WAG High School Gymnastics

[coachmolly]

I was the assistant coach for one of our local high school teams for 3 seasons, we didn't have a club gym in town at the time. Our girls had either done no gymnastics or very low-key rec gymnastics prior to HS gym and we could really only compete with the other teams that had no club kids. In our particular region the top teams had former level 6/7 club kids and Xcel gymnasts with an occasional level 8. However, statewide HS gym is much more competitive here with plenty of current club level 9/10s competing. Girls from our state have gone on to compete in college (they were also competing high level club), making it incredibly difficult to qualify to the state meet.
I know some of the bigger gyms in the state do not allow their upper level optionals to do HS gym due to the overlap in competition seasons and safety issues, but there are plenty that allow both. There was a girl at our state qualifier meet last season who competed for a BIG name club and went on to compete at a pretty big name college. And while there are no spring floors, there are some high schools in higher socio-economic areas that have brand new and very high quality equipment. Coaching varies quite a bit from a cheer coach or teacher just picking up the slack to current JO coaches.

 

[Muddlethru]

My dd switched to HS gym about a year and a half ago. Here very few people do club and HS gym because our state high school rules prohibit doing both at the same time and most club coaches don't want their gymnasts being coached by someone else for out of the competition season (here HS is a winter sport so overlaps with optional season).

Pros of HS are that its a school sport so you get the recognition at school for it. Ore laid back and less hours. Our HS coach is nicer but that probably varies Very much a team atmosphere. You can not do events you hate

Cons: coaching isn't as good and equipment isn't as safe. Unless you are one of the best you won't be competing every event or even every meet And if you want to look at a scholarship for college that won't happen with HS (but d3 is still an option). Scoring is about a level 9 so an awesome level 7 coming in is usually shocked to be getting 7s when they used to be getting mid 9s

That's all I can think of right now!

^^^^ That. Our high school girls always get written up in the local newspaper. Stories like "A Star is Born" can boost anyone's confidence. Our top high school gymnast gets 38AA at high school meets and barely get 35AA at club meets. She's a level 10 and is good but she would never get anywhere close to the accolades she gets at high school meets.

Coaching is not always as good (though two of the high schools in our area have coaches that are head coaches of at their private gym) and equipment is not so good. So injury and having "weaker" training can affect your club meets. Also college coaches, particularly Division 1 don't take particular attention to results at high school meets.

Good JO gymnasts dabble on high school meets but of course their concentration in club.

 

[twinmomma]

There is not a single high school program (per CIF) within any less than a 90 minute radius from us. Honestly I wasn't even aware there were high schools in California still doing gymnastics. Clearly I was wrong there, but it's not even remotely an option for girls in our area.

 

[refugee]

Before we moved, my older girl competed HS after leaving club.

In that area, HS gym programs were common, though not universal. Not a lot of girls crossed between club and HS, depending usually on gym policy--a few coaches had no problem with it, but most did.

In terms of abilities, they ranged from nothing on up to level 10. Most had compulsory club experience with maybe 1/3 making it to lower optional levels. The reality was, if girls made it to L10 by their 9th grade year, they usually didn't compete HS. The few that did were typically "retired" from club due to injury.

One thing we did not see was club coaches also being HS coaches. In general, interscholastic athletic rules did not permit "out of season coaching" of athletes (we know it happened, but there were reasons/exceptions allowing, though not all of those were believed to be legit).

I like gymmomtoo's list of pros and cons, with one exception: coaching might be just as good. We all know how gym coaches are highly paid so it's not surprising to find many leave the profession for other careers...and they pick up HS coaching to stay connected/for the love of the sport. Or some have retired from club/college and have retirement "jobs" coaching HS teams.