Leading Edge leads the way

EVERETT – There is a price that must be paid for athletic excellence. And if the sport is gymnastics, there is no express line.

The hours are long, the workouts tedious, the bruises all too painful. This is an activity of grueling repetition, of painstaking refinement in the quest for a flawless routine. For ordinary people, falling down and getting right back up is an admirable motto, but for the gymnast it is a daily fact of life.

Gymnasts, said longtime coach Tony Ammons, “don’t mind taking a fall. They just brush themselves off and take another turn.”

Elizabeth Armstrong / The Herald Snohomish 12-year-old Jordan Widener is one of the gymnasts qualified for the National Judges Cup competition in Houston.

That’s how it works when you want to be the best. And at the Leading Edge Gymnastic Academy, where Ammons coaches, that same mindset is included in the formula for success.

The south Everett club, which is home to more than 500 gymnasts ranging in ages from toddlers to late teens, sent nine girls to the recent Level 7 State Championships in Kent. Leading Edge breezed to the team title, with 10-year-old Carah Solemsaas of Lake Stevens, 11-year-old Madison Podlucky of Redmond, and 13-year-old Olivia Gaffney of Snohomish winning age-group all-around championships.

In addition, Leading Edge swept the top six places overall – Podlucky; Snohomish’s Lily Gaffney, 11; Snohomish’s Jordan Widener, 12; Solemsaas; Olivia Gaffney; and Everett’s Michelle Ruiz, 12 – which were the qualifying spots for the National Judges Cup competition on Jan. 7 in Houston.

Leading Edge also won team titles in Levels 5, 6 and 8 (in junior gymnastics, athletes compete by abilities up to Level 10), with a bevy of individual champions.

Elizabeth Armstrong / The Herald These six Leading Edge gymnasts (from left) Carah Solemsaas, Michelle Ruiz, Olivia Gaffney (top), Jordan Widener (bottom) Madison Podlucky and Lily Gaffney were the top finishers at a recent state meet and will compete in Houston for the National Judges Cup.

“We’re on a roll here,” said Sheila Bath, who owns the club.

Much of the credit for the achievements at Leading Edge goes to Ammons, who lives in Everett, and to Kelle Riley, the club’s other fulltime coach, who commutes from Port Townsend.

Ammons says he was “quite surprised” when Leading Edge claimed the top six spots at the recent Level 7 competition. “We were hoping to get two or three,” he said, “but we ended up with all six.

“I like the kids to do well,” Ammons went on, “and I believe if they work to their potential, they’ll be competitive with anybody out there. … When they were up there on the equipment, family members from other programs were focused on what these kids were doing. They just have that look about them. They come in and really take control of the equipment.”

“We don’t compete to win first place,” Riley added. “Our philosophy is that the child needs to go to their own potential. If they do that, they’re winners whether they’re first or 25th. But these kids are talented enough that if they go to their potential, they’re untouchable.”

Of course, raw talent is nothing without diligent practice, and these kids typically work out four hours at a time, five days a week. The girls get Sundays off and then one weekday, but otherwise are at the gym.

“It’s like a part-time job,” Riley acknowledged.

Such commitment usually precludes other activities, including sports like soccer and softball. The surprise, though, is that the nine girls on the Level 7 team are all outstanding students, including a few with 4.0 grade-point averages.

Good work in the classroom and the gym “seems to go hand in hand,” Riley said. “And the higher they get (in gymnastics), the better the grades get. A lot of it is self-motivation.”

For families, the sport’s primary cost is financial. According to Bath, beginners get one free class to see if they like gymnastics. Those that come back pay $50 for a month of four one-hour lessons, and from there the price goes up with the increase in gym time.

By the time the kids reach Level 7, she said, the fees are around $6,000 a year, with $3,600 for tuition and the balance mostly for travel and competition. A Leading Edge booster club organizes fund-raisers to help offset some of those expenses.

The goal for many of the athletes is the chance someday to compete in college and perhaps even the Olympics. Many of them watched the 2004 Games, in which Carly Patterson of the United States was the all-around gold medalist.

“Every time I watch the Olympics on TV, I always think about me being there,” Solemsaas said.

Dreaming about the Olympics “drives me to practice more and work harder,” agreed Podlucky.

Patterson, in fact, came out of a program very much like Leading Edge, “so there’s no reason someone from Everett couldn’t reach that level,” said Ammons, who has worked with several Olympians in his 28 years of coaching, including Tracee Talavera, Julianne McNamara, Missy Marlowe and Hope Spivey.

“It could happen, it really could,” he said. “But it’s really up to the kids. (The coaches) can get them there, but it’s something that has to come from them. Not from their parents and not from any other person. It has to be in their hearts.”