You Made It Happen.

Ever since I was a young girl I had a love and passion for the sport of gymnastics. I was always doing flips around the house or walking on curbs outside. 

I had switched gyms going into 3rd grade. Though this was a terrifying move for a 3rd grader, it was the best thing I could do for myself and my passion. I continued to work for my goals little by little. Every year I had always looked up to the older girls, especially on the Natick High School team. It was a dream of mine to be competing on that team. 

Rusty, the life of the party. Rusty was one of my club coaches and was also the coach of the high school team. He was something else. His outfits were exquisite. They were very detailed, and he would wear a new one every single day. His loud personality would fill the gym with positive energy during every practice. I honestly don't even know how to explain him to you. 

It was finally my freshman year and I was able to be on the high school team.  The coaches, Rusty and Tara had been watching my gymnastics ever since I joined the new gym. I was so excited for Tara to be my coach and for Rusty to not only coach my club team but coach me on the high school team. 

My favorite event has always been vault. I have competed a tsuk (roundoff onto the table, back flip off) ever since freshman year. It was my favorite thing to do and Rusty was always a big fan of it.  At every meet, when I was about to take off down the runway, Rusty would always yell, “GO HARD!” Another Rusty-ism was he always said, “make it happen”. It was his thing. He wanted us to go hard and make shit happen! 

Freshman year, the week before our Baystate meet (our big high school conference meet), we all went to Rusty’s house for a pasta dinner. Let me tell you it was something different. He had created his own bat cave (batman). We took a trip outside in his yard and found different gymnastics apparatuses. There was a balance beam and parallel bars. When we get to the end of the tour we see a bar, like for drinking, but on the front are paper mache boobs. Yes, boobs. To this day I still don’t know why he had them, but it didn’t surprise me at all. 

We all went inside and the freshman all had to go in his batcave alone. We were terrified.  We had no idea what was coming. To our surprise, he had us throw knives! Yes, throw knives at the wall. And for the record, I got it on the wall :)! 

July 1st, 2019 was one of the worst days of my life. I was at summer camp and I got pulled aside into the office of the camp. I sat down, my heart was racing a zillion miles an hour. My camp head counselor told me the most shocking and devastating news. My coach, Rusty Rogers, unexpectedly had passed away from a heart attack at the age of 43. I will never forget that day. He was such a unique man, who will seriously never be forgotten. His positive light in the gym has been missed over the past few years and will be continued to be missed. 

That next high school season was hard. We all had to lean in on each other and stay strong for one another. When we would compete we would always do it for Rusty. The Baystate meet of 2020 was an extremely special meet. We kicked butt, and we did it for him. We got our highest score of the season and ended up in 3rd. Which was HUGE!!

My love and passion for the sport went away when I was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa in the spring of 2020. I had lost all motivation to do anything I used to love. My eating disorder took everything away from me, even my most favorite things. 

Fast forward to winter of 2021, I have found my passion for the sport again. I promise it's possible for you and for me. You just have to fight for your life. Of course there are days I don’t want to go to practice or my motivation is low. BUT I love the sport of gymnastics again! 

And that's because I made it happen!