Parents Northern Atlanta area high schools and gyms

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munchkin3

Proud Parent
A friend is relocating to Atlanta and is trying to find a good area, near a good gym and with good schools......Roswell? Marietta? Anyone have any input? Gymnast is L8 and in 8th grade.
 
Pope High School, Lassiter high School, Marietta High, and Walton High that comes to mind right away. I know Lassiter and probably Pope have the oldest(and probably better programs in East Cobb County). Over here in GA, each county is responsible for it's schools and programs. If any information needs to be found, it would be Cobb County(Roswell, Marietta) for schools. I think GAA is Kennesaw, Marietta, Roswell area(near KSU campus) Stingrays are close to the Cobb Galleria. There are a couple of more gyms, but don't come to mind right away.
 
There are lots of great schools in Cobb County (Marietta, Kennesaw, Acworth), which is home to Gymnastics Academy of Atlanta. Former National team member Megan Skaggs is a GAA alumni, and it is where Whitney Bjerken currently trains. There is Northwind in the Alpharetta/Roswell area, where Elena Piskun (former Belarus Olympian) is head coach and where Ragan Smith got her start before moving to Texas Dreams. Also, still considered North Metro but further north, there is Cartersville Twisters. Galyna Losinska (coached Lilia Podkopayeva to gold in the 1996 Olympics) is the girls optional coach, and they have an excellent boys program. There really is no shortage of great coaching in the ATL North Metro!
 
There have been tons of coaching shakeup in the Metro area from what I understand. Feel free to PM me if you'd like.
 
There have been tons of coaching shakeup in the Metro area from what I understand. Feel free to PM me if you'd like.
Not sure if related to shake ups, but I'm curious to know what Whitney will do now since GAA is no longer doing Elite. You have any idea?
 
Thanks everyone! Interesting about the elite thing.....same thing in my area.....many gyms, are giving it up all together.
 
I didn't realize Whitney was going for elite?? She is a very good gymnast but I see her as more of a successful 10/NCAA gymnast.
 
I didn't realize Whitney was going for elite?? She is a very good gymnast but I see her as more of a successful 10/NCAA gymnast.

She's been doing HOPES qualifiers and goes to camps at the ranch. I think she's still pretty young (12ish?) so elite could be a possibility for her. She has amazing form so I'm sure she would do awesome in the NCAA though.
 
She's been doing HOPES qualifiers and goes to camps at the ranch. I think she's still pretty young (12ish?) so elite could be a possibility for her. She has amazing form so I'm sure she would do awesome in the NCAA though.

Gotcha. I didn't realize she was doing HOPES. I have watched her a few times when DD shows me, but that's about it. I do think she has amazing form!!
 
Not sure if related to shake ups, but I'm curious to know what Whitney will do now since GAA is no longer doing Elite. You have any idea?

I'm curious why you say GAA isn't doing elite anymore. I know that was the rumor at one point and that they had stopped doing TOPS/HOPES; but they did both last year and do have a homeschool group for the girls side. I have been under the impression that they are open to doing elite again and haven't heard otherwise until this post... (not saying I'm an expert on the gym; but I'm curious if this has been officially stated or if it is just a rumor)
 
I know in my area many gyms have been leaning away from the true elite route because it's simply very hard. So many kids who are very good, try for elite but in the end, what do you really get? miss it by a little, injuries, burning out at 13? What one coach of a very good program told me, out of 10 kids 'going for' elite, you may only have one kid with national team potential.....or less, they really only come around once in a while...
So to sell that to everyone is not very realistic......it's much fairer to sell college preparation to girls. Less hours, and better school management.....
Again, I don't know, I'm just speaking about what I've been hearing from people in the business.
 
I'm curious why you say GAA isn't doing elite anymore. I know that was the rumor at one point and that they had stopped doing TOPS/HOPES; but they did both last year and do have a homeschool group for the girls side. I have been under the impression that they are open to doing elite again and haven't heard otherwise until this post... (not saying I'm an expert on the gym; but I'm curious if this has been officially stated or if it is just a rumor)
May also be a rumor. Just what I very recently from an "unofficial-but-kinda-close-to-the-source- source."
 
What are the coach shakeups you are referring to? There have definitely been some unfortunate circumstances affecting several Atlanta metro gyms, but I wonder if this is just par for the course with gyms in general. If they stay in business long enough, people get disgruntled with the management or the booster club or the coaches and they leave en masse for another seemingly better gym.
 
Apparently they told the girls in that group that they weren't doing it anymore. Some have already moved on to other programs (or will be soon).
I'd heard this awhile back...but it seems since that point, they continued. No idea what future plans actually are, but I'd heard elite is not the gyms goal.

As far as shakeups, several gyms have had coaches leave, some voluntarily, others perhaps not. I don't know all the reasons, but this season there jus seems to be a lot more than years past. Not every gym, but several.
 
I have also noticed a lot of girls moving over to Georgia Elite from the Metro area even though it is a haul to Athens/Watkinsville. They have a proven track record of getting girls where they want to be.
 
I have also noticed a lot of girls moving over to Georgia Elite from the Metro area even though it is a haul to Athens/Watkinsville. They have a proven track record of getting girls where they want to be.

According to their Instagram they are the only gym in Georgia to qualify gymnasts to the American Classic (1 Elite & 1 Hopes) this year.

GAA's Instagram showed they had Shawn Johnson in this weekend making YouTube videos with Whitney Bjerken.

#instagramnewsfeed :D
 

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