance to regionals, while the Level 8 and Level 7 gymnasts need to finish in the top 65 percent of all gymnasts at their level to reach regionals.

The new gymnasts are thrilled to have a chance to compete at state.

“It's going to be exciting,” said Wood. “It's going to be big.”

“There's going to be lots of people,” added Karlin of what is expected to be up to 250 gymnasts from all over the state competing in five sessions Saturday and Sunday.

Most of the Level 7 gymnasts didn't have much time to qualify for the state meet, after only moving up from the compulsory levels.

“It's way harder,” Wood said. “There's just new tricks and more pressure.”

But it's also a nice change after doing the same routines as everyone else.

“It's exciting and fun,” Karlin said.

“It's fun because no one else does your (routine),” said Mauer, who is doing a floor exercise to the song “Twist and Shout.”

Like most of the gymnasts competing next week, Mauer started very young, in a mother-and-daughter class as a 2-year-old.

She never doubted whether to stick with the sport.

“It's fun learning new things,” she said.

Kelsey Stevenson, who has helped coach in the program for four years, coached all the Level 7 gymnasts but her sister at one time or other, as did Barb Dellinger and Lans. They have seen the program grow to where there are now about 200 gymnasts in the club.

Lans applauds Stevenson for wanting to stick with the program even as she became a student at Southwestern Oregon Community College.

“As our gymnasts mature and get older, we like to give them the opportunity to coach,” he said. “You definitely have a love and a compassion for this sport. That's why we do it.

“It's a lifestyle. You become attached to the kids.”

Stevenson's taken things a step farther, also working as a judge at meets - when she started in 2005, she was the youngest in the state.

“I've learned so much,” she said. “It's helped me to be a better coach.”

All the judges next week - 16 in all - have extensive experience.

They are part of what makes the meet bigger than anything the South Coast has seen.

To host the event, Gymnastics Plus had to arrange for two sets of all the event apparatuses except the floor - two sets of uneven parallel bars, two vaults and two beams - so those gymnasts who aren't competing can warm up for their events.

Bringing in the equipment for the event cost $6,000, but generous donations have helped pay for it and other expenses, Lans said. Bandon Dunes donated $5,000 and other companies and individuals have donated about the same amount. Best Western donated 16 hotel rooms for three nights to house the judges.

The donations have helped make the event possible, along with parents of athletes in the program, Lans said.

“The meet itself would not be possible without the parent support,” he said. “We have a lot of parents who put a lot of time and effort into it.”

He singled out in particular meet coordinator Tracey Clark.

The actual meet includes three sessions on Saturday and two more on Sunday.

Level 8 gymnasts in the 12-13 and 16-and-over age groups will compete from 8 a.m. to noon, followed by those in the 8-11 and 14-15 age groups. The Level 9 and Level 10 gymnasts start at 4 p.m.

The Sunday schedule includes the Level 7 gymnasts, with ages 7-11 and 14-and-over starting at 9 a.m. and 12-13 starting at noon.

The admission fee is $25 for a weekend family pass for up to four people, $8 for adults for one session or $12 for each day, and $8 for seniors (65-and-over) or juniors (6-16) each day. Concessions will be available.

The meet will be held on the Boys & Girls Club's Peirce courts and Lans hopes local residents come out to see the South Coast gymnasts and also those from around the state.

“The very best of the best gymnasts are going to be here,” he said. “Just about every major city in Oregon will be here.”