Denali gymnast signs with Washington

WASILLA — Andrew Layman has fallen many times in his decade of gymnastics, but stood tall after sitting down to sign his National Letter of Intent to join the Division I University of Washington Huskies gymnastics team.

Surrounded by his family, teammates, coaches and friends, Layman swooped his pen atop the mezzanine at Denali Gymnastics where he has spent thousands of hours training to be able to compete at the next level. Layman plans to study business and finance at the University of Washington campus in Seattle on scholarship.

“Everyone notices when you achieve at a high level. They usually don’t see the hard work that has preceded the success, or the many failures that occurred on the journey. Andrew has worked hard, faced lots of failure and disappointment, picked himself up and kept working, had flashes of success and then more failure, and each time he just continued working to get better. Andrew’s focus and drive when the success wasn’t there is what makes me the proudest,” said Andrew’s father, Zach Layman.

Andrew Layman started training in gymnastics over a decade ago, and at the time his small stature did not allow him to succeed. Layman credited coach Ryan Childers with helping in his development as a gymnast that later stretched over into other sports.

“It’s exciting to finally make it official,” Layman said.

Childers says that gymnastics is one of the only sports you cannot succeed at from day one, making Andrew’s constant drive to improve despite the lack of positive results at an early age that much more impressive. In October of 2017, Layman became the first of Denali’s male gymnasts to fulfill all the requirements in all events at a level 10.

“What he’s been here for a lot of the other kids is an example of excellence,” said Childers.

Layman trained in an elite program as an 8-year-old and began qualifying for the national championships as an eighth grader. Childers said that Layman’s parents were concerned when he was not finishing well at an early age, but Layman continued to train at Denali and improved rapidly. In the fall, Andrew took the flipping, spinning, and body control skills he has mastered as a gymnast to the pool and won the state title in the 1 Meter dive in his first year of diving.

“Gymnastics is a very good sport and it produces good athletes in other sports. Because of the nature of gymnastics, you can go out and be very successful twisting, flipping that body, air sense is big,” said Andrew’s mother, Sarah.

Competing against his best friend in the final at the ASAA/First National Bank State Swim and Dive Meet, Layman narrowly edged Colony’s Eli Krozel by 3.2 points in the final round that included a majority of the finalists from gymnastics programs in the Valley.

“In gymnastics, it’s one of the most mentally tough sports out there, so just being in that environment for so long makes walking into any sport whether it be diving or soccer or anything, it makes it a lot easier mentally and I’ve been on the trampoline my whole life so the diving board was not a hard change,” Layman said.

Layman’s coach lauded his work ethic, continuing to compete well in competition and train to learn new skills. While his favorite event is the high bar, Layman’s specialty is the vault. The rapid run up to launching into the air before completing the most rotations and flips a gymnast can control while still having to land on two feet is an indescribable feeling for Layman when he completes it successfully.

“I hit my hands on the table and I do a two and a half twisting double back off of it,” Layman said.

Layman’s performance on the vault drew the ire of recruiters while competing at national tournaments.

“He knows how to flip,” Chliders said. “He’s got short levers so he rotates quickly and so that powerful takeoff on vault, he’s able to flip and twist very quickly and he’s actually got one of the strongest vaults that you would see nationally, even if he were to step into college today as a freshmen they’d put him in the lineup. That’s where he excels.”

Layman becomes the second Denali Gymnast to join the Huskies in the past two seasons, following Isabella Weiss last year. Layman has one more season left with Denali before leaving for Seattle to train with the Huskies in 2020. Layman has competed in the Black Jack National since 2013 and the Sun Devil Classic at Arizona State this year. Layman is grateful to receive an education at Washington and continue what he started at Denali. While Andrew was the one putting 20 hours of practice in every week from the time he was a 5-year-old, his parents and coaches at Denali were his support system.

“I couldn’t’ be here without my coach. He’s [Childers] been with me the whole time and we’ve gone through moments and he just stood by my side and kept pushing and believed in me the entire way,” Layman said. “My parents were definitely the biggest emotional help, just keeping me mentally strong and keeping me going and picking me up when I’m down.”