New Palestine’s JJ Fee during her floor exercise routine at the Connersville Sectional on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — Injuries have had a big effect on the beginning of New Palestine sophomore JJ Fee’s high school gymnastics career.
Competing while injured her freshman season, Fee was still able to show just how highly she can compete, and in turn was the 2022 Daily Reporter Gymnastics Athlete of the Year.
This season, the effects of off-season back surgery to fix what plagued her the year before still lingered, but Fee took another leap forward, and proved once again why she deserved that honor, and is the Daily Reporter Gymnastics Athlete of the Year for the second time in two tries.
“There were some meets where she didn’t get to compete because of other conflicts, and you could really tell in our team scores. They would be 98 or 99, and then when she was there they were 102, 103, and that was a big difference,” New Palestine head coach Deb Bruns said. “If you go through the season you can see one meet is a 98 and then the next is 101, and that’s just ‘JJ wasn’t competing, JJ was competing.’”
The Connersville Sectional and Franklin Central Regional are the two most notable examples of Fee’s innate gymnastics ability.
At the sectional, she led the Dragons to their first team title since 2017 by placing first in her two events — the beam and floor exercise. Her winning score in both events was a 9.525.
Making the performances even more impressive, especially the beam, was the fact that she showed up just minutes before her turn to compete. Being at a cheer competition in the morning led to Fee missing the Dragons’ first two events. She just barely made it in time for the beam.
Although competing in the two sports caused her to miss some gymnastics meets, for Fee, the two sports feed off of each other and cheer helped play a beneficial role in her return from injury.
“The comeback from surgery was hard, and it took a while, but I started competitive cheer this year, so that helped me get back into shape faster,” Fee said. “They definitely help each other out, but it was hard juggling both just because I had to miss some gymnastics meets for cheer.”
At the regional, she was available for all four events, and she shined in each, helping New Palestine place third as a team and qualify for the state finals.
She placed third on beam with a score of 9.45, and followed that with a 9.55 and third place on floor exercise, a 9.35 and fourth place on vault, and had New Palestine’s top score on uneven bars with an 8.475, good enough for ninth. Those scores led to her placing third in all-around.
Her top team finish on bars — as did all her placements on bars throughout the season — was achieved with a limited routine.
“She still had a few lingering issues, but we tried to keep the skill level down as much as possible to keep her back from flaring up. She really didn’t want to do bars, but I kept telling her, ‘you’re too good to not do bars’,” Bruns said. “She did bars, but it was a very minimal routine because of the pain, and she still won almost every time she competed in it during our dual season.”
“It was definitely hard to limit myself because I’m very competitive,” Fee added.
Along with the lingering back issue, the injury bug struck Fee the week of the state finals.
She injured herself at cheer practice just two nights before the Dragons were set to make the trip to Ball State University, but still fought to compete in two events.
“She went out there and warmed up on Friday night, and she just couldn’t throw the passes, but she is such a competitor that you couldn’t keep her down. It affected her height on the bigger leaps and tumbling skills. At the state meet, that shows a lot more than it normally does. Normally the state meet is where you have your highest score, and that was her lowest of the year,” Bruns said. “She just couldn’t throw her hands behind her head. She went out and threw everything at it that she could, though, and I’ve never been more impressed by a competitor.”
On floor, she placed 14th, but her score of 9.1 was down from her average, and while she led the Dragons once again on the beam with a 15th place finish, her score of 8.55 was well below her regional score of 9.45.
Even through the injury, her two placements were the Dragons’ highest at the state meet since 2017 and helped the Dragons earn a ninth-place finish.
“We were kind of back to square one at state with the injury. I was really expecting her to place a lot higher and if she can ever get in there uninjured she’ll be great,” Bruns said. “If she hadn’t gotten hurt, I would’ve expected her to be top three in the state. She came in and had already beaten almost everybody in the state on floor.”
With two injury-plagued seasons to begin her time as a New Palestine gymnast, the full potential of Fee has yet to be seen, but the trip to state capped off another phenomenal year for the sophomore.
“Overall, I think I did pretty well this year, and I was happy with everything up until state. State was a little upsetting, but there’s nothing I could do about it, so I think the whole year went well,” Fee said. “State was a very fun experience, and we all had a fun time there. Even though it didn’t turn out how we wanted, it was still really cool to get to go.”
