Valley gymnasts excel in regional competition

WASILLA — Four different gymnastic groups from around the state recently competed in the regional meet as Team Alaska. A pair of Valley gyms, Denali Gymnastics and Excel Gymnastics, represent the Valley.

“There’s times that we all train together too. It’s a small community,” Denali Gymnastics director and coach Melissa Chan said.

This year, Team Alaska took third place overall for their region, and according to Excel Gymnastics founder and owner, Robert Davila, it was for the first time ever.

“It was an extremely good year… As a community, we all did really well together,” Davila said.

Meika Lee, a 12-year-old standout, placed first in her age group at the region meet. Davila said that Lee started at Excel when she was 2 years old, and watching her grow into the athlete she is today has been very rewarding, in addition to all his other athletes’ accomplishments.

“They were every bit of athlete they were meant to be,” Davila said.

Davila was visibly proud and emotional as he talked about his team’s growth and successes during a routine practice. He said that he felt “blessed” to witness so many achievements at the regional meet.

“They’re keeping me young,” Davila said.

This year, 36 young athletes from Denali Gymnastics went to regionals. There were 10 girls and 26 boys. Denali Gymnastics director and boys’ coach, Ryan Childers said this was their highest volume of boys participating in regionals to date. He noted it was the best season for boys as well.

“We had quite a few kids do well, which is kind of the goal… I’d have to say on our end, the boys end, it was the best season that I could say to date as far as placements go across the board,” Childers said.

Chan said that one of the most rewarding perks to her line of work is seeing the children evolve, not just as athletes but as individuals who set and meet their goals time and time again.

“It’s wonderful to see their hard work pay off,” Chan said.

Childers shared Chan’s sentiment, recalling a memory from this year’s regional competition.

“The most exciting thing for me, this competition, I felt my heart race a little bit when I saw a kid land and stand up and smile. They’re really proud of themselves when they knew they did a good job. They walk off with a confidence that hard work pays off,” Childers said.

Two Denali athletes, Andrew Layman and Kaylee Reich, are going nationals in May. Childers said that Layman has been putting in extra work to prepare, coming in about 30 minutes to an hour before practice to refine and clean up his skills.

“We’ve got a game plan,” Childers said.

Chan said Reich is doing the same thing, fine-tuning her routines to reduce deductions and, “making sure we’re our strongest in three weeks.”

Layman said that he was excited that he will soon be flying down to the Lower 48 to represent Alaska in during the national competition. This is his third time qualifying for nationals. He said that two of his favorite takeaways of being a gymnast are “the grind” and “the payoff.”

“You work and work and work. You don’t see a lot of progress and it all just kind of comes at once,” Layman said.

Layman got into gymnastics the same way a fair number of Denali athletes have, through the gym’s childcare program. He said that while he was in their care, he started taking their classes and just kept going from there. He said that the biggest challenge he’s overcome is learning how to fight through his fear, coming out all the better for it.

“The amount of work ethic gymnastics takes has carried over to school and grades and that stuff, and learning to fail and fail and get up and try again,” Layman said.

Layman spends a lot of time at Denali and sees it as his home away from home, where everybody knows his name and they’re always glad he came. He said that he spends almost as many hours there as he does at home.

“We want it to be their second home,” Chan said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com