New Palestine frosh JJ Fee leaps on the beam during a meet earlier this season. (photo provided by Byron Holden)
NEW PALESTINE — Shortly after one of Debbie Bruns’ gymnasts dismounts any apparatus, there is typically an ensuing routine.
All Bruns has to do is glance over at New Palestine athletic trainer Heather Campbell or someone on her staff.
“My trainer laughs at us. We go through a five-gallon bucket of ice at our home meets. She’s just constantly bagging it up and passing it out,” Bruns said. “I asked her, do you go through this much ice with anybody else? She said, I don’t think the football team goes through this much ice.”
In comparison, the New Palestine football team more than quadruples the 10-person Dragons gymnastics squad, but when measuring heart and love for the gravity-defying sport, few compare.
Actions speak louder than words, and the Dragons’ gymnasts voice their passions when sticking their landings with grimacing salutes.
One through 10, each Dragon has contended with what Bruns calls “chronic injuries” this season, but they rarely project any internal pain outward. They’re not necessarily concealing their ailments, they just put them out of mind in order to win.
Or at the very least, to compete.
“It’s hard because these kids are such good athletes and so talented, and yet injuries have really held them back this year,” Bruns said. “Last year, it was all about COVID, and we were quarantined week after week. It was one or two people each week. This year, it’s been injuries. And it’s nothing new. We don’t have a single new injury. It’s just every single kid on the team came back from a chronic injury. It is an inspiration from that aspect.”
Even more so when considering what the Dragons were able to achieve during the Connersville Sectional last weekend with a second-place finish to advance into tonight’s Franklin Central Regional at The Gymnastics Company.
While unable to setup their own equipment on meet nights due to a plethora of ankle, back and other various injuries, the Dragons flip the switch when called upon.
They did exactly that by “sticking” 16 out of 16 routines to compile a season-high 102.600 points behind sectional champion Richmond (110.150) and secure one of the three coveted regional-qualifying spots.
Their sectional team placement was one better than the year prior, but it required more, and the Dragons aren’t ready to see the season end just yet.
They intend to be strategic, again, especially with the team’s top-three competitors having to shave their start values out of necessity.
Senior Kennedy Garrett, on paper, was a preseason lock to reach regional and potentially the IHSAA state finals after placing fourth in the all around as a junior at sectional.
In 2020-21, she narrowly missed a state berth in both beam (8th at regional) and floor (7th at regional) as the top-six regional placers moved on.
This year, she finished seventh at sectional in the all around after placing 13th on bars, 13th on floor, 11th on vault and sixth on beam.
However, what lies beyond her sectional all-around total (33.725) is an automatic deduction, of sorts, namely a torn achilles that she suffered last spring as a hurdler on the New Palestine track and field team. The injury has capped her abilities and kept her from vaulting for a month this season, until the past few weeks.
Junior Addyson Kendall, who placed seventh on beam at regional last year, has faced a similar plight this winter due to an on-going ankle injury, which stemmed from a previously undiagnosed stress fracture in her foot.
Once the duo steps onto the mats to perform, though, few would realize the toll their bodies are undertaking.
“That ligament is extremely thin right now (for Kennedy), and she is looking at possible surgery. They say, if she can get through the rest of our season, then it could heal on its own given time, but she also knows she can just land and it could tear the rest of the way,” Bruns said.
“That’s in the back of her mind, so she is not back where she was last year on her two best events, but yet, she has all the skills. It’s just a matter where she has to decide if she’s willing to risk it and put everything in that she knows she needs to do. That’s hard.”
Kendall, much like frosh JJ Fee, a highly-skilled club gymnast in the past, has had to tailor her routines with pain tolerance factored into every degree of difficulty. While many gymnasts attempt to meet start values at or around 10.0, the Dragons are typically undercutting themselves in the low 9.0s because they don’t have a choice.
“Addy Kendall is a lot stronger than she was last year, and she has come back and worked really hard to make it to state this year,” Bruns said. “But, she has a chronic ankle injury. When she gets off floor and beam, she literally crawls off the floor some days. She just has to sit there and ice 10 minutes before she can even get up and walk.”
Fee, the younger sister of Kate Fee, a former state placer for the Dragons in 2015 on beam, has been limited by a back injury. JJ Fee trained for years at Gymnastics Unlimited and recently at The Jaycie Phelps Athletic Center, but her back trauma led to her shifting focus to the prep circuit.
“She can’t even run to do vault, so she’s hurting pretty bad,” Bruns said. “I coached (Kate Fee) in club for years, and then I was the assistant coach when she was on the high school team. I didn’t think of JJ ever really competing at high school. She was a very talented club gymnasts. She was training for college. She is at the level of a collegiate gymnast. She just is not able to train those skills anymore.”
Her performance at sectional revealed a glimpse of her vast talent, though watered down because of her restricted mobility.
“She can’t punch off the floor, so a lot of what (JJ) does is single-leg skills,” Bruns said. “She’s doing a twisting jump from a hop on one foot versus a two foot on balance beam. She can’t do anything that’s a real punch from two feet. It helps you be very creative in your routines, but you sit and think what she could be doing this year? That’s been hard knowing she could have been state all-around champion this year. She truly is that talented. She’s just not able to do that.”
Fee’s sectional finishes were substantial for the Dragons. She placed seventh on bars, sixth on floor and took fifth on beam to lead the team, which desperately needed quality scores in the event to lock down second overall. Connersville was a close third with a team score of 99.775.
Despite not being an all-around competitor at sectional or regional tonight, Fee could follow in her older sister’s footsteps, if not this year, then in the future, depending on if she’ll need surgery this offseason.
For now, Fee and her Dragon teammates are merely “surviving and advancing,” regardless.
Individually, Kennedy, junior Emily Hunter, Kendall, senior Alyse Rickey, Fee and the others will give the Dragons a chance to possibly breakthrough one of the state’s toughest regional meets, beginning at 6 p.m.
“This week, looking toward regional, (Fee) is going to have to pull out more skills to get out, and she’s a pretty competitive kid,” Bruns said. “That’s our goal. These four kids going in are all basically doing the all around with the exception of JJ, who is not going to do vault. She does have a good shot of getting out in a couple of events, and if I put her in the vault, it’s not going to get her anything. It’s just going to make it harder for her in the other events because she’s hurting.”
The field the Dragons are facing is painful enough with a handful of defending state champions in the mix, including Columbus North’s Emily Moore (beam) and Franklin Central’s Austin Dykes (all around).
Much like sectional, the final outcome will boil down to toughness. Something the Dragons have in abundance.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s literally all they can do to get out there for a minute and a half, do their routine, and you can watch them do it without a limp, then literally, they salute, then they drop off that floor. It’s everything they can do to get through the routine,” Bruns said.
“They’re all workhorse when it comes to getting through meets, but as soon as that event is over, they are in tears needing ice. It’s heartbreaking to watch. They love the sport so much, and they keep giving everything to it.”
If you Go
What: Franklin Central Gymnastics Regional
Where: The Gymnastics Company (5646 Mutual Lane, Indianapolis)
Who: New Palestine gymnastics team (feeder sectionals: Columbus East, Connersville)
When: Today, 6 p.m.
Admission: $8 per person
Advancement: The top-six place winners in each event advance to the state finals, in addition to the top-six in the all-around competition and all gymnasts who receive the score of the sixth-place gymnast at the previous state finals meet advance. The top-three teams compiling the highest number of points shall advance to the state finals.
New Palestine (Roster): Addyson Kendall, JJ Fee, Kennedy Garrett, Emily Hunter, Alyse Rickey, Chiara Polo, Rebecca Johnson, Addi Bird, Blakelie Brubeck, Maliah Ringham.
